Round 4

EVERYDAY COMPUTING

Or to put it another way, what is the best overall combination of hardware and operating system? Macs certainly score in a number of areas. For starters, they present a more consistent face more of the time. Apple maintains closer control of both hardware and software, so you’re less likely to face minor glitches, be that in terms of stability or interface quirks—when you can’t easily blame someone else’s hardware or the software, you just need to get everything working.

It’s also true that, when equipped with a high-DPI display rendering in so-called “Retina” mode, the Mac has the PC beaten for the crispness of its fonts. They are gorgeous. Macs also integrate exceptionally smoothly with certain peripherals that have been designed for Mac (although that’s a bit of a double-edged sword in the value department).

And yet macOS is very much a walled garden compared to the huge expanse that is the Windows ecosystem. Windows remains a little rough around the edges, even Windows 10. But if you’re like us, and you want maximum power and configurability, as well as the broadest software and hardware compatibility, the PC has Mac comprehensively licked.

WINNER: PC