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Surface Laptop review: Microsoft’s best MacBook Air competitor yet

Jun 29, 2024 - theverge.com
Microsoft has launched its first clamshell laptop with Qualcomm chips, the Surface Laptop. The device, which starts at $999.99, is part of Microsoft's efforts to transition to Windows on Arm and offers improved processing power and battery life. The laptop also features AI-focused chips for new artificial intelligence features, including the flagship AI feature, Recall, which allows users to recall memories by taking screenshots of their activities. The laptop also boasts a 13.8-inch LCD display, a precision haptic trackpad, and a new Copilot key on the keyboard.

Despite some minor issues, the laptop's performance and battery life have been praised, with the base model offering an impressive seven hours of battery life during heavy use. The laptop also includes new AI-powered features, such as translation in Live Captions and Cocreator, which allows users to create images in Paint through a text prompt. However, to get the best performance and battery life, users need to use native ARM64 apps. The Surface Laptop is seen as a strong competitor to Apple's MacBook Air.

Key takeaways:

  • The new Surface Laptop is Microsoft's first clamshell laptop with Qualcomm chips, representing a significant step in the transition to Windows on Arm.
  • The laptop offers impressive battery life and performance, but optimal use still requires native ARM64 apps.
  • It includes new AI features, such as Cocreator and Live Captions, leveraging a neural processing unit (NPU) for built-in AI capabilities in Windows.
  • At $999.99, the base-model 13-inch Surface Laptop is seen as a strong competitor to Apple's MacBook Air, offering 16GB of memory instead of 8GB.
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