ZDNET Highlights
- The 2024 Microsoft Surface Pro laptop is on sale starting at $1,190.
- It’s a well-designed CoPilot+ PC with a lightweight, stylish form factor and marathon battery life.
- It may lack port selection for some users, and the OLED option would have made it a little more premium.
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Last year was a big one for Microsoft. All eyes were on Windows with the release of the new Copilot AI feature, followed by a new range of laptops running Snapdragon’s ARM-compatible chip architecture and a flood of new, promoted AI features. Naturally, some were welcomed, while others… didn’t go as planned (and continue to raise questions).
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At the center of it all are two key tools from Microsoft, which are both innovative and fun to use: the Microsoft Surface Laptopand the Surface Pro, a tablet/laptop hybrid. ZDNET’s Kerry Wan went hands-on with the Surface Laptop, but after the dust settled on the first round of CoPilot+ PCs, I wanted to take a closer look at this laptop.
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The first thing I notice about the Surface Laptop is its sleek, lightweight design, which would be very reminiscent of a MacBook if it weren’t for the cool blue color. There’s something very neutral about the Surface Laptop – non-descript, even – while still maintaining a unique silhouette. Minimum? Doesn’t sound particularly Microsoft-like, does it? And yet, here we are.
Available in 13.8- and 15-inch form factors, the Surface’s aluminum body comes in a few unique colors. It has a bright, 120Hz HDR touchscreen display, basic port selection and, most importantly, the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor.
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The display looks great, although OLED really would have been best for this flagship device. I understand Microsoft’s design choice here, though: create a good-looking HDR display with a faster refresh rate that looks like OLED but requires half the power. This is understandable.
As for processors, we’ve discussed the pros and cons of ARM architecture in Windows all year, and the bottom line is this: it’s still in its early stages, so there are likely to be compatibility issues with some apps, games, and accessories.
Windows (mostly) does a good job of emulating programs through Prism, but problems can arise. However, I can say that Snapdragon laptops have made a lot of progress in the few months since they hit the market, especially with creativity apps.
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Earlier this summer, I remember struggling through Adobe Premiere on some brand new Copilot+ PCs, but after only a few months, things seem to be more optimized. Running some video editing software in Adobe and DaVinci Resolve on the Surface wasn’t 100% flawless, but it was smooth enough to be considered ready for creators. In fact, for me on this machine it performed slightly better than other, higher priced models.
On the surface the Snapdragon X Elite feels well optimized. In our benchmarking of the device, we got numbers comparable to other CoPilot+ PCs around the same price point, namely the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and the Dell XPS 13.
It’s this chip that powers this laptop’s fast performance and impressive battery life, and it’s what sets it apart from previous versions of the Surface line (which had mixed reviews), and other CoPilot+ PCs.
This is a laptop that feels fast and light and multitasks easily in the Windows ecosystem. Web browsing with dozens of tabs feels responsive and intuitive when connected to an external monitor, which is enough for me to be considered a key driver.
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The touchpad is efficient, if on the sensitive side, but well-placed. The port selection is average, with two USB-C, one USB-A, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unfortunately, Microsoft chose to keep its proprietary charging port instead of the standard USB-C, which would have given the laptop even more utility.
The keyboard is very satisfying to type on, with well-textured and responsive keys that match the color scheme of the device. If there’s any laptop where the Windows CoPilot key would make sense, it would be on this laptop. The integrated NPU of the Snapdragon
I’m integrating CoPilot into my workflow as I’m learning more about how to use it effectively, and on a device like the Surface, I find it convenient and efficient. I’m using it to summarize the latest emails from specific contacts, and it’s particularly practical for this task because of its speed and accuracy.
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The battery life of the Surface has also been excellent. I get over 15 hours of use on a single charge, and it hasn’t fully drained to zero by the time I call a benchmarking test.
The combination of smart design with meaningful trade-offs is what gives this laptop marathon battery life, and opens it up to a variety of use cases from a creator or productivity standpoint. Basically, this is a laptop you can work on remotely all day long without needing a charger.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
I mentioned this before, but the direction Microsoft took with this laptop is downright unoriginal. 2024 Microsoft Surface Laptop It’s light, airy, and brings some fun to the CoPilot+ line. I would have liked to see this laptop with an OLED display, but what we got instead is still pretty good, especially with this great battery life.
The Surface Laptop is a flagship mid-range device that’s well-equipped to perform a variety of roles. Despite some compromises, it has everything it should for the price.
