We compared Apple's and Microsoft's flagship stores in New York City — and the winner was obvious

The usual location, beneath its signature glass cube, was being renovated, so the store had been temporarily moved to a building next to the construction area.

While Apple has tweaked the stores since their debut in 2001, they continue to emphasize minimalism, encourage interaction with Apple products, and feature personable employees.

The Fifth Avenue store prevented clutter by displaying a limited inventory and doing away with signs and price stickers. As a result, my focus was immediately directed toward trying the products.

It's no coincidence Apple put its flagship New York City store near luxury brands like Cartier, Bergdorf Goodman, and Louis Vuitton. The store even had an employee dusting off its products.

When Angela Ahrendts became Apple's senior vice president of retail and online stores in 2014, one of her priorities was improving the displays for complementary products like phone cases.

The cases caught my attention as soon as I arrived on the second floor. That the brightest cases were above eye level — so they would be visible even if people were standing in front of them — spoke to Apple's attention to detail.

On both floors, multiple people occupied many of the display tables.

During my time at the store, I saw an Apple employee teaching a class about taking photos with iPhones. He used conversational language, an interactive display, and simple examples to make the lesson accessible for customers of all skill levels.

I had an excellent experience at this store in 2017 while having my laptop fixed, and over the years I've been impressed by how personable and attentive Apple employees tend to be — even when the store is packed.

Microsoft's Fifth Avenue location opened in 2015. It's just a five-minute walk from the Apple Store.

While the product spacing and focus on interactivity reminded me of the Apple Store, there was a little too much sensory stimulation on the first floor. In addition to three large screens in the middle and on the sides of the room, I heard two songs playing at once. (This was most likely the result of a DJ program customers could demo.)

On the second floor, customers could either seek help at a communal table that resembled Apple's Genius Bar or sit at individual tables for more personalized service.

While the store was clean and organized, it could have benefitted from placing more inventory in back rooms and making the products stand out more. This display divided my attention among several items.

For example, each of the three floors had a virtual-reality section. I tried two of them and came away excited about the idea of owning a VR headset.

Apple, meanwhile, positions its products as luxury items that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Apple wants customers to buy into a network of products that look and feel similar. The advantage is that if you own an iPhone, for example, it's pretty easy to figure out how to use an iPad. There's less overlap between Microsoft Office and an Xbox; they provide more differentiated experiences and higher learning curves.

Apple's product strategy and aesthetic brilliance gave its store an edge over Microsoft's. Each of the items in Apple's Fifth Avenue store was intuitive, and the minimalist design never made me feel overwhelmed.

Microsoft's store had a more difficult task in trying to sell a range of products that don't necessarily look like one another or operate in similar ways. While you're more likely to come across a product that's completely different from something you own, you probably don't want to spend the time necessary to get a grasp on a video-game console or DJ software when you're in a crowded retail environment.