I’ve been using this Dell Precision Workstation laptop that I reviewed in 2024, and this Apple M4 MacBook Air that I reviewed in 2025. And with a $6,800 price difference between them, I thought it was finally time to compare them head to head when it comes to the kind of work I do every single day: video editing.
We’re going to look at speed, reliability, and battery life, and I want to help you see how one of the best PC workstation laptops you can buy stacks up against one of Apple’s most affordable, entry-level laptops. The results genuinely surprised me.
And before we dive in, if you edit videos and want to get better at it fast, grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide here. It’s packed with tips that I think you’re going to find really helpful.
The Price Breakdown
You might be wondering: how does a Dell laptop cost $8,000? Just like Apple, Dell is relatively affordable to get your foot in the door, and I say relatively because even the entry point for a Precision Workstation is several thousand dollars. This particular laptop uses a workstation-grade 16GB NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Series GPU, which is more expensive than a consumer gaming card, and it’s also configured with an 8TB internal SSD, which Dell (and Apple) both love to charge a premium for.
On the Mac side, the $1,200 MacBook Air I’m using is not the absolute base model. I put a lot of research into which MacBook Air is the best bang for your buck specifically for video editing, and the $1,200 configuration is the one I keep recommending. (I have a full buyer’s guide on that if you want more detail.)
Specs: David vs. Goliath
The Dell is loaded. It has an Intel i9-13900H with 13 cores and 20 threads, an RTX 5000 Ada Nvidia GPU, and 64GB of RAM. The SSD is 8TB. This was essentially the highest-tier laptop configuration that Dell offered in 2024.
The MacBook Air, by comparison, has a base M4 chip (not the Pro or Max), a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, a 512GB SSD, and just 16GB of unified memory. On paper, this really does look like a David vs. Goliath situation. A thick, powerful PC workstation against a thin, fanless little laptop.
But here’s where things get interesting.
One Important Ground Rule for This Comparison
Before we get into the tests, there’s something you need to know about Windows laptops: they run significantly slower on battery power than when plugged in. Even with all performance settings cranked to max. This is not a Dell-specific issue, it’s a Windows issue, and it’s still frankly shocking to see in this day and age.
With a MacBook, you don’t have to think about this. Unplug it, edit 4K video, export a project, and it performs the same as if it were plugged in. Because of this, all MacBook results in this comparison assume battery power, while the Dell gets two results for most tests: plugged in, and on battery.
Startup Speed
Starting from a complete cold boot, the MacBook came to the login screen in 12.9 seconds. The Dell took 20.6 seconds plugged in and 20.9 seconds on battery. Interestingly, the Dell’s battery vs. plugged-in difference was almost nothing here. It’s a noticeable gap compared to the Mac, but not a dealbreaker.
As a side note on sleep: the MacBook wakes up in under half a second, just like a smartphone. The Dell wakes in about 3 seconds either way, which is fine, but the broader issue is that I’ve never fully trusted putting Windows laptops to sleep. There’s always a chance it doesn’t go to sleep properly, and I’ve arrived at destinations with a completely dead battery or a bag full of hot air because the laptop decided to wake itself up and run full-tilt in my backpack. The Mac? I close the lid and don’t think about it.
SSD Speed
Using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, the Dell pushed about 5,400 MB/s read and write when plugged in, compared to the MacBook’s roughly 3,000 MB/s read and 3,400 MB/s write. A meaningful gap.
But on battery, the Dell dropped down to around 4,300 MB/s read and 4,700 MB/s write, a 15 to 20% performance loss. Still faster than the Mac overall, but getting closer. And if you’re copying from an SD card rather than the internal SSD, both laptops perform similarly since neither SSD is being maxed out anyway.
Video Editing Performance (Premiere Pro)
The MacBook opened Premiere Pro in about 3.7 seconds. The Dell took 8 seconds plugged in, and nearly 16 seconds on battery. That battery difference on the PC side is wild.
On the timeline, editing a mix of 4K 60fps and 6K 60fps footage, the MacBook Air was incredibly smooth. It scrubbed through footage like it was nothing, no lag, no hesitation. And remember, this is the base-level, cheapest MacBook Apple makes, running entirely on battery power.
The Dell, when plugged in, was actually very close to the MacBook. It handled the footage well and didn’t struggle. But on battery, it was noticeably slower. It almost felt like the laptop was reluctant to spin up the fans to keep pace, even in high performance mode. Once it warmed up and the fans got going, it improved, but it still fell below the MacBook’s battery performance. That’s something to keep in mind if you frequently edit away from an outlet.
Export Speed
This is where things got both expected and genuinely surprising. I set up the exact same 10-minute DaVinci Resolve project on both machines, same bitrate, same resolution, same hardware encoding settings.
The Dell finished the export in 3 minutes and 40 seconds plugged in. The MacBook took 4 minutes and 9 seconds, 29 seconds slower. The Mac has no fan, so it has to thermally throttle itself during long exports. Not surprising.
But here’s the surprising part: once I unplugged the Dell, that same export ballooned to 5 minutes and 48 seconds. The MacBook? Still exactly 4 minutes and 9 seconds, every time, because its hardware encoders don’t care whether it’s plugged in or not.
Let that sink in. The $1,200 MacBook Air on battery actually exports video faster than the $8,000 Dell workstation on battery. That’s not a knock on the Dell, it’s just the reality of how Windows handles performance when unplugged. If you’re always plugged in, the Dell wins. If you’re ever away from an outlet, the story flips completely.
Fan Noise
Open Chrome on the Dell: fans spin. Open Premiere Pro: fans spin faster. Start an export: it sounds like the laptop is about to take off. It’s not the loudest PC I’ve ever owned (I had an Asus gaming laptop in the mid-2000s that legitimately sounded like it was about to levitate), but it is constant.
The MacBook Air has no fan. Zero. Even during a full video export, it’s completely silent. The gap between these two is, genuinely, infinite.
Battery Life
I’ll tell you a quick story. Back in 2019, I was editing in the car while my wife drove us across Texas. No charger, about a four-hour drive. Three hours in, the laptop hit 20% and I had to stop editing. That’s the PC laptop experience for video editors.
With the MacBook Air, I was on a long international flight editing 4K footage in DaVinci Resolve for hours. When I checked the battery, it had only dropped 12%. The same type of workflow that killed my PC battery in three hours barely made a dent on the MacBook.
For most of my editing career up until 2025, traveling with a laptop meant constantly searching for a power outlet. The MacBook changed that completely. It’s the first time I’ve felt genuinely free to edit wherever I am.
For more on how the MacBook Air holds up long-term, check out my M4 MacBook Air 6-Month Long-Term Review and my MacBook buyer’s guide for video editors.
The Verdict
Yes, the Dell is a year older than the MacBook. And yes, if you’re always plugged in and sitting at a desk, the Dell wins on raw export speed and SSD throughput. But once you unplug it, the story changes dramatically in almost every category. Slower editing, slower exports, shorter battery life, constant fan noise.
The MacBook Air costs $6,800 less, is nearly silent, runs identically on battery as it does plugged in, and honestly unlocked a new level of productivity for me as a video editor. When it’s time to travel, I’m grabbing the MacBook every single time.
I’m still interested in PC laptops, I love that you can tinker with them and upgrade the RAM or SSD, and I’ll keep reviewing them. But right now, for portable video editing, the MacBook Air at $1,200 is just an absurdly good deal.
And if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It’s completely free and I think you’ll find the tips inside it really helpful no matter what you’re editing on.