Review By Expert: Microsoft Surface Laptop Review

Review By Expert: Microsoft Surface Laptop Review:

We have waited years for Microsoft to launch their Microsoft Surface Laptop, and it takes more time for the surface book and surface laptop capacity to arrive. This family of devices is designed to show Windows to the best extent possible: they are all premium without apologies, but more than that, they are really fresh and interesting.

Microsoft is competing with its own partners pushing PC hardware, and is emphasizing design and engineering to differentiate itself. It is quite obvious that Apple's success in integrating hardware and software has influenced this strategy.

Of all Surface devices, the Surface Laptop is the most conventional. It's not a 2-in-1, and it doesn't have a sophisticated hinge or goat leg design. It's destined to strike a balance between portability and productivity, and it will appeal to those for whom the Surface Pro with its keyboard cover won't cut it.

Interestingly, Microsoft had students in mind when it first launched this laptop more than a year ago in the United States. There's a lot to go through, so let's get started.


Review By Expert: Microsoft Surface Laptop Design:

Everyone looking at photos of the Surface Laptop will want to know how your fabric cover feels, and honestly, it's not easy to describe, even though we used it earlier on the Surface Pro Type cover. Alcantara is a material with 68 percent polyester and 32 percent polyurethane, and is a bit similar to suede with a slightly waxy coating. It's not perfectly smooth, but it doesn't have the texture of the cloth either.

It doesn't fray or unravel even when scratched hard, and is molded like plastic around the keyboard tray. The Alcantara extends to the edges of the platform and is crushed, leaving room for a fingernail to help lift the lid when it is closed.

The material is supposed to be resistant to spills and stains, and Microsoft even says it can be cleaned with warm water and mild soap, two things we wouldn't want anywhere near a laptop. We still can't tell how well it will withstand long-term use, especially for people who tend to use their devices while eating.

It is worth noting that the fabric has one major disadvantage: it is permanently attached to the metal chassis. The only way to replace or repair anything inside this laptop is to tear the layers with a knife, and after that you don't have to reattach them. In fact, when Surface Laptop was first launched in the U.S., it received an iFixit score of zero on the reparability index.

As for the rest of this laptop, it's pretty minimalist but still very remarkable. The lid has a simple matt aluminum finish, but with a prominent Windows logo and highly reflective in the center. Microsoft has said that it is not bringing the options of Burgundy, Blue Cobalt or Gold Graphite to some countries, which is a shame.

The lid is quite thin and bends and flexes under pressure, but surprisingly there is no distortion at all on the screen. The hinge is sunken and completely hidden under the fabric layer. It feels firm, and at least in our new unit, the lid didn't fall off, even if left barely open. Overall, despite its waif-like outlook, the Surface Laptop look to be built very good.

Lack of connectivity will be a big concern for many buyers. The Surface Laptop is even more minimalist than the MacBook Air, with just one USB 3.0 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Mini-DisplayPort for video output. There's not even an SD card slot. Many netbooks are light in ports, but the Surface Laptop is not as thin or light. In this day and age we would have expected USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 preferred, but most people will be fine with the much more common standard of type A.

Their only relief comes in the form of Microsoft's Surface Connect Port, the slot to the right of the tab used by the included loader, which is also compatible with Microsoft's Surface Dock. This accessory will give you four more USB 3.0 ports, two Mini-Display ports, Gigabit Ethernet and another audio output.

The ports are also a bit difficult to reach thanks to the inward sloping sides of the Surface Laptop. Slotting the charger into the narrow Surface Connect port in particular is an extremely complicated process, and we ended up having to lift the laptop and tilt to see exactly what we were doing each time.

Next to the ports on either side of this laptop there are white patches that look a lot like the antenna lines that are now common on smartphones. They stand out very clearly and unfortunately look like additional ports or slots that have been removed.

The keyboard has an important peculiarity, which is the placement of the power button. Obviously, Microsoft wanted the Delete key to be in the top corner of the Backspace key, but it's still likely that we'll accidentally press the power button. It's also not flatter or stiffer than the keys around it, which would have been the obvious precaution to take. The Fn row has been moved by the search keys and several shortcuts, but you can switch primary and secondary key roles by simply touching the Fn modifier once, which is quite convenient.

The exterior Place Laptop is only 14.47 mm deep at its thickest point and weighs 1.25 kgs. It is super portable and super convenient to take out of a backpack or backpack. The only thing you get in the box with Surface Laptop is its patented 44W charger, and we love its integrated USB port. You may not have enough ports on your laptop, but at least you can charge your phone while traveling. However, we found that the power cord is too short.


Microsoft Surface Laptop Specifications and Software:

Microsoft is vend the Surface Laptop in 5 different configurations. At the bottom of the stack you get an Intel Core i5-7200U CPU with integrated Intel HD Graphics 620, 8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. The high-end variant has a Core i7-7660U processor with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640, 16 GB RAM and a 1TB SSD.

This is a fairly wide range, so Surface Laptop competes with the premium light and thin models, including MacBook Air, as well as the luxury and 2 in 1 laptops, such as Lenovo Yoga 920 and Dell XPS 13 9370. It is worth noting that these Intel Core 7th Gen processors are almost two years old and are significantly weaker than the current offerings. It's also surprising that Microsoft has released such expensive variants here, but not the entry-level ones with Core m3 processors and 4GB of RAM.

Considering that RAM and SSD are soldered to the motherboard and there is no access to them anyway, you'll want to account for future needs from the beginning. Updates are simply not possible.

The touch screen measures 13.5 inches diagonally, but has an aspect ratio 3: 2 original old school. Microsoft chose this square shape for its Surface tablets, and it makes sense when trying to use a device vertically or horizontally. While the appearance is consistent here, it's not necessarily useful. You may think it's extra vertical space or reduced width. It's not the best choice if you watch a lot of videos or need to work on two documents side by side, but it works well for overall productivity.

The resolution is completely non-standard at 2256×1504, and provides a density of 201ppi. Windows 10 scales to 150 percent by default and we found it to be comfortable and crisp. It may not be a 2 in 1, but the touch screen can be useful. We don't end up playing a lot, but it's always good to have it. Surface Pen is compatible, but it won't be particularly comfortable to use.

One thing we don't often see even on premium laptops is an ambient light sensor, which means the brightness adjusts automatically. Above the screen is also a 720p webcam and the sensors needed to support Windows Hello facial recognition. The stereo speakers are embedded underneath the keyboard.

Microsoft does not publish an exact battery capacity, but iFixit has discovered that it is a 45.2Whr unit. It has a nominal capacity of 14.5 hours of video playback, which is impressive on paper, but we'll soon see how well it works.

Our review unit was running Windows 10 Pro. Originally, the Surface Laptop was intended to send Windows 10 S, a reduced-functionality version of Windows. Similar to Windows RT, Windows 10 S made Edge and Bing the default web browser and search engine, respectively, with no ability to change them. Users can also install Windows Store applications instead of just downloading what they like.

This was designed to guide users to a walled garden similar to iOS, but due to the massive reaction, this edition of Windows has been discontinued. Instead, the surface laptop is shipped with Windows 10 in "Mode S", which behaves the same way. This mode can be disabled at no cost, as long as you find an option that is hidden in the Microsoft Store application. Without a clear address, this could confuse many buyers who just want to download Google Chrome or any other common software.

Review By Expert: Microsoft Surface Laptop Performance:
The Surface Laptop is very easy to transport and can only be opened anywhere you want to work. Its keyboard is the right size and has a decent keystroke path, but it felt too soft for our taste, and it also flexed in the middle. Even so, we were able to type quickly and accurately in a short time. The white backlight is also subtle and useful, and there are three brightness levels to choose from.

Although the trackpad is large and smooth, the mechanism is rigid and superficial. It also seemed to decide that we were right-clicking more often than we really wanted.

We got used to screen 3:2 without even noticing it. It's ideal for reading web pages and working on Word documents. Of course, there are thick black stripes when you look at most video content, and this can be quite annoying because of how reflective the glass is. The biggest problem we faced was with games: some titles simply aren't designed to scale to non-standard aspect ratios.

The screen is bright and vibrant, and virtually every video and broadcast file we tried to watch looked great. We had a problem with video stuttering when we first unpacked Surface Laptop, which turned out to be due to a lack of a driver. A quick trip to the Windows Update resolved that in a few minutes.

The overall performance was quite flawless. We didn't have any problems with multiple heavy sites open on browser tabs, with other programs running in the background. Our usual benchmarks gave us decent results for a conventional laptop. PCMark 10 scored 2,969, Cinebench R15 scored 124 and 334 points in its single and multi-core tests, and POVRay ran its reference standard in 6 minutes and 56 seconds.

Graphics testing and gaming didn't work as well, thanks to the basic integrated graphics capabilities of the Intel CPU. Unigine Valley gave us only 16.6 fps on average, at 1920×1080 and using the Medium preset, but it worked to fill the entire screen. We tried the touch-sensitive Age of Empires: Castle Siege from Microsoft Store, and it worked perfectly.

We ran the integrated Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1920×1080 and stretched it to fill the screen. We got only 8.16 fps at 1920×1080 with Low Preset, and the reduction to 1024×768 gave us only 15.78 fps, which not only couldn't be reproduced, but looked horrible.

Doom has an aspect ratio control, but the only resolution available in 3: 2 was the native 2256×1504, which is too high for this GPU to handle. The game ran in 1280×720 mailbox format, but we only got 15-25 fps in the real world game, which means that modern 3D games are completely out of the question.

While the Surface laptop was virtually silent even under heavy load, the keyboard platform got quite warm. The wrist rest area was fine, but the keyboard itself became quite coarse, especially in the upper middle.

Finally, we came to battery life. The 14.5 hour claim on the Surface Laptop seems to be accurate. We started our day with a full battery. With web browsing and casual typing plus a little video transmission with the screen brightness adjusted automatically, we only went down to 85 percent in two hours and were able to spend a full 8-hour working day before running out of power. The Battery Eater Pro stress test ran for 2 hours, 27 minutes with the screen brightness set manually to 50 percent, which is not bad for a thin, light laptop.

Review By Expert: Conclusion:
Microsoft has designed a very nice laptop. It offers solid performance for everyday tasks, as well as great battery life, while still being thin and lightweight. It feels extremely premium and will definitely take eyeballs. However, the approach seems to have been too narrow.

The appearance has the cost of common usability problems, such as having only one USB port and not being able to upgrade or replace any parts. We believe this laptop would be more suitable for frequent travelers who care more about work than entertainment.

The most polarizing thing about Surface Laptop is its Alcantara cloth surface. Throughout our review period, we continued to evaluate how we felt about the texture and finish, and we have to say that we weren't exactly speechless. If you write for a long time, you may not like the texture against your wrists. We wouldn't miss anything if he'd left, and we definitely wouldn't pay more for it.

That brings us to the question of pricing, which could also severely restrict the appeal of this laptop. It can improve in terms of portability or performance, or even get a more flexible 2-in-1. In fact, the Lenovo Yoga 730 at exactly the same price has a better processor, double the storage and two Thunderbolt 3 ports (but a lower Full-HD screen) and still weighs only 1.12 kg. You might also consider the Dell XPS 13 9370 and the HP Spectre x360 that have comparable prices.

Review By Expert: Pros:
Bright, crisp display
Very light and thin
Good performance for daily tasks

Review By Expert: Cons:
Only one USB 3.0 port
Heats up a bit with intensive use
Impossible to upgrade or repair
Costly

Review By Expert: Ratings (out of 5):
Design: 4
Screen: 4
Performance: 3.5
Software: 4
Battery life: 4.5
Value for money: 3
Overall: 4