Microsoft Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB)

Microsoft Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB)

Microsoft Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB)

Microsoft Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) - Cobalt Blue

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Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.5" Intel Core i5 (7th Gen) 8 GB RAM 256 GB SSD Graphite Gold - 7th Gen i5 Core - 8GB RAM - 13.5" PixelSense screen - 2256 z 1504 Resolution - 256GB Solid State drive - Windows 10 S
Microsoft Surface Laptop features a 7th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 256 GB of storage, 8 GB RAM, and up to 14.5 hours of video playback
Backed by the best of Microsoft, including Windows and Office
Four tone-on-tone color combinations
Natural typing and trackpad experience, Ultra-thin and light; luxurious Alcantara fabric-covered keyboard
Capacity: Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB | Style: Device Only | Color: Graphite Gold

Go beyond the traditional laptop with Surface Laptop. Backed by the best of Microsoft, including Windows and Office. Enjoy a natural typing experience enhanced by our Signature Alcantara fabric-covered keyboard. Thin, light, and powerful, it fits easily in your bag. Surface Laptop is designed for Windows 10 S - streamlined for security and superior performance. By exclusively using Microsoft-verified apps from the Windows Store, Windows 10 S keeps you running fast and secure day in and day out. Plus, enjoy the speed and convenience of the cloud. You can also switch to Windows 10 Pro easily at any time through the Windows Store. Switching to Pro is one-way. If you make the switch, you won't be able to go back to Windows 10 S. The switch is free of charge until 03/31/18.

OUR VERDICT

Microsoft continues its winning streak with the brilliant Surface Laptop, which combines a thin and light design with powerful components.

FOR
Gorgeous design
Well built
Great screen
Very good performance

AGAINST
Windows 10 S is limited
No USB-C
Lack of other ports
Not upgradable
performance and outdated I/O may prove a bit limiting over the long haul.

Pros
Aside from processor, hardware is virtually unchanged from first generation
Processor bump provides some performance improvement
Very good battery life
Solid value, especially if you don't opt for premium black

Cons
Aside from processor, hardware is virtually unchanged from 1st gen
Lack of USB-C ports might become a problem over time

Now that the Surface Laptop 2 is on the way in a couple weeks, let’s take a moment to reflect on the successes and shortcomings of the original Surface Laptop. Launching in June 2017, the Surface Laptop was Microsoft’s first attempt at a non-convertible clamshell notebook. It was a way to appeal to the fans of the Surface Pro that wanted a bigger screen and an included keyboard, without alienating anyone that can’t afford the Surface Book 2.

Without the hybrid form factor, it’s able to remain focused on being a laptop above all else, ditching all the frills Microsoft’s hardware has been known for since the original Surface Pro. Better yet, a recent firmware update has mitigated the battery live concerns of the past, forging improved stability as opposed to the less consistent battery life performance we had before. It isn’t too expensive either, but it comes with the catch of leveraging a new operating system you may not be familiar with – namely Windows 10 S.

That means that right out of the box, you’ll only get access to Windows Store applications, unless you opt to switch out of S Mode. Luckily, this is free for everyone to do, regardless of whether you’re using Windows 10 Pro or Home.

Otherwise, the Surface Laptop has been well-received, and it’s not hard to see why either. Unlike the lot of Windows machines out there, the Surface Laptop is worth buying at the most affordable level. Now starting at the same cost as the Surface Pro, you’ll have to decide whether a larger screen is worth sacrificing the versatility of a 2-in-1 form factor.

That, and all else considered, let’s take a look at how the Surface Laptop stacks up to its main competitors. Provided the empire Apple has constructed over the years, could the Surface Laptop finally be the one to knock down the MacBook
Price, availability and value

Are these upgrades worth the price hikes? While the doubling of storage space gives it more flexibility, there are cheaper ways of getting more space to save your files to – including cloud services such as Google Drive.

However, 16GB of RAM will be tempting to some people who want to use the Surface Laptop for running demanding software or multitasking numerous applications at once. Those users will likely want to upgrade from Windows 10 S – which only allows apps to run if they've been downloaded from the Windows Store – to Windows 10 Pro, which will cost an additional after December 31 2017 (before then the upgrade is free).

For most people, however, the cheapest Surface Laptop configuration should be absolutely fine – especially if you’re using Windows Store apps, which have been vetted and tested by Microsoft.

One of the ideas behind Windows 10 S and its restriction to Windows Store apps is that those apps are less resource-hungry than traditional Windows applications, which means they'll run well on lower-power machines, and should drain the battery slower too.

The price of the Surface Laptop puts it in the same bracket as last year’s MacBook, as well as the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13, while offering slightly better specs and power for the base model than the MacBook, but less than the HP and Dell machines.

All three of these competitors are worthy adversaries, appearing high up in our list of the best laptops in 2017 – so the Surface Laptop definitely has its work cut out for it.
Design

In our hands-on review of the Surface Laptop we suggested that this 13.5-inch machine is quite possibly the most attractive computing product Microsoft has ever created – and now that we've spent more time with it, we stand by that statement.

In short, the Surface Laptop is an incredibly attractive machine which shows that Windows laptops can be just as gorgeously designed as Apple products.

It features a full aluminum lid and body reminiscent of the Surface Book's, which give it a sturdy yet premium feel. While these keep the Surface Laptop feeling light (more on that in a bit), they also give you confidence that this expensive bit of kit isn’t going to break or dent easily at the merest of knocks.

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.

It means the body can remain slim, with no speakers to add to the overall size, and this compromise works very well, 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.

Speaking of ports, 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 newer, faster USB-C connection is conspicuous by its absence. When we spoke to Microsoft about this, they told us that it intends for connectivity expansion to be handled via its Surface Connect port and Surface Dock.

Nevertheless, it’s a shame to see there’s no USB-C port, as an increasing number of peripherals are coming out with this connection, and many of the Surface Laptop’s competitors include it.

On the other hand, though, we’re also relieved that Microsoft hasn’t followed Apple’s USB-C or nothing approach.

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.

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 thinness of the design does have a drawback, however, as the Surface Laptop is incredibly hard to fix, and impossible to upgrade. This was discovered by the iFixit website, which took apart a Surface Laptop and found that many things are either glued in, or soldered to the motherboard, which makes removing and replacing parts extremely difficult. This may not be a worry for some, but if you damage your Surface Laptop, or something goes wrong out of warranty, then it may prove to be quite expensive.

The screen is a bright and vibrant 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen display, which is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection against scratches. The resolution is 2256 x 1504, which gives it a pixel density of 201ppi (pixels per inch).

Resolution fans out there (come on, there must be some) will notice the slightly unusual resolution here, which is due to the Surface Pro’s screen having a 3:2 aspect ratio – most laptop (and monitor) aspect ratios are 16:9 (with MacBooks being 16:10).

What this means in practice is that the Surface Laptop’s screen is taller, which gives you a bit more screen room when working – though it does mean that if you’re watching widescreen videos you’re going to get larger black bars running along the top and bottom of the screen.

The aspect ratio of the screen has implications for the size of the Surface Laptop as well, with the device having a wider body due to it.

Overall, though, the Surface Laptop is a fantastic-looking device that will certainly turn heads when you take it out to use it, while still feeling comfortable to work on and carry around.

As we've mentioned, the Surface Laptop will come in a number of configurations – though at the time of writing only the lowest-spec configurations are available.

That doesn’t mean the Surface Laptop is underpowered. In fact, even the base model comes with some pretty impressive components, including a seventh-generation Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 2.50Ghz.

This is a much more accomplished processor than the sixth-generation Intel Core m5-6Y54 that powers the 2016 version of the MacBook, while the base model of 2017’s MacBook uses the newer Intel Core m3-7Y32 CPU, which is still a step down from the Surface Laptop’s Core i5.

The HP Spectre x360 fares better in the CPU comparisons, coming with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U processor (and more RAM at 16GB), for only a bit more cash , and it’s quite a bit cheaper than the i7-toting variant of the Surface Laptop.

While the i5 CPU is a great addition, the 4GB of RAM in the base version of the Surface Laptop feels a little tight, especially when its competitors are offering two or four times as much RAM. While 16GB (and certainly anything above that) of RAM is excessive in a laptop for many day-to-day tasks, it does mean that more intensive programs – such as photo- and video-editing apps – may lag, while you may also see some slowdown if you want to run a number of programs at the same time. The version we reviewed came with 8GB of RAM, which means it’s more powerful than the base version of the Surface Laptop.
SPEC SHEET

Microsoft Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB)

Here is the Microsoft Surface Laptop configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: 2.50GHz Intel Core i5 7200U
Graphics: Intel HD 620
RAM: 8GB
Screen: 13.5-inch 2256 x 1504 PixelSense display
Storage: 256GB SSD
Optical drive: N/A
Ports: USB 3.0, headphone jack, Mini DisplayPort, Surface Connect port
Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
Camera: 720p HD camera
Weight: 2.75 pounds (1.25kg)
Size: 12.13 inches x 8.79 inches x .57 inches (308.1 mm x 223.27 mm x 14.48 mm) (W x D x H)

The argument for this relative paucity of RAM is that the Surface Laptop is limited to running apps from the Windows Store, which are less memory-intensive than normal Windows programs. So, if you stick with Windows 10 S, the lack of RAM shouldn’t be too much of an issue – but if you upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and aim to run more ambitious programs, then you may soon get frustrated. As we mentioned earlier, the design of the Surface Laptop means components are soldered to the motherboard, so you won’t be able to open up your device and install additional RAM if it begins to slow down.

To keep the components cool while ensuring that the Surface Laptop runs silently, Microsoft has included a brand-new proprietary vapor chamber cooling system. This works by changing the physical state of the heat as it's taken in through the center of a fan vent in the rear of the laptop base and spitting it out of the sides of that same vent.
Performance

Before we begin talking about the performance of the Surface Laptop, we need to highlight an issue with our usual testing methodology. Usually we run a range of benchmark tests on laptops we review, which stress-test the devices and give us scores that help us compare and contrast to rival products.

These benchmarks, alongside our day-to-day testing of the devices, give us a good idea of how well the laptops perform. The issue here is that many of these benchmarking apps, including GeekBench 4, 3DMark and PC Mark, are not available through the Windows Store, which means they can't be run on Windows 10 S.

While we would be able to run these tests on the Surface Laptop by upgrading it to Windows 10 Pro, the PR team that sent us the review sample asked us not to do so.

So we aren’t able to give you direct comparisons of benchmark results, but we can tell you how it felt to use – which in many ways is more important.

It’s also worth noting that Windows 10 S has been designed so that a device feels as fast and smooth to use on its one thousandth day of use as on its first day of use. This is because Windows Store apps are installed in a sandboxed environment, which means they can’t make changes to the registry or other important Windows settings, in the way normal Windows applications sometimes do. It also means they can easily be installed and uninstalled without leaving any traces behind.

While we sadly can’t test out the thousand-day claim, our time with the Surface Laptop proved that even with the lowest-specification version, Windows 10 S ran extremely well, with the various apps we used opening and closing smoothly.

There are a number of games available on the Windows Store, and we tried out a few of these. These are simple, mobile-like games, so as you’d expect they didn’t trouble the powerful Surface Laptop.

While Windows 10 S does come with some nice features, the fact that it's limited to running Windows Store apps may annoy some people, as you may find that some of the programs you rely on don't have Windows Store versions.

While Microsoft is committed to bringing popular applications to the Windows Store, the process is long, and there's a good chance that there will be some tools you want to run that you just can’t. In these cases, the locked-down nature of Windows 10 S will become frustrating – and you may ask yourself why you spent a grand on a computer that doesn’t let you run your favorite programs.

Of course, there is the option to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, and until the end of this year it's free to do so. However, by upgrading to Windows 10 Pro you miss out on the performance and security benefits of Windows 10 S. Microsoft had also said the upgrade was a one-way process, but it has thankfully back-tracked and you will be able to revert to Windows 10 S – though it will mean wiping your machine and losing all your installed programs and files.

If you’re worried about Windows 10 S being too restricted, then Microsoft seeks to ease those concerns by including a free one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, which is a nice touch.

However, while we enjoyed our time with the Surface Laptop running Windows 10 S, if we were to continue to use it as our daily laptop we would have no option but to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro – there are just too many programs we rely on, not least web browsers such as Chrome (you’re stuck with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 S).

However, running Windows 10 S on the speedy 256GB SSD was incredibly impressive, with instant wake from standby, and Windows 10 S loaded in a matter of seconds when booting from its fully-off state. This is a Windows laptop that you can reliably open up and begin working on straight away.

The touchscreen performed brilliantly, and was fast and responsive to our prods and gestures, especially when using a stylus and the Windows Ink handwriting and annotation feature of Windows 10.

The trackpad also felt good, and the longer vertical size of the body (due to the 3:2 aspect ratio of the screen) gives you a comfortable place to rest your palms as you type on the keyboard.

We were, at least, able to run our TechRadar battery benchmark, where we loop a high-definition video until the battery runs out. The Surface Laptop did very well, lasting 8 hours 47 minutes – making it an excellent choice for watching movies on long journeys.

We also used the Surface Laptop for moderately intensive work, including browsing the web, streaming music and using the included Office apps. The Surface Pro made it through the whole work day (9am to 5pm) with 20% of its battery left, which means you can safely use it for work without having to worry about charging.

Overall we were very impressed with the performance of the Surface Laptop, and thanks to Windows 10 S, and an absence of the crapware (preinstalled software you never want to use) that usually comes on Windows laptops, the Surface Laptop competes with – and sometimes outperforms – laptops with higher specifications.
We liked

The Surface Laptop is an absolutely gorgeous device, and Microsoft’s attention to detail when it comes to making a desirable – and slim – machine has paid dividends. This feels and looks like a premium device, while also feeling like a strong and robust machine that you wouldn’t worry about carrying around with you.

The Surface Laptop also punches above its weight when it comes to performance, mainly thanks to the well-utilized components and controlled environment of Windows 10 S.
We disliked

Speaking of Windows 10 S, its implementation here is going to prove divisive. Some people will embrace its simplicity and security, while others will find its restrictions frustrating. At least upgrading to Windows 10 Pro is free for the moment.

The locked-down nature of the Surface Laptop doesn’t stop at the software, though, as the hardware is also glued and soldered together to prevent easy upgrades or fixes. If you want more control, freedom and flexibility over your laptop, then this is not the device for you.

The price is also quite expensive compared to competing devices.

While Microsoft sheathes only the inside of its Laptops with its Alcantara fabric, the slightly fuzzy cloth provides a hint of give and a bit of warmth to your palms as they rest upon the typing surface. The fabric hasn’t become stained from prolonged contact with my hands or other liquids, either.

Microsoft doesn’t seem to have altered its trackpad. It’s still the spacious, smooth surface Microsoft provides for its other Surface devices, excepting the Surface Go.

The Surface Laptop’s speakers, embedded underneath the keyboard, deliver a surprising amount of volume. As with other laptops and tablets, however, the sounds those speakers produce is flat, without a great deal of bass or treble. You won’t find many options within the standard volume control panel; instead, Microsoft has migrated the audio controls to the separate Realtek Audio Console, which governs the Realtek audio chip inside. Here you’ll find the ability to toggle the Dolby Audio enhancements off and on, which doesn’t do a great deal for the speakers but adds depth to music played back via the headphones.

Personally, I’ve used the Surface Laptop as a test machine for Windows 10 Insider builds, banging away on it off and on every week or so, and especially in the month or so before a new feature release. From a longevity and usability standpoint, and speaking specifically about the 1st Gen laptop, the Surface Laptop line comes recommended.
Surface Laptop 2 performance

Microsoft never designed the Surface Laptop to be anything much more than an aesthetically pleasing middle-of-the-road laptop that a student or a casual worker could tote around to class or a conference. As such, we never expected its performance to be exemplary, and it wasn’t. Battery life sold the original Laptop, and it’s the selling point here, too—but now, other laptops can offer as much or better.

(One performance note: Though we benchmark in airplane mode to prevent background processes from affecting our results, we use the laptops, too—and it was during this period that we were caught short by an unexpected update to the Windows 10 October 2018 Update between tests. The upgrade didn’t seem to affect benchmark scores except for some of the PCMark tests, where scores seemed to fall by about 7 percent. While the scores averaged out—we ran two tests before the upgrade, and two after—it’s also worth noting that even the earlier scores wouldn’t have meaningfully affected the Surface Laptop 2’s relative ranking.)

We gathered together several recently-introduced laptops, all hovering a bit above or below the $1,000 price point. We also included the Surface Laptop 1st Gen (brown bars below) for comparison’s sake.

Our first standardized test, PCMark, supplies three separate benchmarks: Work, Home, and Creative. While the Work test measures typical office productvity applications, such as spreadsheet work and word processing, the Home and Creative tests begin pushing more familiar applications, such as light gaming. Any score over 2,000 is acceptable, and the Surface Laptop 2 (red bars below) made it over the line—but behind everyone else.

The Creative tests leans more heavily into tasks like photo editing and video, stressing the system harder. Here, the upgraded processor appears to boost the Surface Laptop 2 higher, though the increased resolution of the Surface Laptop 2’s screen still seems to be holding it back.

PCMark also recently released a more modern version of its benchmark, combining all of its previous benchmarks into a separate test. Though our database of results is smaller, we’re still able to compare it to a few machines. The Surface Laptop 2 scored 3,400 for the basic test, compared to 2,767 for the HP Spectre x2 and 3,737 for the Dell XPS 13 9370.

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark should be familiar to anyone who’s read a review of a CPU. The test stresses all or one of the CPU cores, allowing you to get an idea of what the performance would be under an optimized load. Through we test both single- and multithreaded, we show only the multithreaded result below. The Surface Laptop 2 posts a solid midrange score here, far ahead of the 1st Gen Surface Laptop.

HandBrake, an open-source tool for converting video, provides an excellent test of how a system handles stress over time. We convert a full-length movie into a format that could be viewed with an Android tablet. This is a real-world task, and one in which the Laptop 2 fares better than usual, leaving its predecessor in the dust.

Though it’s doubtful that you’ll use the Surface Laptop 2 as a gaming machine, we test using 3DMark’s Sky Diver benchmark to measure how well the Laptop 2 would fare in a 3D gaming scenario. We don’t expect much here.

Finally, there’s battery life, increasingly a key buying factor. In this case, the 1st Gen Surface Laptop lasted nearly 11 hours, while the Surface Laptop 2 lasted slightly less, about 10.5 hours. There’s an explanation: The 1st Gen Surface Laptop’s 48Wh battery has an inherent advantage over the Surface Laptop 2’s 45Wh supply. Both times are good for working all day.
Should you buy the Surface Laptop 2?

Microsoft designed the original Surface Laptop for a student on the go: an affordable, pleasing notebook with moderate performance but killer battery life. Microsoft hewed to the same goal with the Surface Laptop 2.

In the intervening months, however, several other notebooks caught up: the Dell New XPS 13, for example, or the HP Spectre x360 13t (late 2017) offer even better battery life than the Surface Laptop 2, and the XPS far outclasses it in terms of performance. While most peripherals will take advantage of the USB-A port on the Surface Laptop 2 now, the USB-C devices of the future ewill be frustrated. By contrast, Dell’s XPS 13 has wholly embraced USB-C.

Microsoft contented itself with merely tweaking the Surface Laptop to create the Surface Laptop 2, and that’s fine. It still remains one of the better notebooks of 2018, and you’ll be as happy buying it as I was using it. But if you want one of the very best notebooks, you should look elsewhere.
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Final verdict

Microsoft is gaining a reputation for making solid, attractive and overall desirable premium products to showcase its Windows software, and the Surface Laptop continues in this vein. The thin and light design makes it easy to carry around, while the careful component considerations, and high-quality build materials, make it a joy to use.

This is obviously a device that Microsoft’s designers and engineers have spent a lot of time working on, and for the most part it has paid off handsomely. This is one of the best-looking Windows devices on the market today, and, thanks to some nifty specs that power the carefully controlled Windows 10 S operating system, it's one of the smoothest Windows 10 experiences too.

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 devices.

You’re also paying a price premium for this product – so there are more powerful (but less visually appealing) laptops out there for the same price – or cheaper.

Meanwhile, the glued and soldered makeup of the laptop will dismay tinkerers, or even people who just want to be safe in the knowledge that if something breaks, their expensive gadgets can be easily fixed. As it stands, you may have to get your Surface Laptop completely replaced if something breaks – even something that would be a relatively easy and cheap fix with other laptops.

If you've completely bought into Microsoft’s ecosystem, and want a thin and light laptop that performs brilliantly with the minimum of fuss, then we can heartily recommend the Surface Laptop.

However, if you’d like more control over what you run on your machine, then there are other alternatives out there that would be better suited to your needs.