MacBook vs Windows Laptop: 5-Year Cost in 2026

A 13-inch MacBook Air costs $1,299 to buy and about $1,699 over five years if you pay for AppleCare+ every year (our arithmetic). A Dell XPS 13 with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage was $948.99 on dell.com on October 5, 2026, which is about $350 less before any warranty. The gap narrows or widens depending on the configuration, the coverage you buy and what you can sell the laptop for. This guide lays out the prices we could verify on official pages, adds up five years, and says plainly where we found no reliable number.

Purchase Prices

All prices below are from the vendors’ own pages on October 5, 2026. Windows prices change often, and the Lenovo listing did not show full specifications, so compare configurations before you buy.

HP’s pages showed no prices in the text we could read, so we leave HP out. Prices across the whole market have been rising this year because of memory costs, which we cover in our laptop price guide.

Warranty: AppleCare+ Against Windows Plans

Apple states on apple.com/applecare that AppleCare covers battery replacement at no extra charge when capacity falls below 80 percent. It also includes extended hardware coverage and accidental damage protection, and one year of hardware coverage comes with Apple’s limited warranty.

9to5Mac reported these AppleCare+ prices on July 15, 2026, after a 50-cent monthly increase:

We did not verify a fixed multi-year price for the Mac plans. Over five years, our arithmetic gives $399.95 for the Air at the yearly rate, or $479.40 at the monthly rate (60 months at $7.99).

For Windows, the picture is murkier. Dell’s XPS 13 page lists “Basic Hardware Service with Mail-In” as the base warranty. Dell’s support-tier pages name Basic, Plus and Premium levels but showed no prices. Some HP OmniBook X listings state that a 2-year Care Pack is included, though we saw no HP prices. The only Windows coverage price we could confirm was a 3-year Lenovo accidental damage plan at $142.64 from the retailer Connection.com, which notes that the plan must match the warranty term. It is a retailer price, not a Lenovo one, and you should check that it fits your exact model.

Battery and Repair Prices

Apple’s battery service pages showed no dollar figure when we checked, so we do not quote an out-of-warranty Apple battery price. Forum posts and third-party sites give numbers, but they are not Apple’s.

For a Windows example, iFixit lists a replacement battery for the Lenovo Slim 7 14IMH9 at $98.99 with a one-year guarantee. That is a different model from the Slim 7i in the table above, so it shows the scale of a part price, not a quote for your laptop. We found no verified Dell battery price on an opened page.

Five-Year Totals

This table is our arithmetic: purchase price plus the coverage example, divided by five years. It leaves out tax, accessories and any resale value.

Two things stand out. AppleCare+ at the yearly rate adds about 31 percent to the Air’s price over five years, 43 percent to the Neo’s and 28 percent to the 14-inch Pro’s (our arithmetic). And the Windows rows only look cheaper if you skip comparable coverage, so the fair comparison is the Air without coverage at $1,299 against the XPS at $948.99, a $350 gap.

Resale Value and Accessories

We did not find a resale figure we can attribute to a named source. Swappa and Decluttr blocked our lookups, so we are not quoting any resale percentage, and you should not trust one that comes without a named source. What we can give you is the formula: every $100 you recover when you sell lowers the five-year total by $100 and the yearly figure by $20. Check recent sold listings for your exact model before you count on a number.

We also have no verified prices for docks, chargers or cases, so those are left out of the totals. Budget for them separately.

Which One Costs Less

The XPS 13 beats the Air on sticker price by about $350 at 16GB of memory, but Windows is not always cheaper: the Dell Pro 14 at $1,659 costs more than the Air. We have no verified lifespan data for either side, so a longer service life is the one lever you control. If you keep a laptop six years instead of five, the Air without coverage works out to $216.50 a year, against $158.17 for the XPS (our arithmetic). Our phone upgrade guide and console cost guide apply the same keep-it-longer logic to other devices.

The Bottom Line

On verified prices, the cheapest row in the five-year table is the 16GB Dell XPS 13 with no extra coverage. A MacBook Air costs $1,299 up front and about $1,699 with AppleCare+, against $949 for a 16GB XPS 13 (our arithmetic, before tax). Resale value and battery cost could change the order, but we could not verify either, so we have not counted them. Pick on the configuration you need, and decide on coverage separately, because it adds 28 to 43 percent to Apple’s prices.

FAQ

How much does a MacBook Air cost in 2026?

The 13-inch starts at $1,299 and the 15-inch at $1,499 on apple.com as of October 5, 2026. The MacBook Neo starts at $699 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro at $1,999.

Is AppleCare+ worth it for a MacBook?

It covers battery replacement below 80 percent capacity and accidental damage, per Apple. 9to5Mac reports $79.99 a year for the 13-inch Air, or about $400 over five years (our arithmetic). Whether it pays off depends on how likely you are to break the laptop.

How much does a Windows laptop warranty cost?

We could confirm only one price: $142.64 for a 3-year Lenovo accidental damage plan at Connection.com. Dell’s and HP’s coverage prices did not appear on pages we opened.

Do MacBooks hold their value better?

We could not find a resale figure from a named source, so we cannot say. Look at recent sold listings for your model before relying on any claim.