When Microsoft first started doing its own laptops back in 2012, the move was met with a mixture of interest and confusion. There were predictions of the venture’s demise, and a general feeling that the Surface could go the same way as the Zune if the company wasn’t careful.
But Microsoft stuck with it, tweaking the Surface Pro two-in-one’s design, and adding the Surface Laptop in 2017. Designed to be a catch-all device for people who wanted a thin and light laptop, it found its fans and has had several iterations since launch.
The company has now released the latest version of the Surface Laptop, which comes with an important change. The new Surface Laptop is one of Microsoft’s new Copilot+ devices, which means it is designed for use with the new generation of artificial intelligence tools, and future-proofed to work with what comes next. That’s not to say that the previous generation of devices won’t run AI, but it might have some repercussions on battery life that the Copilot+ devices won’t suffer from – for now at least. That is because the new laptops have a dedicated neural processor to help with AI tasks.
What AI features can users expect with the new Copilot+ PCs? The biggest new feature is Recall, the controversial feature that takes snapshots of your desktop at regular intervals so you can search for keywords or browse through a timeline. When it was launched initially, it sparked privacy concerns, but Microsoft has made a few changes and come back with a refined version – it is opt-in now, and you can pause the screenshots, plus there is sensitive information filtering.
There is also Studio Effects, which brings auto-framing – similar to Apple’s Centre Stage – to keep you in the centre of the frame when using the web camera. More interestingly, there is an option to make it look like you are maintaining eye contact, even when you are looking at the screen. The new Copilot+ devices will also come with AI image tools that allow you to create images from text prompts.
All that is fine, but the laptop still needs to cover the basics, and cover them well. The good news is that Surface Laptop delivers on that front.
Out of the box, the Surface Laptop looks like a premium ultra-portable laptop. In fact, it bears more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook Air, even coming in a blue-hued metal casing. It is light enough too, so you can carry it around without feeling weighed down.
The new Surface Laptop shaves a little off the screen, bringing it down to 13 inches from 13.8 inches. But it is still more than enough space to view all your content, in full HD resolution. It should be noted, though, that it is a step down from the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop in terms of refresh rate – 60Hz versus 120Hz – it doesn’t come with HDR and the pixels per inch are lower. You would be hard-pressed to notice for the most part, though. That screen is crisp and bright, and although it has a lower contrast ratio, everything looks great.
The laptop comes with 16GB of RAM and base storage of 256GB, running on an eight core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 3.3GHz chip. The neural processor is also Qualcomm, a Hexagon with 45 TOPS.
The latter comes in handy for some of the new features, including Microsoft’s new Click To Do feature. With just a click (or a right swipe) the system will analyse what’s on the screen and allow you to take action on it. For example, you can copy, summarise or rewrite text; images can have their backgrounds removed.
[ Apple MacBook Air review: Slick, fast laptop is Apple’s best yetOpens in new window ]
There is a decent selection of USB ports too, with two USB C and one USB A port. Microsoft has kept everything else to a minimum though, with a headphone jack as the only other connection available.
There were few tasks that I put the Surface Laptop through that it didn’t tackle with ease. As a work laptop, most of the time was spent on productivity tasks, which made a comfortable keyboard a must. The Surface Laptop did well in this regard; the trackpad was a bit more middle of the road, with Microsoft’s choice of technology making it more difficult to click using the top section of the trackpad.
There are other drawbacks. Because it is based on ARM architecture, some software may still not run too well on it, or at all, though that group is a shrinking category. That said, any software that I was using day to day worked fine. Do your homework beforehand and you can avoid any inconvenient situations.
Good
If you want a good all-rounder laptop, the Surface Laptop will fit the bill. It is fast, silent for the most part, and the inclusion of the new AI tools will appeal to some users. Not all, mind you; there are some that I wouldn’t use, such as Recall. And they aren’t exclusive to the Surface Laptop either, with the more useful ones such as Studio Effects available on other Copilot-enabled PCs.
Battery life is excellent. Even hammering it with standard work tasks, it lasted two days – an improvement on my current device, which manages to last most of a work day without access to a power cable.
Microsoft has ditched the proprietary Surface charger for this device, choosing to go with USB C instead. That makes it more flexible when it comes to charging too; you can grab a cable and any 45-watt charger, it doesn’t have to be the Microsoft supplied one.
Bad
Microsoft hasn’t actually included a charger in the box. It is an optional extra that you will have to pay for. On the plus side, you probably have a charger or two capable of powering the Surface Laptop if you have bought any sort of fast charger in the past few years. But this is an annoyance you don’t need.
Everything else
Microsoft has included a fingerprint reader in the power button, but omits Windows Hello support from the webcam. It has also dropped Dolby Atmos support for the speakers, opting for Dolby Audio instead.
Verdict
The Surface Laptop is a decent thin and light machine, although it is a little on the expensive side given the choices Microsoft has made on some of the more advanced features of the Surface line.
[ Samsung Galaxy A56 review: Mid-range phones get a boostOpens in new window ]
