Surface Laptop 13 is Microsoft’s lightest yet, with MacBook-beating battery life
The updated Surface Laptop is smaller, lighter, and a $100 cheaper than the MacBook Air. It also touts a battery life that handsomely bests its Apple rival.
Konoly
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Microsoft is changing the design language of its laptops, and it seems the target is squarely Apple’s MacBook Air. The latest from the Redmond giant is a new 13-inch Surface Laptop, which undercuts Apple’s popular entry-level laptop with a sticker price of $899.
The company says its latest offering is the thinnest and lightest Surface Laptop yet. The new Copilot+ machine has a footprint smaller than the MacBook Air, but Microsoft’s laptop is also slightly lighter, as well, though not quite as slim as its rival.
How does it stand out?
Instead of the sharp sloping lines and flat sides that we have seen on Microsoft’s mainline laptops so far, the new 13-inch Surface Laptop embraces curved sides. The build employs anodized aluminum chassis, and you will be able to snag it in Ocean, Violet, and Platinum colors.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsUnlike its Apple competition, the 13-inch Surface Laptop offers a pair of USB-C ports alongside a full-sized USB-A port, too. The biggest improvement, however, is the battery life.
Microsoft is claiming a per-charge mileage of 23 hours, which even races ahead of the 15-inch Surface Laptop and the MacBook Air. Rocking the Copilot+ label, this one draws power from Qualcomm’s 8-core Snapdragon X Plus silicon processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM.
Starting at $899, the new Surface Laptop will go on sale on May 20, though the pre-orders have already gone live. For enterprise customers, it will be up for grabs in July.
What else is on offer?
The new Microsoft laptop offers a 13-inch full-HD screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio and multi-touch support. But compared to its 13.8-inch and 15-inch siblings, the display refresh rate has been dropped from 120Hz to 60Hz.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsIt seems Microsoft was on a quest to create the perfect anti-MacBook running Windows 11. To that end, the storage options still start at 256 GB, but only go up to 512 GB.
There’s a full-HD Surface Studio Camera for video calling duties, with support for auto-framing, portrait, and a bunch of creative background effects. Charging is handled via the USB-C port with a peak output of 60W.
With the new Surface Laptop, Microsoft is also introducing a handful of next-gen AI experiences such as Recall, Click to Do, enhanced Windows Search, and Live Captions, among others. On the repairability front, the company says nearly all components have been designed to allow replacement work.
Please enable Javascript to view this content
Nadeem is a tech and science journalist who started reading about cool smartphone tech out of curiosity and soon started…
The MacBook that Windows laptops still can’t beat
Windows laptops have had a great year so far. Not only did we get the launch of Snapdragon X chips as part of the Copilot+ PC line to compete with the MacBook Air, but the recent AMD Ryzen 300 AI chips are also impressive, with powerful laptops like the Zenbook S 16 taking on the MacBook Pro.
More and more, Windows laptops aren't just looking like sufficient alternatives to MacBooks -- they have some serious staying power as some of the best laptops you can buy.
Microsoft Surface Pro vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop: mainstream battle
Since releasing the original Surface tablet in 2012, Microsoft has grown its PC business into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The mobile Surface line has expanded to include 2-in-1 and traditional clamshell laptops in various form factors. There's the Surface Pro 11, Surface Laptop 7, Surface Laptop Go 3, and Surface Laptop Studio 2. That's quite the lineup, and you'll find a Surface on a number of our best-of lists such as best tablets and best laptops.
The two most mainstream lines, though, are the Surface Pro 11 and the Surface Laptop 7. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and you'll want to keep them in mind if you're looking for a Surface and choosing between the two.
Specs and configurations
The new Surface Laptop whips the MacBook in this important test
With the release of the new Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7, iFixit has begun its usual investigation into just how easy it is for customers to repair the devices. And, in an unexpected, but welcome turn of events, the two Copilot+ PCs both scored a repairability rating of 8 out of 10, which represents a huge win over the 5/10 score given to the M3 MacBook Air.
Microsoft has long been a thorn in iFixit's side, with the original Surface Laptop receiving a rock-bottom rating of 0 out of 10 in 2017.
