June 25th, 2024

Surface Laptop review: Microsoft's best MacBook Air competitor yet

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition competes with the MacBook Air, offering Qualcomm chips for enhanced performance and battery life. It features AI capabilities, a larger display, and smooth operation with some app compatibility challenges.

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Surface Laptop review: Microsoft's best MacBook Air competitor yet

The Verge's review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition highlights it as a strong competitor to the MacBook Air, featuring Qualcomm chips for improved performance and battery life. The laptop introduces AI features like Recall for capturing memories, although its launch is delayed due to security concerns. The 13.8-inch model offers a larger display with smaller bezels, HDR support, and a 120Hz refresh rate. It includes a 1080p front-facing camera with Windows Hello support and a precision haptic trackpad. The device runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip, providing a smooth experience with native Arm apps. However, some apps like Premiere Pro are not optimized for Arm yet. Benchmarks show the Surface Laptop outperforming the MacBook Air in multicore tests but lagging in single-core performance. The laptop's fans are quiet even under load, but some users have reported issues with waking from sleep. Overall, the Surface Laptop 7th Edition impresses with its design, performance, and battery life, making it a compelling choice for Windows users seeking a MacBook Air alternative.

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Link Icon 8 comments
By @politelemon - 5 months
In consistently surprised that bezels are still a topic of conversation. Dell has been literally years ahead of everyone else in this regard, with everyone else still playing catchup. Excellent screens quality and bezels that just get out of the way. Even now the best offerings I see feel like compromises. Perhaps a dream laptop might exist which is a combination of every manufacturers strengths in one.
By @nwah1 - 5 months
I like the powerful ARM chip, I like that the specs go very high, and that the RAM speed is maxxed out.

I like that it uses 120HZ and Gorilla Glass 5 for the screen.

I like that it offers the latest Wifi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4

On the downside, it looks like a mac, which I don't consider to be a positive.

Don't like that there is no USB-C charging port on the right side.

Expensive.

By @ramesh31 - 5 months
Sounds like a great Linux machine
By @dartharva - 5 months
Nice to see it didn't go the Macbook way of losing main ports over "sleekness". It still has less ports than I would prefer though (there's only one USB-A port and no HDMI ports), but not bad considering its size.
By @AstroJetson - 5 months
It's pretty amazing how almost any computer will work with 16GB of memory and a fast SSD. So I'm not surprised that they are getting higher points.
By @daft_pink - 5 months
the reason why we’re running mac’s is the software not the hardware though, and microsoft’s software is going downhill while macOS is on the up and up.
By @vundercind - 5 months
The earlier ones had glowing reviews but when I finally got to try one (expecting it to be good!) around IIRC the third generation, it was awful.

This time, I’ll believe it when I feel it.