The new Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, which supersedes the Surface Laptop 3, comes in two different sizes and in a host of spec options. But what we’re equally excited about is the big price drop on the older model, with savings of around £200 to be made.
Surface Laptops are Microsoft’s answer to the Apple MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13. Now on their fourth generation, key selling points common to all Surface Laptops include:
Compact, lightweight designs made from premium materials (metal and fabric)
High-resolution screens
The latest and greatest processors that are available at the time of each generation’s launch.
Photo: Joanna Nelius/Gizmodo
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The Surface Laptop 3 was a special machine due to Microsoft’s decision to put an AMD processor in it for the first time. But the company has outdone itself with the smart improvements it’s made to the Surface Laptop 4, which has a more compelling price and better battery life, all while keeping key features and design elements the same. (If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, right?) The Surface Laptop 4 is a near-perfect laptop, and a serious contender when it comes to choosing your next machine.
Unlike Apple s most recent Macbook line which was only released with ARM-based M1 chips, the new Surface Laptops are sticking with x86 chips from Intel and AMD, opting not to offer an ARM option.
Microsoft s latest laptops will feature 3:2 PixelSense touchscreen displays with metal or Alcantara finishes and the premium touch, type and trackpad hardware that have won the Surface lines acclaim, along with higher-end price tags.
A new ice blue colour is available along with matte black, platinum and sandstone options.
Microsoft is boasting significantly longer battery life than before , claiming the models will give up to 19 hours.
Under the hood, the Surface Laptop 4 range offers 8, 16 or 32GB LPDDR4x RAM options with quad-core 11th gen Intel i5 or i7 processors, or AMD Ryzen 5 4680U or 7 4980U processors.
Microsoft didn t lie: The Surface Laptop 4 really is twice as fast
We expected AMD s Zen 2-powered Ryzen chips inside the Surface Laptop 4 to overpower the Surface Laptop 3. But by this much? Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop 4 on Tuesday with some bold performance claims: The Surface Laptop 4 should surpass the performance of the Surface Laptop 3 by 70 percent or so, or even offer twice the performance under certain scenarios.
Does it live up to the hype? Does it ever. Although the difference between the two generations of Surface Laptops narrows during everyday activities, our early tests show the Surface Laptop 4 winning any CPU-intensive tasks by a mile. (If you were eyeing Microsoft’s offer of a free pair of Surface Earbuds for each Surface Laptop 4 pre-ordered on or before April 15, this may provide some incentive!)
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