Apple MacBook Pro 13 with M2 takes Dell XPS 13 Plus with i7-1260P to pieces in benchmark onslaught but at least the x86 laptop looks cooler while getting hotter

[Redaktion]

The 2022 Apple MacBook Pro 13 with M2 chip has completely outclassed a Dell XPS 13 Plus with Intel Core i7-1260P processor in a series of synthetic benchmarks. While the XPS 13 Plus was clearly superior in storage-based performance and overall design, the ARM-based M2 MacBook Pro soon left the x86 laptop feeling hot under the collar.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-with-M2-takes-Dell-XPS-13-Plus-with-i7-1260P-to-pieces-in-benchmark-onslaught-but-at-least-the-x86-laptop-looks-cooler-while-getting-hotter.633246.0.html

[pR]

95% of all the notebook reviews (I'm not talking about notebooks thar are build for gamers) are made from the perspective of the gamer, video/photo editor when in reality these heavy users are what... 5% of all the buyers?  Also what I noticed is that most of the reviewers have no taste in design, the best design for them is how tech specs are written.

[Abc]

I second run that. It's just a numbers game for most reviewers.
IRL, there's other aspects more important than some random benchmarks.
Focus more on experience, usability and practicality.

[Jose Quervo]

This review is a bit flawed.  Sure it's a M2 Macbook Pro vs a XPS Plus, but it's not apples to apples as the M2 is the redesigned CPU which is top of its game.  The comparison here is with a mid-level cpu, not top tier.  Dave2D tests with the 1280p, which scores a 11480 on Cinebench, well above the 8k or whatever the M2 is.
I struggled to figure out if I wanted a macbook pro or xps plus months back, and finally got my xps plus the other day.  They both have their strengths and weaknesses, Apple having battery life and eco system that users love to have, while XPS  having windows apps that aren't available on the macbook (which was my case).
Would have loved to have the battery life and cool running machine, but if it can't run the programs that I need it to run then XPS it is. 
Just bothers me how this article chose a cpu that was midlevel on the XPS Plus and made it sound like it beat the crap out of the XPS Plus in performance when in reality the 1280p outperforms the macbook pro.  Rant over, thanks for reading.

[Todd]

If you are just surfing the web and making videos the M1 is great. If you are a DEV and need to compile code you'd better pass, almost any modern x86 processor is better choice. Reducing the instruction set is great, until you need them. The 'fix' or 'port' of the compilers is never coming...You've been warned :)

[Todd]

M2 as well...

[Hmmmm]

It's 2022 and Apple is still using non-OLED panels. That's a hard pass right there. But then on top of that Apple's laptop has those comically large bezels.. just no 😂

[RobertJasiek]

IPS is great! Apparently, some want OLED but the solution is not to abandon IPS but to offer choice.

[splus]

Max Tech is a known Apple fanboy who isn't objective. He probably cherry picked the tests that suit his point better. He also chose a weaker CPU in XPS Plus instead of 1280P. Why would NotebookReviews even publish this article??

[Allfx]

To laugth? That's the same apple as usual... Apple simple don't evolve. In a computer not everything is speed
And speed is not even the most important aspect. What about display? Touch screen? Universal OS? Price... reasonable and justified price? No Apple computer is better than a Dell. Be partial in reviews is...a huge nonsense. And everyone's knows...

[wck]

Apple fans review !

[Ayoh]

So many people trying to deny that the Apple SOC is just a much better product than anything from intel for many use cases. Overall performance and efficiency is much better in most tasks (no ridiculous power draw, huge performance disparity on battery vs plugged in, or heat and fan noise, better responsivness with limited RAM). The stability and user experience is also much better with Apple and MacOS than any windows laptop ( no driver issues, no constant updates, no UI mess and half-assed unfinished upgrades in Windows 11). Yes software compatiblity is the main disadvantage (for gaming, specialised engineering software). However there is a reason why apple can get away with still selling a machine with a ~6+ year old chassis - the CPU/GPU performance and reliablity is still much better than with an Intel laptop system. The modernised Macboook air will remove this old system deficit. Intel and Microsoft are lazy companies that are happy putting out half-baked products and milk their customers due to their perceived lack of competition. At least AMD is making an effort now, it is a shame there is no rival to put pressure on microsoft.
I was a windows user for 20+ years and had countless windows laptops (including recent Surface Book 2&3, Dell XPS 15 2021, HP Zbook Studio with i9 11th Gen and Qadro 5000) and my Macbook 16 Max is definitely the best laptop experience I have had. If you are skeptical maybe try one before writing nonsense opinions.

[RobertJasiek]

"So many people trying to deny that the Apple SOC is just a much better product than anything from intel for many use cases."

And vice versa for many other use cases.

"Overall performance and efficiency is much better in most tasks"

Performance: Such a general statement is plainly wrong. Several reviewers have tested this. The correct statement is: it depends on a) use cases and b) chosen hardware of compared non-Apple-computers. In particular, Windows / Linux desktops are several times as fast as M1 Ultra for some use cases. A performance strength of M1 Pro / Max / Ultra seems to be video editing, however, testers have revealed that it also depends on which codecs are hardcoded. For some video editing tasks, Windows desktops are faster.

Efficiency: While the M1 surely is efficient for light tasks and may be good enough for many people, this is different than saying "for most tasks". It is hard to count numbers of different tasks to support or refute such a statement. It is more reasonable to speak of use cases. For heavy tasks, it depends on use cases whether M1 or Windows / Linux desktops are more efficient, as testers have found. In particular, heavy dGPU tasks tend to be more efficient on dGPUs than APUs.

"no ridiculous power draw"

There are such Windows / Linux systems as well. E.g., my Windows mini pc runs a 6W CPU.

Another thing is to compare compute-heavy tasks. For them, one can choose any power draw from low to high. If it shall be faster than M1 Ultra, then of course the power draw can be (much) higher up to utterly ridiculous levels.

"huge performance disparity on battery vs plugged in"

It depends on the notebook. Some have, others do not have, such disparity.

"heat and fan noise"

It depends on the chosen device. Levels can be low or high. Heat can be high while noise can still be low if the cooling is good. Etc. When Windows computers are configured to have heat and noise levels of M1 Pro or Max or Ultra, it depends on used softwares which is faster, as testers have found.

"better responsivness with limited RAM"

No. If RAM is the limit, it hurts any computer, whether Apple or non-Apple. E.g., Apple has greatly hurt responsivness of my iPad Mini 4 by its updates requiring more and more RAM. E.g., my Windows computers have slowed down when there has been too little RAM. Contrarily, they are very responsive as long as I do not use all the RAM.

"The stability and user experience is also much better with Apple and MacOS than any windows laptop"

Stability and user experience always depend on several factors incl. use cases. In Windows 95 or 98SE, it was bad. Since Windows 7, it has been mostly good but Windows requires some configuration (avoiding / deinstalling crapware, deactivating slow-down processes, using good drivers etc.) to achieve this. Without knowledge how to configure Windows, experience can be bad if, e.g., lots of bloatware causes problems.

Stability of i(Pad)OS has been reasonable as long as avoiding certain apps or use cases. However, some apps were or are extremely or decisively buggy and cause the greatest instability and worst user experience. In particular, during its first two years, the Files app was one of the two buggiest softwares I have ever seen (the other was Movie Maker of Vista). Currently, the Files app still contains a central bug than threatens all the user's files on the iPad. Stability is given only if one always recalls to avoid invoking this bug.

Maybe MacOS is more stable than iPadOS. I have not used MacOS. From reports, it seems to be reasonable desktop / notebook OS but is also not the holy grail of stability.

"no driver issues, no constant updates, no UI mess"

Same here on my Windows. It all depends on suitable configuration. Keeping things (e.g., the hardware or UI) simple helps. Of course, I update manually so that updates do not interrupt my workflow.

"milk their customers"

Only those wishing being milked. I used my previous Windows PC for 9.5 years and have heard of others using theirs longer.

"Macbook 16 Max is definitely the best laptop experience I have had. If you are skeptical maybe try one before writing nonsense opinions."

1) It does not make sense for me because I use software unavailable for MacOS.

2) As long as Apple, according to the iCloud terms, wants to use all my files and distribute them to anybody in the world and asks me more frequently than daily for that permission, I cannot trust Apple so much to buy new devices from it.

[Kelvin]

Wow! I now have another so called "review" site to ignore in the future. Like others have said, Max Tech is known as a terribly biased YouTube reviewer. He almost always cherry picks what he "compares" Apple products to in order to give Apple an advantage. He's been doing that for years. The fact that Notebook Chat would reference one of his reviews as fact lets me know all I need to know about this website.

Putting that aside, these so called "reviewers" are still missing the point. They are ignoring the main reason why the vast majority of us "professionals" spend $1000 and more on a computer: we need it to run the programs that we use for our profession! Video and audio editors make up a very small percentage of professionals who need a computer. Heck, the only reason we are even talking about them now is because YouTube and social media are littered with wannabe video editors, like Max Tech. Apple products are geared towards them and ONLY THEM (along with a bunch of posers)! For the rest of us, Apple products don't meet our needs because they don't run the APPLICATIONS WE NEED! I don't understand why this is so hard for some reviewers to understand. I can afford even the most expensive Macbook, but I won't buy one. Even if you gave me one for free, it would be useless for anything other than browsing the internet and playing cheap games because it can't run the applications I need for my profession.

If it makes you reviewers feel better, imagine I'm the head of a family of 5 with a large pet, my family is my "profession," and I need a vehicle (computer) for my family. Why in the heck would you keep constantly recommending that I buy a two seat sport cars (Macbook) just because it goes from 0 to 60 MPH in under 5 seconds, has a top end of 200 MPH, and gets good fuel economy versus a 7 passenger SUV (Windows laptop) when I keep CONSTANTLY telling you that I need a vehicle that can comfortably move my family?

[Aceraldo]

And how many top games did it trounce the XPS at?  And by how much?