The style of devices from the Microsoft Surface Laptop series has crystallized over the last three generations so that in the fourth installment. It does not change externally almost at all. However, changes took place in the interior, so we can safely say that the Surface Laptop 4 is the best conventional notebook from the Surface family that has been created so far.
This year, Microsoft – for the first time since the offer of the giant from Redmond includes Surface Laptop notebooks – decided to present editions with AMD Ryzen processors in their “little ones.” Until now, Ryzeny was available in larger options with a 15-inch screen, but 13.5-inch screens were only available with Intel processors. This time, AMD systems also appeared in configurations assigned to devices with a smaller screen diagonal. While this is a curiosity, we will look at the “traditional” version – with a 13.5 “screen and an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor (2.4 GHz).
Technical Specification
- Display – 13.5 inch PixelSense display, Resolution: 2256 x 1504 (201 PPI), Aspect ratio: 3: 2, Surface pen support, 10-point multi-touch,
- Memory – 8 GB of RAM LPDDR4x,
- Processor – 11th generation Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor,
- Graphics card – Intel Iris Xe,
- Disk space – 512 GB,
- Connectors – 1 × USB-C port, 1 × USB-A port, 3.5 mm headphone jack, 1 × Surface Connect port,
- Security – TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security and BitLocker support, Enterprise security with facial login with Windows Hello,
- Cameras, video, and sound – Camera (front) 720p HD f / 2.0, Two long-range studio microphones, Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Atmos 7 technology,
- Wireless communication – Wi-Fi 6: compatible with 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.0,
- Sensors – Ambient light sensor,
- Declared battery life – Up to 17 hours
battery life (with a typical device load), - Battery capacity – Nominal battery capacity (Wh) 47.4;
Minimum battery capacity (Wh) 45.8, - External features – Housing: Aluminum, Keyboard with power and volume buttons,
- Color versions – Platinum with palm rest covered with Alcantara fabric, Matte black with metal palm rest,
- Dimensions – 308 mm x 223 mm x 14.5 mm,
- Weight – Surface Laptop 4 13.5 “in platinum colors with Alcantara fabric: 1265 g;
Surface Laptop 4 13.5 “in matte black with a metallic finish: 1288 g, - Software – Windows 10 Home 20H2 operating system,
- Warranty – One-year limited hardware warranty.
Design
Surface Laptop 4 is very aesthetic equipment. Just like a few years ago, Microsoft tried to make everything painfully angular, which in a way corresponding to the style of Windows 10, now the ubiquitous rectangles and squares – regardless of where they appear in the notebook casing – are mitigated by rounding the corners and milling the edges.
In fact, the only places where we see lines that meet at right angles are—the shiny Microsoft logo on the device’s cover and the edges of the screen itself. And although in every other element, we still deal with an almost sterile design, the whole thing makes a perfect impression.
Surface Laptop 4 looks great both on a home desk and on a table during a business meeting. We have one of the cleanest styles in the industry – no unnecessary embellishments, no embossing, unsightly lettering, or asymmetrical ornaments. It’s almost a little work of art.
Microsoft clearly does not want to make its laptop a multimedia combine to connect dozens of home appliances. Whenever possible, we should use wireless accessories as much as possible and minimize the number of connected cables to the notebook. After all, it would disturb the appearance of the equipment. It is enough to look at the promotional materials of Surface Laptop 4 to realize that minimalism is completely intentional in this case.
After opening the flap, it immediately becomes clear that Microsoft has not yet learned to shrink the bezels around the screen. Indeed, they are not extremely thick, but looking at what the competition can do with ~ 14-inch notebooks, there is a feeling of a certain insufficiency.
The base of the laptop itself looks really decent. Although the keyboard does not extend from edge to edge and leaves a bit of space on the sides, it does not seem to be stuck in a hurry, too small or too large – it has been integrated quite neatly into the whole and does not spoil the layout of the elements in any way. The same is with the touchpad, although it could be a bit larger.
Surface Laptop 4 is available in two color versions: black and gray, but only the latter (called platinum by Microsoft) has Alcantara as a palm rest padding. It is certainly a convenient and pleasant to use solution. However, numerous reports and photos of used Surfaces in which this material occurs suggest that it may not wear out elegantly.
Display
In many areas, Microsoft, compared to Surface Laptop 3, decided to change the entire look. This applies to the screen, for example. The panel used is still the same, combat-tested 13.5-inch IPS matrix, displaying the image at a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels. The colors it presents are charming, close to nature, and the viewing angles are excellent.
The specificity of Surface Laptop 4, as a device with a touch display, forces the manufacturer to use a glare screen, which will collect our fingerprints and quite strongly reflect the image of the surroundings. It is all the more visible in, the brighter the conditions we work. So while the high brightness of the screen, reaching 420 nits, is more than sufficient for using the notebook outside the home, at the same time, you have to get used to the fact that reflections will additionally work against the readability of the screen.
Multimedia
When sitting with a laptop at a desk or holding it on your lap, the range of motion of the screen is sufficient. However, a big plus is a keyboard, which is considered one of the most comfortable in modern notebooks. The 1.3mm key travel is nice, modifier keys like Ctrl or Shift are practically found by default, and Alt – though not wider than the regular letter keys – is not lost when creating texts. The Caps Lock and Function (Fn) keys have white indicators so you can see if they’re active at a glance.
There is also a trackpad under the keyboard that you can use with pleasure. Thanks to the fact that it uses a mat of glass, not plastic, the finger glides on its surface practically alone. All gestures from Windows 10 are read flawlessly, and the click of the keys at the bottom of the touchpad is pleasantly muffled, although it has the right pitch and “feedback.”
Surface Laptop 4 turned out to be the perfect equipment for watching movies – not only thanks to the excellent screen but also very nice speakers with Dolby Atmos. Innovation is the placement of the pickups under the keyboard – the sound comes from the backspace and tilde area. It would seem that such a procedure would unnecessarily muffle the emission of sound and make it “boxy.” Fortunately, the speakers seem to have ample room to operate.
Even when set to maximum power, they do not bother you with unwanted vibrations and wheezing. Right next to the loudspeakers, the decibels reach 80, and from the distance of the laptop placed in front of us on the desk or our knees, the sound of about 60 dB will reach our ears. This is more than enough to enjoy music in the room or the right volume in movies. It is worth making sure that we have all Windows 10 updates from Microsoft installed – at the beginning of the tests, the DACs could crackle when changing the volume level,
Performance
Microsoft doesn’t think of calling its laptop a gaming laptop or portraying it as a machine built to break performance records. Even the description on the website describes Surface Laptop 4 as a device designed to work with documents and provide high-level entertainment—only this and so much. Therefore, when subjecting the device to criticism, especially in terms of the price-performance ratio, it is worth remembering.
SSD speed in both read and write fine, but it doesn’t stand out from other ultrabooks in any way. Evidently, Microsoft did not go here with the most expensive components, although it is interesting to equip the basic version with an Intel processor with a 512 GB SSD drive.
The Intel Iris graphics are a significant leap in quality compared to the systems integrated with the low-voltage Ice Lakes but still providing a fundamental gaming experience. For the price of the Surface Laptop 4, we can easily get a gaming notebook that will fire the latest games in great detail – the owner of a Surface Laptop can only dream about it.
It’s not, however, that Microsoft’s notebook is only suitable for running Solitaire. In fact, games for a few years will work quite well on it. The old GRID 2 still hasn’t finished flashes at maximum resolution and maximum graphics settings at 40-50 fps. If we do not despise the occasional match in Fortnite or another battle royale, we will also have no grounds to complain about performance. Sure, the number of frames per second will not be measured in hundreds, but it will be easy to fight for a win.
Connectivity
The set of ports in Surface Laptop 4 is not very extensive. Most users would not despise the additional USB-C port, especially since it could easily be squeezed next to or even instead of the Surface Connector. The lack of support for Thunderbolt 4 is also still incomprehensible. Microsoft is apparently not yet ready to introduce this standard to its devices, which is a pity because Surface Laptop 4 is the equivalent of the Apple MacBook Air in the Windows world.
As for the operation of the wireless modules, The presence of Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, communication with each connected equipment was hassle-free, and you have to remember that in Microsoft’s history, it happened that Surfaces had difficulty maintaining the status of a paired device, even when it was a dedicated accessory. In this case, nothing like that happened – we will not find any scratches on this glass.
It is also worth having a word about the front camera. The camera itself does not have a matrix with too high a resolution. The transmitted image or recorded videos will have a maximum resolution of 720p, which is visible. Microsoft absolutely consciously placed a lower-quality camera than, for example, the one used in Surface Pro 6. This does not mean that we will look lame at Zoom or Teams, but there is a good chance that there will be someone with a better built-in webcam at the videoconference. The captured sound quality is outstanding – the interlocutors during calls always heard me clearly and clearly.
There is no fingerprint reader in Surface Laptop 4. Still, the security filter is a sensor located next to the camera lens, which allows you to log in to the system using the Windows Hello function. Thanks to the infrared scanning of our faces, unlocking the screen literally takes a moment, regardless of the lighting conditions.
Battery
Microsoft is very pleased with what has been achieved with the new Surface Laptop 4 in terms of battery efficiency. And must admit that we are actually dealing with decent working times on a single battery charge. Of course, the results obtained during everyday use did not come close to those declared by the manufacturer. Still, it should also be noted that the patterns of using the equipment in my case “tighten” the processor and memory of the device – and these are components that consume a lot of energy.
After adding the screen backlight less than 60%, you will get battery times significantly different from the 17 hours mentioned by Microsoft. Such records have been beaten while limiting screen backlighting and limiting low-resource operations, such as when playing back movies.
Other usage patterns are, for example, 3 hours 30 minutes (2.5 hours of Zoom conference, 1 hour of play) or 2 hours of gaming from the 100% to 5% charge indicator. With a less battery-consuming backlight, for example, using your notebook only to watch movies in the evening, you can dial up usage times of more than 10 hours. Really good!
Certainly, an advantage will be the ability to charge the battery fairly quickly – one and a half hours is enough to indicate 100% of the battery. For this, we need a Microsoft 65 W charger with a Surface Connect connector included in the set. Optionally, you can try charging via the USB-C port.
The charger itself also has a USB-A port, thanks to which we can replenish the energy, let’s say, in a mobile device that we have with us. Microsoft has been keeping this trifle in chargers for all kinds of Surface for years, and it must be said that it is a very nice accessory that I have used more than once to recharge smaller gadgets while traveling.
Conclusion!
Surface Laptop 4 is a great example of how Microsoft approaches the production of consumer electronics. Great emphasis is placed on the purity of style, high-quality materials, and performance.
The company has created a laptop to be used for work and entertainment. For this purpose, he installed a fabulous touchscreen and outstanding speakers in his notebook. At the same time, it is not a universal notebook – he will be sad if he stays on his desk for eternity with a charger connected to it and a hundred cables for our audio-video set.
It is a bit more mobile, convenient to carry from place to place. It shines among other ultrabooks with impeccable style and is one of the best-in-class keyboards that really encourages typing. And thanks to the use of the latest Intel processors, you can enjoy a smooth system while maintaining a high work culture and even occasionally pop into an older game. And all this while maintaining quite good working times for a relatively small device with a 13-inch screen.
Surface Laptop 4 are not due to shortcomings or omissions – Microsoft gave users exactly the equipment they wanted. So we do not have an HDMI port or Thunderbolt 4. It is difficult to find more deficiencies here because we are dealing with a really nice device.
