Microsoft - Surface Laptop - 13.8" 2K Touchscreen - Snapdragon X2 Plus (10 Core) 2026 - 16GB - 512GB Storage - Dune

I’m glad I chose this over a Mac Neo. I love Apple products but this works way better for nursing school and the storage is must! And also I love the color options!

Compared to an older model, this one has a much better performance. It has a larger screen, a lightweight body, and a smooth touchpad. It's perfect for watching a movie or getting schoolwork done, so it's really worth the money.

I didn’t realize what I was missing avoiding paying out so much money to replace my ancient laptop. The Surface is so smooth running and very quick to load. There’s basically no waiting on it to do something. The size is perfect, slim and sleek. Out of other brands this was a bargain!

I totally love it I originally had the tablet but then decided on laptop great choice easy to use

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop (8th Edition, 2026) is very portable with good performance and nice features. However, the price is a bit high compared to other high performance laptops on the market, and some of the technology is a generation behind its competitors. The version of the 13.8” Microsoft Surface I have is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus 10 core processor, 16GB of high performance LPDDR5X RAM and a premium NVMe Gen 4 PCIe 512 GB SSD. The laptop display technology is LCD, but uses Microsoft’s proprietary PixelSense, which offers 600 nits of brightness and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Microsoft Surface laptops can be configured with more or less RAM than this model, a larger or smaller SSD than this model, a larger screen size with OLED or LCD technology, and several different Intel or Qualcomm CPUs. Overall, the Surface is very customizable. At 3 pounds, 6.5 ounces with the charger, the laptop easily fits in my backpack and is not burdensome to carry around while walking or on my bike. Usually, my first impression of a laptop’s performance is measured by GeekBench, which evaluates the system’s single core, multi-core and GPU performance. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon CPUs on Windows PCs have been on the market for well over a year now, and they have been making waves in the PC market. Running on ARM architecture instead of x86 architecture, they have their pros and cons. A similarly priced premium laptop I purchased earlier this year with an Intel Core Ultra X7 and 32GB of RAM registered 2897/16668/56666 for the single core / multi-core / GPU on GeekBench. This Microsoft Surface’s performance was impressive, but mixed in comparison at 3320/14445/20327. In other words, single core was slightly better, multi-core was slightly worse, and GPU was significantly worse. The interpretation of these numbers is that for simpler tasks like everyday e-mail, general productivity and web browsing, the Surface will be slightly peppier than my benchmark. However, if you are diving into video / photo editing, complex spreadsheets / databases, multiple web pages open simultaneously, or more than light gaming, the Surface will feel sluggish compared to my benchmark—and very sluggish for anything graphics related. Upgrading your Surface to the Snapdragon X2 Elite will bump performance up significantly—especially multi-core and GPU. One other thing to note with the Qualcomm CPUs is that not all software will function properly with the ARM architecture. Windows for ARM does accommodate most software—but not all—through what’s called a “translation layer” or “emulator” which is mostly seamless. In my case, for example, my native Brother printer utilities would not install (I had to use the printer and scanner drivers built into Windows, so I lost some functionality—but nothing major), and Minitool Partition Wizard would not install at all. However, my Canon printer utilities and all other software installed and executed without issue, and the translation layer did not cause any noticeable lag. If you are running some not-so-common software or utilities, be sure to investigate them running on ARM architecture, or at least through the Windows translation layer. A quick search on social media sites will generally give you a quick answer. I put the Surface through the punches of my normal work routine, and its performance was outstanding. I’ve really got to call out the PixelSense screen technology—for an LCD screen, the brightness and contrast were impressive, and the scrolling was very smooth—even on graphics intensive websites and documents—which surprised me considering the GeekBench GPU score. Calculations in Excel and Minitab (statistical software) was nearly instant, but video encoding—as expected by the GeekBench GPU score—was slow. Battery life—as for all Qualcomm equipped laptops—was fantastic—there was no issue running the laptop with normal work tasks all day without needing to charge it. Overall, I had no significant complaints about the performance of the laptop at all. One other feature worth mentioning is the charger. The charging connection on the laptop itself is proprietary and magnetic. It’s a pretty inventive design, and I like that if I (or someone else) accidentally trips over the cord, it will pull right off without damage to the charger or the laptop. I was worried that if I were travelling with two laptops that I would need two chargers. However, the USB-C ports on the Surface also accept more commonly used modern chargers—but of course you lose the use of that port while charging. While talking about the USB-C ports, they are not Thunderbolt; so depending on the device you are using, you might not get the lightning fast data transfer rates and also lose some of the display signal advantages that come with Thunderbolts. There is also a USB-A port and headphone jack on the same side of the laptop as the two USB-C ports. The trackpad, while large, is not one of my favorites. The haptic feedback on the left- and right-mouse clicks is not strong enough, and many times the left mouse click hangs if activated too close to the bottom corner of the trackpad. I found several occasions where I experienced this hanging issue because that’s where my hand and thumb naturally land for left-mouse clicking. The build quality of the laptop is excellent. It has very nice metallic finishes and colors, plus you can lift the laptop lid without the bottom of the laptop lifting off the work surface. However, I did find the chassis to look quite outdated. Most newer laptops (even less expensive ones) now have lattice keyboards. This is where all the keys butt up right next to each other (no spacing between the keys). These keyboards are nice for larger hands and make the laptop look much more modern. The Surface keyboard, in comparison, is at least a generation behind—although it does function well with good feel. The camera does not have a privacy shutter. For a premium laptop, this is a big miss. Overall, this latest generation Microsoft Surface laptop provides good performance and portability. The screen technology and battery life are definitely its strongest features. However, lack of Thunderbolt ports, an outdated chassis, and a sub-par track pad are its weakest. I also think Microsoft’s price point is a little higher than where it should be, based on other high performance portables on the market—I can get similar (or better) technology and performance for a few hundred dollars less.