I keep trying out Android phones and Windows laptops but the hardware are always inferior to Apple products. The competition has caught up and even surpassed Apple in Software but Apple has a big lead in chips, speakers, build quality.
Better hardware exists in every range (cheaper, faster, less power hungry), but Apple manages to put a lot of good stuff together. You can beat the M2 in CPU performance for less money but your battery won't last as long, you can beat the screen quality if you pay extra for the better screen, you can buy a usable GPU with your laptop if you want to play games but don't get the machine learning boost, there are so many deliberations to be made.
Your chances at getting something somewhat well rounded improve if you get up into MacBook price ranges, but even in that range there are a lot of machines with weirdly lackluster aspects.
If you need a good laptop, you need to look towards the professional line. Not too professional ("workstation" laptops) but also not too amateurish (the cheaper laptops seemingly aimed at small business).
Thinkpad and similar product lines often deliver excellent value, especially in bulk, as long as you don't go for their bottom-of-the-barrel configurations.
Sadly, AMD has fallen behind Intel again, but their chips often pose just as good a performance-per-euro advantage.
My new battle is that Apple Mail search just stops working. Quitting and reopening doesn’t do anything. When it works, it’s almost like crafting the ultimate regex at times.
One thing though, software quality has been falling down a lot, including Apple’s