Looking at a new laptop
- Thread starter RDB85
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Soldato
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Price of the XPS worth having are more than a current MBP.
@RDB85 if you are used to an MBP then honestly, you will struggle to get the same ecosystem, screen and performance from anything sub £1.5-£2k now in Windows.
Under £1.5k, the MBA is basically filling the old MBP slot assume you are 6-7years in.
For £1k then the lower spec MacBook Air unless you absolutely need Windows. I would only move from Mac to Windows for a ThinkPad X9 or Carbon X1.
What gen/age Mac is it? Are you talking Pre-M1? Do you need/want much disk space?
You can get a base M4 Mac Air for £699 presently which is good value, or the 16GB/1TB version for £949.
I dunno plenty in the 1-1.5k bracket that is up there for quality screen and battery life, the Acer Swift AI 16" I bought for my daughter was under £1.3K has a 1800p 16" OLED 32Gb RAM and a Panther Lake X7 and its B390 iGPU so can game too and also do long battery life, lovely machine, a few Zenbooks out there too. Currys 15% off obviously helping prices
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Soldato
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Yer loads of laptops in that price range but none close to an MBP if that is the expectation.
Soldato
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With GeForce Now and XBox Cloud etc gaming is not limited by device / os.
GFN gives a better experience than most gaming laptops now.
Thus an MBA is the obvious choice.
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No it doesn't, it's good and I'd certainly recommend it as an option and have done, but it is still not the same.
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Soldato
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Unless you are plugged in and effectively desktop replacing, then gaming laptops, esp on battery significantly throttle and/or drain battery. Or simply lack the performance needed for many games on high/ultra initially. The premium GFN paid plans are all upside.
You don't even need an uber Internet connection for GFN (paid plan). Most aren't pc gaming without one though.
However at this £1k price point, GFN is significantly better than gaming laptops.
All moot as @RDB85 has a MBP now so it's unlikely a consideration but not a limitation ie for a MBA.
I was an early adopter on GFN and it has matured into a brilliant service linking the main game libraries including Xbox.
Again nope, you can get 5060 level machine for 1k that will play titles like fps or in my case racing games better native than GFN, certainly there were some benefits to GFN if the game doesn't need great latency like having more VRAM than any GPU on sale for gamers etc and access to a far more powerful GPU than you'd get in a laptop, it did amuse me that I had a 48Gb 5080 or something like that on the Ultimate tier and could set higher settings than my desktop. Great for slower pace 3rd person stuff like say Indiana Jones and things like that.
But on the normal performance tier a 5060 is better than its 3060 and whilst yes that does need mains for full performance, its battery performance is > 3060 level, blimey even the B390 iGPU of Panther Lake can offer a better gaming experience on battery, now it might not put in as high an FPS as GFN but the feel is better because it has less stutter and better latency, in fact Forza Horizon 6 shows a stutter count, it is in the 100s for GFN whereas the laptop same settings maybe 1 and that's using a reasonable latency wired connection to my fibre broadbrand, put it on random wifi or 5G, it gets even worse.
B390 on battery (not even a good one as laptop only has 7400 RAM.
would be faster with 9600 that some come with)GFN Performance tier
A 5060 is twice the power of a B390.
So yeah if you want battery life and have no other option go for GFN but don't believe you are getting a better experience because it just isn't the case, you are a getting a good experience with caveats, I use it, I like it but I know what it is and isn't.
As you say though likely a moot point if you want a Mac.
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Soldato
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Performance plan is capped at lower res 1440p and 60 FPS. Ultimate plan ensures 4k, higher 240 FPS and a 5080.
I would only consider a performance plan if needing a step up from onboard now or for an older machine.
It also scales and upgrades the rig periodically. Was a 3080 a few years ago.
Agreed on Panther Lake and the B390 though. Intel's investment in Arc deffo paid off and whilst struggled in the desktop env was the proving ground for the integrated.
I would only consider a performance plan if needing a step up from onboard now or for an older machine.
It also scales and upgrades the rig periodically. Was a 3080 a few years ago.
Agreed on Panther Lake and the B390 though. Intel's investment in Arc deffo paid off and whilst struggled in the desktop env was the proving ground for the integrated.
It’s from 2015. I5 with 8gb ram and 1TB SSD.
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as mentioned by Journey, with a £1000 budget, MBP M4 4 1TB 16GB for 949. Done.
It will absolutely smoke your old i5.
Soldato
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Either M4 or M5 macbook air will be a huge step up for you.
None are bad, even the entry 8GB models but that is Mac OS optimisations you.
I'd take the portability over a mac mini then add a screen for docking.
My pick would be @£1299 the 2026 Apple MacBook Air 13.6", M5 Processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.
You can still find the M4 version for £979 but if budget isn't totally constrained, go with the M5.