All products are independently selected by our experts. To help us provide you with free unbiased advice, we’ll earn an affiliate commission if you buy something. Click here to learn more
Microsoft has redesigned its Surface Laptop from the ground up to compete head-on the latest MacBook Air, powered by Apple’s specially designed M3 chipset launched back in March. According to Microsoft, the new Surface Laptop offers improved performance for a lower price.
During the announcement, Microsoft executives compared the new Surface Laptop — one of many new Copilot+ PCs that unlock exclusive features within Windows 11 — directly to the MacBook Air. Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi said the Surface Laptop offers a 58% speed boost compared to the 15-inch MacBook Air in terms of sustained multi-threaded performance.
Battery life is also improved, with Microsoft’s executive vice president claiming that the 15-inch Surface Laptop can last 22 hours of video playback or 15 hours of web browsing between charges. That’s 20% longer battery life than an M3-equipped MacBook Air with the same 15-inch screen size, Yusuf Mehdi added.
The refreshed Surface Laptop is available with a 13.8-inch or 15-inch screen. These new laptops can be configured with up to 1 TB of SSD storage and 32 GB of RAM. Microsoft offers a choice of four colors — Platinum, Black, Dune and Sapphire
MICROSOFT PRESS OFFICE
“You will have the most powerful computer ever”, Yusuf Mehdi he told The Verge during a briefing for the new devices, held at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters in Seattle. “It will outperform any device on the market, including the MacBook Air with an M3 processor, by more than 50% in terms of sustained performance.”
Of course, we’ll have to check out these supercharged Surface Laptops for ourselves to verify Microsoft’s numbers, but it’s an encouraging sign that Windows 11 PCs have finally have caught up to the processing power and efficiency seen on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models since switching from Intel chips in 2020.
Like Apple, which now relies exclusively on its own custom-designed M-series processors based on the ARM architecture that has been widely used in smartphone and tablet chipsets for the past decade, Microsoft has turned away from industry heavyweight Intel to enable these dramatic gains in strength and efficiency.
The Surface Laptop is powered by the Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Plus system-on-a-chip from Qualcomm — a brand synonymous with performance on Android smartphones such as Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Ultraand OnePlus 12.
This chipset boasts a dedicated NPU, a Neural Processing Unit, which is designed to handle all AI tasks on the device. In fact, it can race through 45 trillion operations per second.
Rollback is the main feature of this Copilot+ PC list, allowing you to scroll back through everything that happened on your Windows 11 PC and go back in time with one click. Everything is searchable because artificial intelligence searched the images and text on the device MICROSOFT PRESS OFFICE
Microsoft will unlock a number of new AI features within Windows 11, including Recall, Cocreator in Paint and real-time translation, provided you have the right hardware.
Devices that meet these criteria will be labeled as Copilot+ computers.
The Surface Laptop is one of the first devices to ship with these powerful new AI tools. But it’s not just about speed, battery life and software tweaks — the team at Microsoft took the opportunity to refresh the hardware as well.
The new Surface Laptop comes equipped with a larger 13.8-inch screen without significantly expanding the laptop’s overall footprint. To do this, Microsoft shortened the bezels around the screen.
“Our new 13.8″ display provides a larger viewing area than a traditional 14″ laptop in a more compact design,” wrote Pete Kyriacou, corporate vice president, Microsoft Devices in a blog post about the new design.
The touchscreen has a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR technology, Dolby Vision IQ and Adaptive Color that automatically adjusts the white balance to match your environment.
Compared to its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 5, Microsoft says its refreshed laptop offers an 86% performance boost. It can also power three external 4K monitors for the first time.
As mentioned above, the Surface Laptop comes equipped with the longest battery life any Surface device ever delivered by Microsoft — up to 22 hours on the 15-inch Surface Laptop and up to 20 hours on the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop. When is it finally time to recharge the battery, you can recharge it using the magnetic surface connector provided in the box. Surface Laptop supports 65W fast charging.
Microsoft has equipped its laptop with lightning-fast Wi-Fi 7, although you’ll need to upgrade to a new Wi-Fi router to take advantage of the improved stability and speed offered by this new standard.
On the other hand, there’s a 1080p HD Surface Studio camera that supports AI-powered Windows Studio effects such as auto-framing, portrait blur, creative filters and voice focus – all controlled on-device, so you won’t have to worry about internet speeds that will affect your appearance on the video call. Microsoft says it’s worked on “artificial intelligence-enhanced sound” with its new omnisonic speakers that are Dolby Atmos certified.
The case is made with at least 67.2% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminum alloy. Microsoft offers the Surface Laptop in four new colors: Platinum, Black, Dune and Sapphire.
Prices starting from £1,049 for the 13.8-inch variant of the Surface Laptop, maximum £2,049 for a model with a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM and a stronger Snapdragon X Elite chipset.
If you’d rather accept delivery of the 15-inch model, the Surface Laptop prices start from £1,349 and maximum from £2,149 for the same specs as the 13.8-inch flagship.
Certain Surface Laptop configurations they are already marked as “Out of Stock” in the Microsoft Storedespite the first Copilot+ computers not being shipped until June 18, 2024. which to pre-order will be among the first to download the brand new laptop models.
By comparison, the latest generation MacBook Air — equipped with a specially designed M3 system-on-chip and a choice of 13.6- or 15-inch screen sizes — from just £1,099 for 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of SSD memory and a 13.6-inch screen. 15 inch model from just £1,299.