A Laptop Hunter Was Willing To Pay 50% More For Windows Notebooks To Avoid Apple’s Locked Ecosystem, Ended Up Getting An M5 MacBook Air Because Of Its Value
Publish Date: 2026-06-30 10:42:00
Source Domain: wccftech.com
The myriad of notebook options available means there is no shortage of alternatives in a multitude of markets, and it’s just the price that’ll determine your purchase. For someone living in Europe, the decision wasn’t difficult as the individual had three requirements; avoiding Apple, having a laptop that would easily last five years, and a machine that’s not overpriced.
Just to steer clear of the locked software ecosystem that is macOS, the laptop hunter was willing to pay 50 percent more for a Windows laptop. Sadly, his search didn’t go the way as intended, because he ended up getting an M5 MacBook Air, not because he wanted to, but because his other options were “nickel-and-diming you on everything.”
Choosing an M5 MacBook Air over a top-end Lenovo notebook “will retain its value far better,” whereas ThinkPads crash significantly in value
Despite the ThinkPad lineup being some of the most robust, repairable, and upgradeable laptops you’ll find, Redditor “latexpptqq” wasn’t willing to splurge €2,600 ($2,965) on the P14s, especially when the M5 MacBook Air could be purchased for €1,700 ($1,939), making it a jaw-dropping difference of €900 ($1,026).
Claiming that Lenovo’s Pather Lake laptops were “stupidly priced,” not to mention the company “nickel-and-diming you on everything from OS to screens to RAM to HD,” the new M5 MacBook Air owner found that the latter cannot just deliver 20 percent better single-core performance than the ThinkPad, but it can last 20 percent longer while doing so.
Also, when it comes to selling the ThinkPad for an upgrade later in the year, latexpptqq will end up spending more since these machines lose their value much faster compared to the M5 MacBook Air. Last, but certainly not least, Apple’s laptops sport that famous unibody aluminum chassis that are designed to stand the test of time, so it’s safe to assume that these portable Macs will…
