Microsoft's Surface Book 2 is about the best Windows laptop on the market today. Its removable keyboard base, Surface Pen, and 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen together create the perfect machine for creatives and professionals alike. Battery life is solid, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and the touchpad is precise. What more could you ask for?Prices start at $1,199 for the 13-inch model.Bottom line: This is a true Windows laptop for professionals and creators. It's hard to do any better.One more thing: The Surface Book 2 is available in 13- and 15-inch form factors.
Why the Surface Book 2 is the best alternative to the MacBook Pro
Why you can trust Windows Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
If you're the type of laptop buyer who's considering a '"pro" level machine, then you want it for more than just a name. Whether you're a creator or some other kind of professional user, you're looking for a laptop that offers more than above average. You want the best.
You want the best, so you want a Surface Book 2.
If you're looking for the best, the Surface Book 2 is where it's at. It's a unique product, not just among Windows laptops, with a number of key differentiators. The screen comes away from the base, leaving you with a slim, powerful, high-resolution Windows 10 tablet that you can draw and write on with the Surface Pen. Unless you have the dedicated GPU option (which resides in the keyboard base), you lose nothing else besides battery life by using it as a tablet.
But docked as a laptop you have everything you might need. There's a great keyboard, a sublime trackpad and ports to actually connect things to. If you're a photographer who needs a microSD card slot, you're well looked after.
Microsoft's first proper laptop is also a great alternative to the MacBook Pro and loses out to the Surface Book only because there is no option with a dedicated GPU. For some, that's a dealbreaker, but if it's not something you need you can save some money and have most of the same greatness with a price starting at $999.You get a pen, a gorgeous touchscreen, great hardware and design and all the benefits of Windows 10 over macOS. Throw in a Surface Dock and you have all the computer that most people could ever need.Bottom line: It's not quite as powerful as the Surface Book but with many of the same benefits.One more thing: Any kind of pro user will need to spend a little extra upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, at least after the initial free upgrade offer expires.
The 15.6-inch touch display option on the Dell XPS 15 has a 4K resolution that is perfect for creators. The latest model now has six-core processors from Intel, right the way up to a Core i9, up to 32GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti GPU, and a 1TB PCIe SSD — plenty of power for multimedia editing. Those needing to connect things will appreciate the array of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt 3. Configurations start at $999.Bottom line: If you want a larger display and 4K resolution, check out the Dell XPS 15.One more thing: The latest models can be had with an Intel Core i9 processor for ultimate laptop power.
Razer's latest Blade is a beast. It has a full NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM, a Skylake Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM.The 14-inch IPS display has a 1920 x 1080 or 4K resolution, with anti-glare on the full HD option. Get up to a 1TB PCIe SSD to boot Windows crazy fast and hold all your games, and enjoy a Razer Chroma keyboard with 16.8 million color combinations for your keys. It's slim, it's light and it's every bit a "pro" PC, with the added bonus of crushing your games when you're done being busy for the day.Prices start around $1,800.Bottom line: It's a slim, light, ultra-stylish gaming laptop that's good for any occasion.One more thing: With its GTX 1060 GPU, the Razer Blade can also get you into VR as well as anything else you might want to throw at it.
Conclusion
There are so many great Windows laptops out there nowadays it can be hard to pin it down to the right one for you. In this case, if the MacBook Pro is attractive to you but you'd prefer Windows, these four are your better options. The Razer Blade is great if you'd also like to game, the XPS 15 is perfect if you want that larger display and the Surface Book 2 is the best all-rounder you can get right now.
Microsoft's Surface Book 2 is about the best Windows laptop on the market today. Its removable keyboard base, Surface Pen, and 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen together create the perfect machine for creatives and professionals alike. Battery life is solid, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and the touchpad is precise. What more could you ask for?Prices start at $1,199 for the 13-inch model.Bottom line: This is a true Windows laptop for professionals and creators. It's hard to do any better.One more thing: The Surface Book 2 is available in 13- and 15-inch form factors.
Updated May 18, 2018: The Surface Book 2 is our new top pick as an alternative to the MacBook Pro.
