Microsoft’s 13.5” Surface Laptop 4 has a few key internals changes
making this a much better value than before, and it has a couple standout features
that might make you want to buy it instead of a different windows laptop, but depending on your
use case there are also 2 downsides that you have to know about if you’re going to buy one.
Before I get into everything you need to know, I want to thank Microsoft and Microcenter
for sending us the Intel version for review. Micro Center has 25 stores nationwide with an
impressive variety of electronics. From Gaming, VR, computer parts like processors, graphics,
and everything else needed to build a PC. They also have a huge variety of desktops, laptops,
and all the accessories that you need. Not only that but also highly trained staff and low prices.
Check out a local Micro Center today to get your hands-on a variety of products before purchasing
or use the link below to view the surface laptop 4 at microcenter.com.
They’re also giving away free bluetooth headphones to all my viewers with no purchase necessary,
just grab a coupon from the link below and head to a local microcenter.
We’ve got two versions of the Surface 4, our blue intel version and black has an AMD processor
and I’ll let you know which one you should buy. On the outside they look identical to the previous
versions, either all aluminum or an alcantara top which is soft touch which does feel less
premium but very comfy and I would prefer this one if you’re very careful to keep it clean.
Last year I praised the overall look since it was premium and clean,
but lots of competitors have stepped up their latest laptop with better materials
and slimmer bezels so these thicker bezels do look a bit dated in 2021.
In those bezels we have a 720P webcam with windows hello login which I love
and mics on the front so quality for video conferencing is quite good.
Insert video and audio: Here is how the webcam looks and how the microphones sound. It's not
class leading but overall very good for the money especially if you’re buying the base model.
I have to say my second favorite thing about the Surface laptop 4 is the sharp
display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. Most windows laptops come with a 16x9 screen,
and some have now moved to 16:10 but 3:2 allows you to have much more
vertical screen space which is really helpful when being productive on a 13 inch screen.
With that I love that Microsoft is using a custom resolution of 2256x1504 which equals 201ppi,
where most of the competitors use 1080P based screens which are noticeably less detailed,
or 4K screens which really drain battery life. This resolution is a perfect middle ground.
Brightness is still the same 400 nits which used to be great, but now the best laptops
use 500 nit displays so it's now average, and with that, the display is still glossy
so you’ll have a harder time seeing it outdoors or in bright rooms because of reflections,
so you’ll need to max out the brightness most of the time.
The keyboard is also a strong point of this laptop and it’s very easy to quickly
and accurately type on. The trackpad is also really good, being a large and very responsive
and although it using a diving board design it has a nice even feel.
Another thing that really impressed us was the speaker quality. Now if you’re trying
to find speaker grilles on the Surface Laptop 3, you won’t find them, because the speakers
are actually beneath the keyboard, and to our surprise, they actually sound great!
They’re not only louder and have better sound quality than most windows laptops,
but they’re actually slightly louder than a 13” MacBook Pro.
The sound quality isn’t quite as good, but it’s still very close.
I’d have to say that they’re one of the best speakers we’ve heard on a 13” Windows laptop,
and more than good enough for streaming shows and movies.
The other thing I have to praise this for is the software. Since it’s coming directly from
Microsoft it's using a very clean version of windows without all the extra software from the
manufacturers or bloatware like games, antivirus, and other trials that you have to deal with.
What really annoys me is extra software that you
have to find and tweak in order to get the full performance of your machine
on top of what's built into windows, so here you don’t have to deal with any that.
And before I get into my favorite change with the Surface laptop 4,
let's talk about the biggest downside in my opinion and that is .. the ports.
We’re still getting a full-size USB-A port for those legacy connections,
which is always nice to have, and a usb-c port for more modern devices and cables,
along with a standard headphone jack and Microsoft's magnetic surface connection port
that will instantly disconnect if someone trips over the cable, which is really nice to have.
Although the usb-c port can be used for charging, this is the port that is used to
charge the laptop with the included 65W charger which also included an additional standard usb
port which can be used as long as the charger is plugged into the wall.
Last year we complained that the usb-c port doesn’t support thunderbolt 3
which means you don’t get those ultra fast speeds and you also can’t connect an external pci or
graphics card unit to the laptop to boost the graphics performance, but we didn’t make it a
huge deal because not everyone needs that and laptops were just starting to add these ports.
Well now, most if not all laptops in this category not only switched to thunderbolt 4,
but they have two of these really capable and futureproof ports
so its now really weird to see a new 2021 laptop not even having one TB4 port.
Microsoft says it's because thunderbolt isn’t as secure, but every other company is using it,
and while I can understand what they are saying, what I can’t understand is the only ports
they include seem to only run at 5gbps meaning transferring SSD file max out at around 350MB/s.
A few websites have listed it at full speed 10GB/s
but most sites don’t mention the speed just like microsoft doesn’t,
Which is weird because for their proprietary dock they actually list 10gb/s for each port.
Every fast device I attached only connected at the slower speed
so to me it seems that these ports are in fact the slowest usb3 which that makes no sense because if
you’re not going to include thunderbolt why not put the fastest USB, like my other AMD laptop.
I don’t think there’s a good excuse for all the ports running
at the faster speed in the expensive dock but half speed if you only have the laptop
or you can’t bring the 1.2 pound dock with you that needs to be plugged into the wall.
And now let's talk about my favorite part of the laptop, and that's actually the base
model. A few years ago it came with 128GB of SSD and 4GB of RAM which was really hard to recommend,
the following year the ram bumped up to 8GB but stayed at 128GB of SSD,
but this year you get 8GB with 256GB’s of storage which is usable for most people and it comes
with an AMD 6 core processor that actually beat out the more expensive intel i5 option
that has a $300 higher base price while getting better battery life as well.
Of course we have higher end options like an i7 which has better graphics and slightly faster
CPU than the i5, but those cost a lot more and then you need to start looking at other laptops
like the XPS 9310 that competes better at that higher price tag,
but personally if I was buying a surface laptop 4 that base spec is now a killer
value for someone that needs a windows ultrabook and doesn’t need thunderbolt.
You get a minimalist design with a clean windows install, a nice and sharp touchscreen,
above average speakers, web, mic, keyboard and trackpad, really good battery life,
and great performance for a base spec machine. Now of course I do have to mention the MacBook Air
which comes in at the same price but is better in each of those categories, but if you need windows
or don’t like MacOS and are looking to spend around $1000 this machine would be my choice.
If you want to see us compare the Surface laptop 4 compared to the M1 MacBook Air, you can check that
video out right there. And if you enjoyed this review, click that circle above to subscribe and
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