Competitive Showdown: Microsoft Resurrects Surface Laptop, Rivals MacBook Air

Microsoft is finally having its “Apple Silicon” moment with the new Surface Laptop. Powered by a Snapdragon X mobile processor, the Surface Laptop boasts desktop-class power with a massive 20+ hour battery life. It’s effectively Microsoft’s version of the M1 MacBook.

This new device is simply called Surface Laptop —it ditches the numbering convention of its predecessors and supplants the enterprise-focused Surface Laptop 6 that launched earlier this year. Curiously, the URL on Microsoft’s web store says “Surface Laptop 7th Edition,” but I didn’t encounter any use of this name in Microsoft’s press or marketing materials.

The new Surface Laptop is available in 13.8-inch and 15-inch flavors. Visually, it’s almost identical to Apple’s MacBook Air, with a large trackpad, an aluminum enclosure, and an ultra-thin fanless design (though the same could be said of previous Surface Laptops). It also packs a minimum 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though it can go up to 64GB RAM and 1TB of storage in some configurations. Oddly, the 64GB model is a preorder exclusive.

However, the most notable part of this laptop is its Snapdragon X processor . This ARM chipset supposedly delivers 80-percent faster performance than previous models of Surface Laptop, which is partially due to a decrease in thermal throttling, and can achieve “up to 22 hours of local video playback” on battery. Customers can choose between Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus or X Elite chipsets, depending on how much performance they need.

Snapdragon X also provides some AI goodness. Microsoft calls the new Surface Laptop an “AI PC” and used this launch event to announce some new “Copilot Plus PC “ functionality, such as a Recall tool that can retrieve basically anything you’ve done on your PC (including Discord conversations).

Microsoft

If everything goes well, this will be remembered as a turning point for Microsoft, Windows, and PCs in general. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processor eschews the typical x86 architecture (Intel or AMD) in favor of ARM , an architecture that’s typically reserved for smartphones.

Building an ARM processor that competes with Intel or AMD CPUs is an extremely difficult task. But the payoff is massive. ARM is far more power efficient than x86, meaning that a device like the Surface Laptop or MacBook Air can deliver an all-day battery life with a compact, fanless design. Desktop computers don’t run on batteries and don’t need to be super-compact, hence the focus on laptops.

Of course, there’s another big benefit here—Microsoft is decreasing its reliance on Intel. The world of x86 has become somewhat stagnant, with only minor improvements in flagship CPU performance (and, due to patents, it’s basically impossible for a competitor to swoop in to innovate on x86). ARM development is much more open than x86 and has accelerated in recent years. Even if x86 remains the standard for Windows desktops, Microsoft’s use of the Snapdragon X could put the fire under Intel’s feet.

The Surface Laptop is joined by Microsoft’s new Surface Pro, a 2-in-1 that also runs on Snapdragon X. It seems that Microsoft is going all-in an ARM, though I should note that these are not the first ARM-powered Surface devices. The Surface RT was an early attempt at Windows on ARM, as was the Surface Pro X —neither device proved all that successful, so I’m curious to see if Microsoft got the hardware and software right this time around. Even if the Snapdragon X chipset is up to scuff, Microsoft is faced with the challenge of making 30 years of x86 software compatible with Windows on ARM .

The new Surface Laptop starts at $1,000 and is available in 13.8-inch and 15-inch configurations. Preorders are available today and begin shipping June 18th.

Source: Microsoft