When Apple makes new hardware, that hardware is built from the ground up to run Apple software. That’s why many people are surprised about a new report claiming that Windows 10 runs “unequivocally better” on the new MacBook than OS X.
That report comes from Alex King, a computer science student at Tufts University. He purchased a 2015 MacBook a little over a month ago.
After buying the MacBook, King installed Boot Camp and ran both Mac OS X and the early version of Windows 10. The results were surprising.
In a recent blog post, King said the following:
“It’s fast. It’s smooth. It renders at 60FPS unless you have a lot going on. It’s unequivocally better than performance on OS X, further leading me to believe that Apple really needs to overhaul how animations are done.”
King believes that animations and transitions are at the root of the MacBook’s performance problems when running OS X:
“Even when I turn Transparency off in OS X, Mission Control isn’t completely smooth. Here, even after some Aero Glass transparency has been added in, everything is smooth. It’s remarkable, and it makes me believe in the 12-inch MacBook more than ever before.”
Cortana Works on the MacBook
Typically, when you install Windows onto a Mac using BootCamp, you’ll encounter some compatibility issues and minor problems.
Apparently, that’s not the case with Windows 10 and the new MacBook. Despite the fact that Windows 10 is still in its evaluation stages, Cortana for Widows 10 seems to work perfectly:
“Cortana is an excellent addition, and I think it’s only a matter of time before Apple rolls Siri into OS X somehow. Being able to say ‘Hey Cortana, what’s the weather going to be like tomorrow?’ from across the room is really, really cool.”
Cortana is Microsoft’s new voice assistant. Windows 10 has been built from the ground up to work with Cortana, which should mean you’ll be able to yell at your computer in the future and it will actually yell back at you.
Microsoft Edge is “An Absolute Champion”
In case you were worried that Microsoft Edge was going to suck, it apparently does not. King called Microsoft Edge (formerly named Project Spartan) an “absolute champion” in his review.
Edge was fast to render pages and competently handled a wide number of tasks.
The only two limitations with this browser were that it only let you use Bing as a search engine and had no history feature. Both of those problems will likely be fixed in the final release.
And It’s Good on Battery Life
Another concern with BootCamp is that you burn more battery because the operating system wasn’t designed to be perfectly compatible with the hardware.
That’s apparently not the case with Windows 10. Instead:
“Battery life seemed very good from the short time I used it. I didn’t fully deplete the battery, but I was on track to get over 9 hours of use with brightness at 40 percent.”
Ultimately, King was impressed by the performance and claimed the new MacBook is perfect for anyone who depends on the Mac for both work and play and needs BootCamp for Windows.
You can read King’s full review here: http://www.alexvking.com/12_inch_macbook_and_windows_10.html
