After using windows laptops for a long time (more than 10 years), I recently got a mac (pro retina 15'), and I appreciate the quality that a macbook has over most of the alternative windows laptops:
- Screen is much better point. (maybe just the retina display and
here's why /!\ Spoiler it is not just the resolution /!\
- Battery life is better, although hardware is the same, but they optimize everything and it has a huge battery which lasts 8 hours.
- Touchpad is glass, so your fingers slide better like a phone screen (minor detail that over time would mean the world) - and gestures will grow on you fast.
- Keyboard is more ergonomic (also minor detail, keys are arranged little differently, the displacement distance in each key is not too long) - and the thin laptop means your wrists rest better.
- Mac OSX is easier to customize than Windows (yes that is a shocker) but what I mean windows although has more developers and hacks, Mac is easier to play with, it's architecture makes it like a mobile OS where you can change interface using apps more easily and with less RAM and CPU impact.
- Sound produced is lower at normal use, and mac keeps the fans at low setting until active cooling is really needed (the aluminum case is used for passive cooling and sometimes it hit more than 80 before the fans rev up).
BUT on the other hand:
- MageSafe is over rated and extremely annoying when using on lap it keeps falling off.
- Locked EFI means harder to install Linux (which I use a lot, Ubuntu now have a special edition for mac haven't tried it yet).
- Although thin, but it weighs more than thicker laptops, seems the aluminum adds a lot to the weight.
- Overpriced for a daily laptop, I have the early 2013 with the nVidia 650.
As Linus trovalds said, a perfect laptop is a thin laptop that weighs less than 1kg and has enough power to be used for coding, I would add little gaming on the side - he uses the macbook air, and I think that is a great choice for daily use and especially programing.