Microsoft Surface Laptop: Is this one of the best Windows notebooks?

Note: This article was first published on 6th March 2018.

What’s a Surface Laptop and what’s the big deal?

The Surface Laptop is a laptop. But more importantly, it is Microsoft’s first conventional laptop. It still has a touchscreen, but that is now fixed to a non-removable keyboard - just like a regular laptop.

Like Microsoft’s other Surface devices, the Surface Laptop is a machine targeted at the premium market. To that end, it features a keyboard covered with Alcantara - the same material used luxury cars and also Microsoft’s Signature Type cover keyboard for the Surface Pro. This also makes it stand out from the rest from its rivals in the crowded premium ultraportable laptop space. Finally, it comes in four colors - platinum, cobalt blue, graphite gold, and burgundy - but only platinum is available in Singapore. Hopefully, Microsoft will make the other colors available at a later date.

The other big deal is that the Surface Laptop doesn’t run Windows 10, it runs Windows 10 S.

Uh, what’s Windows 10 S?

Windows 10 S is a slightly stripped down version with some important restrictions. It isn’t as terrible as Windows RT (remember that?) but we think it is no less insidious. Windows 10 S was designed primarily for low-end devices in the education market. Windows 10 S has a faster setup and login process, but most importantly, only allows users to install apps from the Windows Store. This means you cannot use other browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. You also cannot use all the other apps that you might be accustomed to but isn’t available in the Windows Store like iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, Steam, and many more. We have a more detailed post about the two OSes here.

Right, so is the Surface Laptop good-looking?

As the old saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” However, most people that I showed the Surface Laptop to thought that it looked pretty good. They also praised its construction and said that it looked and felt like a premium notebook. Much of this is because of its keyboard, which is covered with Alcantara.

Personally, I like it looks sharp and modern. The aluminum chassis is nicely finished and I like the simple but effective Windows logo on the back of the display. It doesn’t light up but there’s no mistaking the Surface Laptop for anything else other than a Microsoft notebook.

Wait, Alcantara? What’s that?

It’s a material that feels like suede. According to Wikipedia, it was developed in the early 70s by a Japanese scientist. It feels soft to the touch. But more importantly, its texture and appearance lend it well to luxury applications. Today, it can be found in the interior of luxury cars like BMW, Lamborghini, and Porsche. In the fashion realm, Louis Vuitton is extremely fond of using Alcantara as interior lining for its bags. In the computing scene, it was first introduced as a finish for the Surface 4 Pro Type Cover. 

How thin and light is it?

By modern ultraportable standards, the Surface Laptop is actually a little chunky. It weighs 1.25kg and measures 14.47mm thick. Fairly good numbers, but it is noticeably bulkier when compared to rivals like the HP Spectre, which is only 1.1kg and 10.4mm thin. ASUS’ ZenBook 3 Deluxe, which has a slightly larger 14-inch display, is also 1.1kg and just 12.9mm thick. Still, these numbers only tell part of the story. We’ll talk about battery life later.

Ah, speaking of displays, how’s the Surface Laptop’s display?

It’s really good. The Surface Laptop has a 13.5-inch PixelSense display that supports a resolution of 2,256 x 1,504 pixels. It’s not quite as sharp as the Surface Pro’s display, but it is really hard to tell unless you place them both side by side and look really hard. Colors are crisp and vivid. Our biggest gripe is that the glossy finish can make it a bit hard to see in brightly lit places and outdoors. It’s touch-enabled, of course, and it is also protected against scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass.

What ports does it have?

Sadly, it only has a full-size USB 3.0 port and a mini-DisplayPort. There’s also a microSD card reader and a Surface Connect port. It’s not bad, but we would have certainly preferred a full-size SD card reader and a Thunderbolt 3 port for more utility.

What’s a Surface Connect port?

It’s a fin-style connector that most people think is only for power. It’s more than that. The Surface Dock connects via the Surface Connect port and provides not only power, but also additional USB ports, mini-DisplayPorts, and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Essentially, it is Microsoft’s own high-bandwidth interface/connector. However, Microsoft has been very secretive about it and there are very few accessories that actually support it so we don’t know its full specifications or capabilities yet.

Also, how’s the keyboard and trackpad?

The keyboard is mostly good. The keys are well-sized and the layout is conventional and sensible. More importantly, it has a nice tactile feel. The HP Spectre’s keyboard is arguably the best amongst all ultraportable notebooks, but the Surface Laptop comes quite close and I feel that it only loses out marginally because the keys feel a bit lighter than what I would have liked. The wedge shape of the notebook also means the keyboard is slightly angled towards you when you type and that's a nice touch. One thing to note is that the keyboard flexes a little and it is noticeable if you, like me, type with heavy strokes.

The trackpad is excellent for a Windows laptops. Because of driver issues, some Windows laptops have trackpads that are prone to erratic behavior, but I experienced no such thing with the Surface Laptop. It tracked straight and true and was very responsive to my inputs.

So what are the available models?

Microsoft has a good number of SKUs so there’s bound to be something for everyone. The Surface Laptop is powered by Intel’s seventh generation Core processors. You can get them with either a Core i5 or Core i7 processor. They will come with either 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of RAM. Storage options range from 128GB all the way up to 1TB. In total, Microsoft has five configurations of the Surface Laptop.

The configuration on Microsoft’s website is a bit of a convoluted mess, which makes it hard for users to compare the various configurations, so here’s a handy table detailing all five configurations.

Hmm… so these are powered by older processors?

Yes, now that Intel has 8th generation Core processors available, these are technically powered by outdated (albeit slightly) processors. Readers who want the latest and greatest in hardware will obviously be miffed by this, but let’s face it, the real world differences in performance and portability between the 7th and 8th generation processors are going to be very little. More important is the implementation of these processors and not the processors themselves. Another point to note is that the Surface Laptop was actually launched in the USA nearly a year back, but it only made its way to Singapore recently, hence the mismatch in expectations for some readers.

Right, so how is its performance?

The Surface Laptop we tested is the mid-range model with a Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Overall performance is quite decent and mostly matches our expectations of a notebook with a Core i5 processor.

One positive thing to note is that unlike the Core i5 version of the Surface Pro, the Surface Laptop does not suffer from severe performance throttling issues. This is likely because the Surface Laptop has active cooling whereas the Core i5 version of the Surface Pro is fanless and has to rely solely on passive cooling heatsinks.

Here are its performance figures below. As you can see, it performs decently on computing benchmarks but loses significantly to the Core i7 Surface Pro when it comes to graphics because the latter has a processor that comes with the more powerful Intel Iris Plus graphics. It’s also a tad slower than notebooks equipped with newer 8th generation Core processors like the HP Spectre and Lenovo Yoga 920. However, the difference isn’t all that great and you would be hard-pressed to tell during everyday use. However, we would definitely recommend getting a unit with 16GB of RAM as 8GB is the bare minimum these days and gets used up really quickly especially if you are a heavy web browser and keep a lot of browser tabs open simultaneously.

How is the battery life?

On the flip side, the Surface Laptop offers pretty good battery life. In our test, which consists of productivity tasks and light gaming, the Surface Laptop managed just over 5 hours, which is a very good result.

So if we were to apply our Portability Index to its battery life result, we would end up with a portability score of 4.119. It's no match for the amazing LG gram 14, which happens to weigh just 980g and has a battery life of an incredible 9.5 hours. But, the Surface Laptop is still one of the most portable notebooks we have tested. So yes, the Surface Laptop is a very portable notebook considering how most other notebooks fare.

Which model should I get?

Let's begin by looking at how much each configuration costs:

Questions like these really depend on your personal usage patterns and budget. However, if we had to pick, we would probably pick the model that we tested - the Core i5 one with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. At S$1,788, this particular configuration offers the best value. Sure, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is a little lean, but it’s something that we think most people can get by with.

The next model in line sees the processor bumped up to a Core i7 but memory and storage stay the same. We don’t feel that the Core i7 processor is a necessity at all since the performance increase is not really valuable especially if you are just going to use the notebook for surfing the web, answering emails, and typing documents and preparing spreadsheets.

If you have deeper pockets, definitely go for the Core i7 model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. The extra memory will give a greater boost in usability especially if you are a power user who runs multiple applications and has lots of browser tabs opened. But bear in mind, however, that this configuration is S$3,188 - nearly 80% more than the earlier configuration we recommended.

So is this one of the best Windows notebooks?

There’s a couple of glaring issues with the Surface Laptop. Most readers would probably be concerned that it’s powered by slightly older processors. That’s a valid concern, but as our benchmarks show, there isn’t much performance or efficiency gains to be had from the newer 8th generation processors. So it’s really a matter of your own perception. Understandably, most buyers would want the latest and greatest and that’s fine, but the Surface Laptop’s performance and battery life aren’t really wanting in any aspect.

Another pain point is Windows 10 S. It severely restricts what programs you can run the notebook, which is odd because the Surface Laptop isn’t a low-power or low-performance device. The good news is that upgrading from Windows 10 S to 10 Pro is a cinch and free (for now), but Microsoft has yet to specify just how long this offer will last. After this offer expires, users will need to pay US$49 to upgrade, which isn’t a small sum of money.

And although the Surface Laptop comes in five configurations, the configurations are a little restrictive because if you want 16GB of RAM, you can only get it with a Core i7 processor.  If you want more than 256GB of storage, you will also have to get it with a Core i7 processor.

Having said these, there’s a lot to like about the Surface Laptop. To begin, its design is nice and clean. It’s also a bit thick and heavy, but the upside is that it has a full-size USB port and its battery life is really good. Performance is decent and it’s definitely fast enough for day to day usage scenarios. The keyboard and trackpad are really nice too.

Overall, the gripes aside, the Surface Laptop is an outstanding laptop from Microsoft, especially when you remember that this is the first conventional laptop that the company has ever made. So to answer the question, yes, despite its flaws, this is one of the best Windows notebook available right now.

What other notebooks should I consider?

The HP Spectre is an excellent alternative. It looks super sexy and it is super thin and light too. It’s also equipped with the latest 8th generation Core processor. Its biggest problem, however, is that its battery life is woefully short.

Dell’s new XPS 13 looks like it would be a good alternative too. We haven’t had the chance to test it yet but it sounds like a tantalizing option, at least on paper.

And of course, there’s Microsoft’s own Surface Pro tablet. They have very comparable performance and features, but one’s a traditional notebook while the other is a detachable. If you want to find out more about how these two match up, check out our handy comparison guide here.

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