With the latest m2 macbook air's you actually get a significantly better laptop, for a lot less money, then a windows version I've found. Let alone the fact it just damn sexy.
I got a DELL laptop from a client to be able to access their windows applications. I used it for coding for a bit, it was so painfully slow, so I switched back to my macbook air m2.
I thought the Dell was just a cheap laptop, found out the retail price was a few 100 euros higher then my m2. I was dumbfounded a shitty laptop would go for those prices. (granted I have a 13 inch, 15 inch are around the same price)
The new macbook air's are really fairly priced and are sufficient for most professionals.
DELL's market is not cheap consumer machines, it's laptops and desktops that can run windows (macbooks could until 2 years ago...) and can be corporate ordered and customized at scale.
If you're price shopping Lenovo or Asus would probably be better choices with better designs (but TBH if you're in love with macs you're probably in the right spot for them, I don't see why you'd go choose different tradeoffs)
It's really the whole package. The new Qualcomm chip is probably not that far, but having a whole machine designed from top to bottom with a closed system helps taking advantage of every bit.
The closest to that would have been the Surface line, but with Panos out I wouldn't bet on it.
I got a DELL laptop from a client to be able to access their windows applications. I used it for coding for a bit, it was so painfully slow, so I switched back to my macbook air m2.
I thought the Dell was just a cheap laptop, found out the retail price was a few 100 euros higher then my m2. I was dumbfounded a shitty laptop would go for those prices. (granted I have a 13 inch, 15 inch are around the same price)
The new macbook air's are really fairly priced and are sufficient for most professionals.