MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP $999
Microsoft has been steadily impressing us with its range of Surface devices, and its latest addition, the Surface Laptop, continues that trend with a sleek and powerful notebook that’s been designed to be a showcase for Windows 10 S.
Microsoft made a device that's not trying to be something new and weird, it's just trying to be the thing you want. It's a laptop that's powerful enough to run all your apps, but thin enough to carry around something with a high-resolution screen, a good keyboard, and a reasonable price. It's the obvious thing to make, and so Microsoft gave it the obvious name: the Surface Laptop.
So a device built to make use of Windows 10 features such as Windows Hello biometric security and Windows Ink support for styluses is actually very welcome.
With the premium design and powerful specs of the Surface Laptop, Microsoft has Apple’s MacBook devices firmly in its crosshairs. Has Microsoft built a device that can topple the might Mac? Read on to find out.
Surface Laptop elevates design and performance to an artful blend of luxurious touches, ease of use, discreetly hidden Omnisonic Speakers, and a brilliant interactive touchscreen.
The Surface Laptop is intentionally built for anonymity. While its all-metal chassis is available in four color options – ours came in Cobalt Blue – none of them stand up and shout. A similar subtle touch graces its profile, which is hard-edged, serious, and tapered at extreme angles along each edge. Even the square, precision-cut exhaust vents look like they mean business.
Surface Laptop is all about beautiful details and ease of use that make computing a pleasure right down to a refined design that lets you open your laptop with one hand. Bright and easy to read, enjoy razor-sharp resolution for photographs, videos, reports, and presentations on the vibrant 13.5” PixelSense Display with interactive touchscreen.
Open it up, though, and the Laptop shows its softer side. Alcantara fabric lines the entire interior, giving the system a warm, inviting feel. Dell’s XPS 13 takes a similar tack, but with carbon fiber instead of fabric. We love this trend, as it instantly makes the simple act of opening and using a laptop more fun.
You might worry the Alcantara will wear, and it probably will — but no more than other materials. We’ve used numerous Surface Pros with the Alcantara version of the Type Cover, and haven’t noticed an issue with stains or wear. It might be a problem if you eat spaghetti while holding the plate directly over your laptop, but otherwise, it’s fine.
The Surface Laptop’s 13.5-inch screen invites comparisons to other 13-inch laptops, like the Dell XPS 13, and HP Spectre x360. Some might even consider it alongside a 12.5-inch laptop like the Huawei Matebook X, is blunt.
Some might like that, as it offers a reassuring sense of weight and durability. Microsoft’s laptop also comes in a shave under three pounds, which beats the MacBook Pro 13, and is right in line with the Dell’s smaller XPS 13.
Unlike the Surface Book, the Surface Laptop doesn’t feature an aluminum keyboard , instead Microsoft has opted for plastic keys. Before you start to worry that this could lead to the Surface Laptop feeling a bit cheap, it also features Alcantara fabric material, which is imported from Italy and laser-cut to fit the keyboard and which gives the Surface Laptop a very pleasant feel, especially when typing.
The key travel of the Surface Laptop’s keyboard also feels satisfying, with 1.5mm of travel giving you a decent physical response when typing. A cool design feature places the Surface Laptop’s speakers behind the keyboard, using the gaps between the keys as a sort of grille.
Keyboard backlighting is standard. Several levels of adjustment are provided, and the brightest is clearly visible even in a lit room. Light-leak around the corners of keys is minimal, so you won’t see any annoying shaft of light sneaking out at odd angles.
Enjoy a crisp, clear audio experience for your favorite music, shows, and more thanks to Omnisonic Speakers with radiant omnidirectional sound and Dolby Audio Premium. Although with sound from the Surface Laptop coming through loud and clear – though we noticed a bit of muffling when typing at the same time. This may be an issue if you enjoy listening to Spotify while working, but at least the included audio jack allows you to hook up the Surface Laptop to an external speaker.
Search for the word “audio” on the Microsoft’s Surface Laptop product page, and you’ll see no results. Audio quality isn’t a priority. While the speakers – which are hidden under the keyboard — pump out acceptable volume, they quickly fall into distortion when asked to handle music, or action scenes in movies. We recommend headphones.
The Surface Laptop isn’t a tiny laptop. There’s room for great connectivity, and Microsoft hasn’t taken advantage of it.
the Surface Laptop comes with a USB 3.0 port, Mini DisplayPort and Microsoft's proprietary Surface Connect power and docking port, as found on other Surface devices. The proprietary Surface Connect provides power, and can expand connectivity when paired with a Surface Dock. Wireless options, meanwhile, include the usual pairing of 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.0.
Nevertheless, We can’t help but feel disappointed in what the Laptop offers. It’s arguably even worse than the Apple MacBook Pro 13. While it only has cutting-edge Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports, they’re far more capable, and there’s four of them.
The limited number of ports mean the Surface Laptop can maintain a thin profile – in fact it measures just 14.48mm thick, making it thinner than the Dell XPS 13’s 15mm, though slightly thicker than the MacBook at 13.1mm and the HP Spectre at 13.7mm.
A front-facing 720p webcam sits above the display. It’s compatible with Windows Hello’s facial recognition, and works within seconds. You’ll want to give Hello login a go if you haven’t tried it already.
Still, it’s impressively light, and easy to hold in one hand. For carrying around, this is one of the most comfortable laptops you can buy.
WINDOWS 10 S
The last thing everybody should know about the Surface Laptop: it ships with a new operating system called Windows 10 S. I say it's "new" but that's not really true at all, because the only new thing here is that 10 S is locked down so it can only run apps downloaded from the official Microsoft Windows Store.
However, the Windows Store has a limited selection of apps, and that’s a problem. By default, the Surface Laptop can’t run any apps outside the Store. That means it can’t launch Google Chrome, Firefox, Steam, Discord, or the full version of Photoshop. Most software we use to test laptops won’t run on Windows 10 S, so we eventually upgraded to Windows 10 Pro for this review.
At least the operating system looks identical to Windows 10 Home or Pro. Unlike Windows RT, which reimagined Windows almost from the ground up, Windows 10 S keeps its differences confined to the Store. Upgrading to Windows 10 Pro – which is free this year, and a $50 upgrade after – takes less than ten minutes, and doesn’t erase or change any data on the machine.
For some, the ease of upgrading will make Windows 10 S a non-issue. Those who expect their laptop to “just work,” however, will be annoyed – and woe to the poor student or employee who finds themselves given a Surface Laptop without rights to an upgrade. Want to play a round of Hearthstone to relax after a long day? Too bad. You can’t.
We think it's the new de facto Windows laptop that most people who want a Windows laptop should get — provided they can afford to spend $1,300 for the step-up model. It strikes exactly the right balance of power, portability, utility, and design for most people; albeit at a slightly higher price than its direct competitors.
To tell the truth, we don't know that there's some sort of incredible technical achievement here. It's thin but not that thin, powerful but not wildly so. Microsoft just chose to do the obvious and correct thing with this laptop over and over, even if that thing is a little boring. Then it slapped a piece of carpet on top to spice it up. I expected Microsoft to do a good job on this hardware, and it did.
If you use Microsoft’s core tools, and can find everything you need in the Windows Store, then you're going to love the Surface Laptop.
For those who worry that Windows 10 S is too restrictive, the ability to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro is a welcome one, and for many people this will instantly make the device more useful and flexible.
It’s not quite perfect, however, and there are a few design choices that prevent it from achieving true greatness. The lack of USB-C is disappointing for such a forward-thinking device, and the lack of ports means you may have to resort to a USB adaptor hub to plug in various device.
No. The Surface Laptop is an impressive device in many ways, but it’s not without its warts, and Windows 10 S is the largest. We understand what Microsoft is going for, but its benefits are targeted at organizations, not individuals. Switching over to Windows 10 Pro is easy, but we can’t assume everyone will want to do that, or feel comfortable with it.
Worse, Microsoft’s competitors ship with “regular” Windows 10 Home or Pro, and some are less expensive. The Surface Laptop is counting on its unique design to attract eyes, and to be fair, it does look and feel awesome. Yet that’s not enough to earn it a recommendation over more affordable, equally capable alternatives.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop is warm and fuzzy, but the price will leave you cold
Finally. It's a word that's famously overused in tech, and it's understandable. As we use products every day, we can imagine that if just one or two small things changed, it would be perfect. But tech companies aren't just interested in iteration, even if those changes seem obvious to us. Instead, we often get offered half-baked ideas that are meant to be the start of new wave of innovation.
Microsoft has been steadily impressing us with its range of Surface devices, and its latest addition, the Surface Laptop, continues that trend with a sleek and powerful notebook that’s been designed to be a showcase for Windows 10 S.
Microsoft made a device that's not trying to be something new and weird, it's just trying to be the thing you want. It's a laptop that's powerful enough to run all your apps, but thin enough to carry around something with a high-resolution screen, a good keyboard, and a reasonable price. It's the obvious thing to make, and so Microsoft gave it the obvious name: the Surface Laptop.
So a device built to make use of Windows 10 features such as Windows Hello biometric security and Windows Ink support for styluses is actually very welcome.
With the premium design and powerful specs of the Surface Laptop, Microsoft has Apple’s MacBook devices firmly in its crosshairs. Has Microsoft built a device that can topple the might Mac? Read on to find out.
Design
Open it up, though, and the Laptop shows its softer side. Alcantara fabric lines the entire interior, giving the system a warm, inviting feel. Dell’s XPS 13 takes a similar tack, but with carbon fiber instead of fabric. We love this trend, as it instantly makes the simple act of opening and using a laptop more fun.
You might worry the Alcantara will wear, and it probably will — but no more than other materials. We’ve used numerous Surface Pros with the Alcantara version of the Type Cover, and haven’t noticed an issue with stains or wear. It might be a problem if you eat spaghetti while holding the plate directly over your laptop, but otherwise, it’s fine.
The Surface Laptop’s 13.5-inch screen invites comparisons to other 13-inch laptops, like the Dell XPS 13, and HP Spectre x360. Some might even consider it alongside a 12.5-inch laptop like the Huawei Matebook X, is blunt.
A new level of typing comfort.
Feel the warm, luxurious touch of the Signature Alcantara covered keyboard and palm rest, and enjoy a comfortable typing experience like no other.
Unlike the Surface Book, the Surface Laptop doesn’t feature an aluminum keyboard , instead Microsoft has opted for plastic keys. Before you start to worry that this could lead to the Surface Laptop feeling a bit cheap, it also features Alcantara fabric material, which is imported from Italy and laser-cut to fit the keyboard and which gives the Surface Laptop a very pleasant feel, especially when typing.
The key travel of the Surface Laptop’s keyboard also feels satisfying, with 1.5mm of travel giving you a decent physical response when typing. A cool design feature places the Surface Laptop’s speakers behind the keyboard, using the gaps between the keys as a sort of grille.
Keyboard backlighting is standard. Several levels of adjustment are provided, and the brightest is clearly visible even in a lit room. Light-leak around the corners of keys is minimal, so you won’t see any annoying shaft of light sneaking out at odd angles.
Enjoy a crisp, clear audio experience for your favorite music, shows, and more thanks to Omnisonic Speakers with radiant omnidirectional sound and Dolby Audio Premium. Although with sound from the Surface Laptop coming through loud and clear – though we noticed a bit of muffling when typing at the same time. This may be an issue if you enjoy listening to Spotify while working, but at least the included audio jack allows you to hook up the Surface Laptop to an external speaker.
Search for the word “audio” on the Microsoft’s Surface Laptop product page, and you’ll see no results. Audio quality isn’t a priority. While the speakers – which are hidden under the keyboard — pump out acceptable volume, they quickly fall into distortion when asked to handle music, or action scenes in movies. We recommend headphones.
THE PORTS
The Surface Laptop isn’t a tiny laptop. There’s room for great connectivity, and Microsoft hasn’t taken advantage of it.
So, while it’s not the thinnest laptop around the Surface Laptop is still pretty darn slim, and it weighs just 1.25kg, which is lighter than the Dell’s 1.29kg, though again it’s more weighty than the MacBook, which tips the scales at 1.08kg.
Still, it’s impressively light, and easy to hold in one hand. For carrying around, this is one of the most comfortable laptops you can buy.
The last thing everybody should know about the Surface Laptop: it ships with a new operating system called Windows 10 S. I say it's "new" but that's not really true at all, because the only new thing here is that 10 S is locked down so it can only run apps downloaded from the official Microsoft Windows Store.
For some, the ease of upgrading will make Windows 10 S a non-issue. Those who expect their laptop to “just work,” however, will be annoyed – and woe to the poor student or employee who finds themselves given a Surface Laptop without rights to an upgrade. Want to play a round of Hearthstone to relax after a long day? Too bad. You can’t.
Should you get one?
For those who worry that Windows 10 S is too restrictive, the ability to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro is a welcome one, and for many people this will instantly make the device more useful and flexible.
It’s not quite perfect, however, and there are a few design choices that prevent it from achieving true greatness. The lack of USB-C is disappointing for such a forward-thinking device, and the lack of ports means you may have to resort to a USB adaptor hub to plug in various device.
Worse, Microsoft’s competitors ship with “regular” Windows 10 Home or Pro, and some are less expensive. The Surface Laptop is counting on its unique design to attract eyes, and to be fair, it does look and feel awesome. Yet that’s not enough to earn it a recommendation over more affordable, equally capable alternatives.
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