It’s safe He points out that Microsoft’s Surface lineup has lost direction in recent years: Instead of revolutionizing these Windows PCs with new and interesting designs, dramatically faster processors, and intuitive features, the company has refreshed the Surface hardware every year with minor spec improvements.
The recent push for Copilot+ PC has been exciting, especially with the announcement of the new Surface Laptop 7th Edition and Surface Pro 11th Edition. Could artificial intelligence breathe new life into the Surface name? The Surface Laptop has a bigger, brighter screen, thinner bezels, a higher refresh rate, a haptic touchpad, and an all-new Qualcomm processor. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and while the Surface Laptop 7th Edition is a great laptop, it’s not the big leap forward that Microsoft hopes it will be.
Timely correction
The new Surface Laptop comes in a choice of 13-inch or 15-inch versions (roughly the same as Apple’s latest MacBook Air models). The one Microsoft sent me was the smaller size, which is just a little larger. The display aspect ratio remains 3:2, but the size has gone from 13.5 inches to 13.8 inches. Thinner bezels mean the machine is just as portable as ever.
The 2K resolution LCD screen is now brighter, reaching up to 600 nits (up from 400 nits on the previous model), and the 120Hz refresh rate makes everything on-screen look smoother. Turning on Dynamic Refresh Rate will adjust between lower and higher refresh rates to conserve battery life.
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Photo: Brenda Storrier
The screen is a nice upgrade overall. Movies and shows are clear and sharp even outdoors on a bright day, although you’ll need to turn the brightness up to 80 percent or higher when you’re in the sun. Though I didn’t use it much, the touchscreen was responsive to every light touch. I would have liked the option to add a nano-texture or matte finish (like Apple’s iPad Pro), as glare from the display can be distracting. My main complaint, however, is that Microsoft should offer an OLED display option with this laptop, especially if you opt for the higher-end configuration. The Surface Pro 11th Edition offers it, so why not here?
Microsoft has finally upgraded its 720p webcam to 1080p, the minimum resolution for 2024, and you also get Windows Studio Effects, which uses AI to enhance the way you look on video calls (more on that below). While the image quality looked sharp during the meeting, I found it still had some weaknesses with lighting. Despite having an abundance of natural light in my home office, the camera would sometimes cast dark shadows that would force me to readjust to normal lighting conditions.
Another notable upgrade is the new haptic touchpad. You can customize the feedback in the settings depending on how strong you want the click to be, or if you don’t want haptic feedback at all, you can turn it off completely. During testing, I set the haptic feedback to its highest strength, and the click was 100% smooth. anything It was very satisfying and I’m glad Microsoft has finally added this feature.
