MS Word opens twice as slow on Windows 11 PCs as on MacBooks, and Microsoft has no excuse
AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication
Independent lab testing by PhoneBuff reveals Microsoft Word opens significantly slower on Windows laptops compared to MacBooks. Robot-controlled tests compared the MacBook Air M5 against the Surface Laptop 13 and the MacBook Neo against the Dell XPS 13. In both scenarios, the MacBooks opened a 500-page document in seven seconds, while the Windows devices took twelve seconds. This performance gap is notable because Word is a Microsoft application optimized for its own operating system. Despite the speed disadvantage, the Windows laptops outperformed their Apple counterparts in battery life during productivity tasks involving Word and Excel. The Dell XPS 13 showed an 18% battery drain over two hours, compared to 26% for the MacBook Neo. The tests highlight a disparity where Apple’s hardware, including a repurposed iPhone chip in the Neo, executes Microsoft software faster than native Windows hardware. Microsoft faces scrutiny for its software’s performance on its primary platform.
💡 Why It Matters
- · Microsoft’s flagship productivity suite underperforming on its own operating system undermines the core value proposition of the Windows ecosystem.
- · This performance deficit forces consumers to prioritize Apple’s hardware efficiency over native software integration, challenging Microsoft’s dominance in the professional computing market.
