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Apple notebook: Experts love the performance, not the price
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Apple
The judgment of the Stiftung Warentest is clear.
Apple's MacBook Pro 16 '' is clearly superior to the tested Windows laptops in every respect, the experts write in the current issue 10/20 of "test".
Their verdict: "It offers the best performance, the best display and the best battery."
However, it does not offer the best price.
At around 2700 euros, it is three to four times more expensive than the Windows laptops tested in parallel.
The whole comparison is flawed, the testers see that too.
They justify their selection with the fact that Apple simply has nothing to offer cheaper in the size class they examined.
They had resolved to test laptops with screen sizes from 15 to 16 inches.
So they tested twelve Windows computers with 15.6-inch displays and Apple's 16-inch MacBook.
They also examined four laptops with large 17.3-inch screens, but they were virtually out of competition.
The overall positive result: More than half of the computers tested received a "Good" rating, while the others still achieved a "Satisfactory" rating.
The computing power of all 17 devices is sufficient for everyday office use, only the 15-da2658ng from HP is a bit weak.
Weaknesses in cameras and displays
However, the testers found remarkable differences in the cameras that are important for video conferences.
While their quality was completely sufficient for most models, they were rated as poor for four models because they only provided blurred images or had a very low contrast range.
The testers also attested significantly different quality to the screens of the test devices.
In addition to the display of the MacBook Pro 16 '', they also describe the display of the Asus VivoBook S15 S532FA-BN139T and the 17.3-inch HP Envy 17-cg0305ng as very good.
Above all with the cheaper devices, on the other hand, "contrast and color rendering deteriorate significantly if you don't look at it from the front."
Only one thing is expandable
When choosing a notebook, the experts advise you to carefully consider how much memory you will need.
Most mobile computers are currently equipped with an SSD that has 256 gigabytes (GB) of capacity.
That's enough if you just surf the web, write texts and collect a few vacation photos.
However, if you want to store larger programs, a lot of music or videos on your computer, you need more storage space, which in most models cannot be expanded later.
The German manufacturer Wortmann offers an exception with the Terra Mobile 1516, in which users can replace components such as the SSD and the main memory themselves.
This 820 euro model also has some extras that are unusual these days.
It is equipped with a DVD burner that hardly anyone uses anymore in view of much faster USB sticks and large cloud storage.
And even a VGA connection is still built in.
The elderly will remember that such sockets used to be connected to monitors and projectors via analog cables.
But that should be over long ago.
The recommendation of the product testers ultimately turns out to be in favor of the three models, the Asus VivoBook S15 S532FA-BN139T, Dell Inspiron 15 5590 and Lenovo Ideapad 5 15IIL, which are equally rated with a school grade of 2.3, which cost between 800 and 850 euros.
They only rate Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro as even better, namely with a school grade of 1.8.
This is "in a class of its own in terms of price and performance".
The complete results of the current test and of around 110 other notebooks are available on the Stiftung Warentest website.
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