5 Laptops With Better Features Than A MacBook Pro

MacBooks have always enjoyed praise from buyers, but the switch that Apple made to its in-house silicon truly put its laptops on a whole new level. The entry-level MacBook Neo, powered by an iPhone chip, and the MacBook Air both provide impressive features and a battery that lasts all day. However, those looking for serious power have always considered the MacBook Pro. The newest in Apple’s catalog of laptops is powered by the M5 series of chips with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. You can deck it out with the M5 Max, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB of storage.

This makes it one of the most powerful laptops you can buy, but the MacBook Pro also does well in other areas. It has a 120Hz Mini LED screen, speakers with punchy bass, and a trackpad that’s best-in-class. All of this makes the MacBook Pro a reliable machine. While it covers all the basics exceptionally well, Apple’s devices aren’t really known to have the most exciting set of features — and the MacBook Pro is no different.

If you venture out into the sea of Windows laptops, you will be overwhelmed at first. However, you will soon realize that having options isn’t really a bad thing. In fact, certain laptops that rival the MacBook Pro in terms of performance also tend to offer features that it lacks. From a secondary screen to unmatched user repair and upgradability, here are five laptops with exciting features that you won’t find on a Mac.

Like most manufacturers that make Windows laptops, Asus has a wide variety of options in its catalog. The $2,500 Zenbook Duohowever, is far from the most boring laptop you can buy. Its experimental dual-screen design almost puts it in a category of its own. It can be specced with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of fast SSD storage. This already positions it as a high-performing laptop, but that’s not the highlight here. Not only does it one-up the MacBook Pro’s Mini LED technology by offering a 3K OLED 144Hz display — it has two of them.

The Asus Zenbook Duo lets you use it in a few different modes. The laptop mode requires you to place the Bluetooth keyboard on top of the lower screen. Alternatively, you can prop the laptop up on its side and use the two displays in portrait orientation. You can also use the kickstand to position the displays in landscape mode for a more regular setup. Both displays are touch screens and support stylus input.

In our review of the Zenbook Duo 2025, we did list a few of its annoyances. For starters, it feels heavier than its advertised weight would suggest. Battery life, as you can imagine, is also not its strong suit, given that the laptop needs to power two bright displays. However, all of its downsides can quickly be written off considering just how unique of an experience it provides.

Newer MacBook Pro models have been advertised as being capable of running games like “Cyberpunk 2077” or “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows,” which is impressive in its own right. However, if you’re primarily looking for a laptop for gaming, Windows is the better platform, and Windows laptops come with discrete GPUs that can deliver significantly higher performance and better graphics than a Mac can. The HP Omen Max 16as recommended by RTINGS, is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy.

Pricing starts at $2,550, which gets you an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 12GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU. These are pretty decent specifications that can handle most graphically demanding games at high settings just fine. Of course, you can deck this thing out with a Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, 64GB of RAM, 2TB of storage space, and an RTX 5090 GPU, which has 24GB of VRAM. When fully maxed out, you’re looking at a price tag of nearly $5,000.

Though the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at a comparatively affordable $1,700, you end up paying a similar amount for the 16-inch model when you match the RAM and storage. The HP Omen Max 16 can also be upgraded to include an OLED 240Hz display with a higher resolution. Paired with a beefy graphics card, competitive titles like “Counter-Strike 2” or “Valorant” play better on screens with higher refresh rates.

In our review of the Lenovo Legion 9i, we gave it a rating of 10/10. It had some of the most powerful internals, an abundant port selection, and a liquid cooling system that kept temperatures in check. Well, the newer 18-inch model boasts a ginormous 240Hz display, refreshed components, and a vapor cooling system. Pricing starts at a whopping $4,500, for which you get an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, an RTX 5080 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a terabyte of SSD storage. If money’s not an issue, $7,000 gets you an RTX 5090 GPU, 192GB of RAM, and twice the storage. You can also add a second M.2 SSD.

Given the specs, it’s safe to say the Legion 9i Gen 10 clears any tier of the MacBook Pro when it comes to gaming performance. An area it also comes out on top in is connectivity. Port selection on the MacBook Pro isn’t terrible — you get an HDMI port, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and three Thunderbolt 4 ports (Thunderbolt 5 for M5 Pro and M5 Max). However, the Legion 9i comes with three USB-A 10Gbps ports, three USB-C ports — two of which are Thunderbolt 5 ready — an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and an Ethernet port. Though the Thunderbolt 5 ports can power the laptop too, the DC-in port is located in a more convenient spot on the back. This is also where you get the HDMI port.

The MacBook Pro comes in a sleek unibody aluminum build that puts a good majority of its competitors to shame. Apple has also perfected the trackpad, keyboard, and speakers on its laptops. While this gets you a premium experience like no other, the MacBook doesn’t exactly score high in terms of user upgradability — you are stuck with the specifications you picked at the time of checkout. It also doesn’t help that Apple charges abhorrently for RAM and storage upgrades. This is where the Framework Laptop we reviewed shines.

It comes in three screen sizes, and the current-gen models come in both AMD and Intel flavors. The Framework Laptop’s strong suit is customizability — both at the time of checkout and afterward. You can spec it out just the way you like by picking a different CPU or display panel. RAM and storage upgrades are substantially cheaper than what Apple charges, and you can even choose to leave these bits empty if you have your own components you’d like to use. In case the same old black bezel is a bit too mundane for you, you can pick one of a different color. Depending on your region, you can also pick a different keyboard layout.

The Framework Laptop uses what it calls “Expansion Cards” for its ports. This lets you pick just the ones you want and move them around at your convenience. Pricing is heavily influenced by your choice of components.

The MacBook Pro’s 120Hz Mini LED display is a looker, but it isn’t the best-in-class — even Apple’s own iPad Pro has a tandem OLED display that’s comparatively more impressive. In the laptop space, the Asus ProArt P16 is a worthy competitor that’s just as powerful as a MacBook Pro but also offers a superior display experience. It sports a 4K 120Hz OLED panel with an anti-reflective coating and support for Dolby Vision. It’s also a touch screen, which is a feature that’s infamously been absent from the MacBook lineup. With a display that’s Pantone Validated, Asus is targeting creators and professionals alike with its ProArt series.

The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor that powers the laptop is also no slouch. You get an 8GB RTX 5070 GPU that also puts this laptop ahead in gaming performance by default. Pricing starts at $3,000, for which you get 64GB of RAM and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD. The ProArt P16 also has an extra expansion slot for another SSD. If you’re serious about gaming or work with demanding 3D applications, then the upgraded model features an RTX 5090 GPU with 24GB of VRAM. Port selection is decent with two USB-A and USB-C ports, an audio combo jack, an HDMI port, and a card reader. You get a total of six up-firing speakers and support for Dolby Atmos.