Customer Ratings & Reviews

Best quality, battery life is at a comfortable time

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 is my third Surface laptop, the first being the Studio followed by last year’s 7th generation 15 inch. It is important to know, design wise, this year’s surface is identical to last year’s, down to the weight of 3 pounds, 10.5 ounces. I continue to be impressed with the build quality. The aluminum body feels sturdy and well built and the keyboard deck is solid. The lid opens with one finger but there isn't any kind of knockout, just a slight overgap to grab on to. There are two USB-C ports on the left side, along with an USB-A and 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack. On the right side you have the Surface Connect which also supports I/O via a Microsoft dock along with a Micro SD card reader. I wish there was a USB-C on each side rather than both on one. The updated 3270x2180, (up from last year’s 2496x1664) 120Hz 15 inch touch screen display is bright and crisp. The increased pixel density helps text look great at small font sizes. Colors pop and are vivid and blacks are deep. The display has a highly reflective shine on it. In my office with a sunny window behind me, the display was very difficult to view. It is a touch screen and has 10 point touch which is responsive. It also includes pen support via Microsoft ink. I really like the 3:2 aspect ratio, the extra length of the screen is really nice when working on office documents and spreadsheets. As far as sound, there are no speaker grills, the sound just emanates from the keyboard (Omnisonic speakers?) and there is Dolby Atmos. The volume is loud enough and sounds clear. Like most laptops, bass is lacking and it can sound a bit tinny. The 1080p front facing camera worked as expected and included IR for Windows Hello. Video via Teams was crisp and clear. Colors seemed a bit warmer to me on the auto settings but you can adjust the white balance to make it photos and videos match your needs. The keyboard feels just like the Studio, the chiclet keys have a nice travel but feel a bit more spongy than last year. The keys backlit with three levels of brightness. The haptic touch pad is the best I’ve seen on a windows laptop and on par with the touchpad on my Macbook Pro. This version of laptop also has haptic feedback for more than just the click - for example, when your pointer hovers over the close window X the trackpad vibrates. This is not a feature on version 7. Microsoft rates the battery life on the 15 inch Surface at 22 hours for video and 15 hours for web browsing. These are great numbers if you’re buying a video player or tire from using your phone to surf the web. In real-world use I did manage to get about a day and a half (work days) out of the battery. The Surface charger for the 15 inch model comes in at 65 watts and supports quick charging. From power save mode to 80% took just about an hour and to full charge took about 100 minutes. I can say that while charging and using the Surface, it did get warm but not enough to burn. Finally, you have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 for future proofing. Unfortunately, I don't have compatible equipment for either yet. Performance By the numbers - Geekbench CPU single-core is 2,828, a 31.3% increase over V7’s 2,154. Multi-core is 13,998, a 57.8% increase over last year’s 8,871. GPU Scores V8 gets 21,938, a 15% increase over last year’s 18,996. For reference, my M1 Pro Macbook Pro (2021) gets 2,321 single, 10,761 multiple core and 39,701 GPU. Out of the gate, know that application support still might be an issue for you based on your needs. One thing I did notice was not hearing a fan. I tried as best I could to tax the system to get the fan running but with everyday office use, this machine is pretty much silent. With general office work and Microsoft Office 365 I had no issues. Several other programs I use worked fine as well. Unfortunately, Adobe users still know that not all Adobe products play well yet. Maybe I am just too old but I’m not impressed with the AI features. They are nice to have and I am sure they will just get better with age. Overall, I really like the build of the 15 inch Surface Laptop. The new Snapdragon chips are a great step forward but remain hampered by application support at the moment. I’m sure as these processors advance, support will increase faster. All the issues I’ve experienced so far are software related: My Adobe Creative Cloud isn't fully compatible with the ARM architecture yet. Hardware that requires a specific driver might not work or work completely. It seems pretty clear to me that the Surface lineup is aiming at Apple. With synthetic benchmarks close to or better than some MacBooks, it seems, to me at least, that the hardware aspect is there. I think that the new Snapdragon platform is a great move forward with the biggest setback still being application support, which if past is prologue, will continue to come around. I recommend this Surface Laptop 8 to anyone looking for a great laptop ready for the future.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8th Edition, equipped with the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, has a lot going for it: strong benchmark results, an excellent display, a premium keyboard and touchpad, and a polished chassis. NPU performance, thermals, and battery life are good, too. But software compatibility and forced emulation make everyday performance inconsistent. It supports USB-C charging, yet Microsoft still includes a proprietary charger instead of adding another USB4 port or a dedicated display output. The black finish also attracts fingerprints, and the keys quickly develop a greasy looking shine. After thirty years of building and buying Windows PCs, I still tend to judge PC performance by games and demanding applications, not basic Windows tasks. Game performance here is underwhelming, if games work at all, and I have yet to find an app that runs meaningfully better on the Snapdragon X2 Elite. That leaves me weighing strong benchmark scores against a narrower set of practical AI-assisted tasks, such as finding a file from a vague description or using Copilot in Office and Windows. Those features are useful, but they do not feel like the kind of leap that justifies a premium purchase. Unboxing The unboxing presentation is clean and simple. Microsoft includes the laptop and its proprietary charger. The laptop makes a strong first impression, with a solid chassis, light weight, and sharp black finish, though that finish starts showing fingerprints almost immediately. The less pleasant surprise was the number of Windows updates out of the box. I had to wait at least 30 minutes before everything was fully updated and ready. Display and Touch Experience Out of the box, the display is one of the laptop’s strongest features. It offers a fast refresh rate, high brightness, HDR support, and a 3K resolution. Motion looks fluid, colors are vibrant, and contrast is excellent. In short, the screen looks great. The display is also a touchscreen. I am not sure touch is essential on this kind of premium laptop; after several weeks of use, I only touched the screen to confirm that it worked. I cannot imagine using it often on this form factor. For one thing, my hand is always resting on the keyboard and trackpad. Tapping the screen just feels like an additional movement that is not needed. The hinge does not fold back far enough to turn the laptop into a tablet, so while touch input works, it feels more like a bonus feature than a core part of the experience. Keyboard, Trackpad, Speakers, and Camera The keyboard feels excellent, with satisfying travel and responsive feedback. The laptop also stays cool to the touch during most everyday use. The haptics built into the new trackpad are impressive, especially when using on-screen gestures such as moving and snapping windows to the top or sides of the display. The speakers sound good as well. Microsoft includes a Windows Hello camera that makes quick logins easy. However, there is no built-in privacy toggle, and the camera resolution at 1080p could be better. Battery Life and Charging Battery life has been a mixed bag. I am not getting close to twenty hours. With web browsing and writing in Word, I am seeing roughly half that amount. Most major apps now have ARM-native versions, but Chrome still drains the battery at a steady pace in my use. Microsoft also needs to move on from the proprietary charger. The laptop can charge over USB-C, and I would much rather have another USB4 port and a dedicated HDMI output. The magnetic connector feels weak, and getting the charger seated properly is often clunky. In 2026, this feels dated and adds nothing positive to the experience. Design, Build, and Thermals The 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD feel like the bare minimum; on a premium machine, I expect more of both. I understand that pricing for RAM and storage has skyrocketed over the past year, but last year’s laptop models are still selling for less with more RAM and storage. The laptop feels solid without being heavy, and it is lighter than I expected. Microsoft is clearly emphasizing efficiency with this model, and during normal productivity work it stays cool and quiet. No one will confuse it with a jet engine. Gaming is a different story. In my limited attempts, the machine became extremely hot, and that heat was noticeable through the keyboard. My laptop is black, and the finish is a fingerprint magnet. The keys can look shiny and greasy after only a few hours of use, and cleaning does not prevent the issue from returning. I am not sure whether this is limited to the black model, but it is worth noting. Performance and Application Compatibility Performance and application compatibility are where the experience becomes more uneven. Some emulated programs work well. Some work with lag. Some do not work at all. One of my favorite writing tools is Scrivener, and it worked through the emulation layer without any real problems. But gaming through Steam was often frustrating. In my testing, Baldur’s Gate 3 ran well and was one of the few titles I tried with native ARM64 support. Even then, I had to lower the settings and resolution to reach playable frame rates. Meccha Chameleon, an x86 application, was playable through emulation, but noticeable input lag made the experience feel compromised. Helldivers 2 and many other games in my Steam library simply failed to run. That became the pattern: some games run natively at lower resolutions, often with upscaling; some run through emulation with compromises; and many do not run at all. Nothing I tested performed better than it would on a high end Intel or AMD laptop from a year ago, and most games performed worse. More applications will support ARM64 over time, but today, even ARM native games can feel laggy compared with traditional x86 gaming systems. There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to gaming on ARM processors. ARM enthusiasts are pleased if a game works at all on the lowest settings, but on a premium laptop I expect everything to run. Here, if a game works, you will usually need to turn down visuals and expectations. Some AI upscaling can make the experience better, but even then, a gaming laptop is a better option. I mention that because you can get a decent gaming laptop for about the same price or even less than the Surface Laptop 8. Hardware and Accessory Compatibility On the positive side, I did not encounter driver compatibility issues with USB hubs, headsets, printers, external mice, or keyboards. For everyday peripherals, the laptop behaved as expected. Stability Stability was mostly good, but I did experience a couple of hard freezes while running on battery with no peripherals connected. One occurred after accessing a network folder to download a file, and another happened while browsing the web. The only consistent variable was the Wi-Fi adapter, so there may be a driver issue involved. Diagnostics did not identify a problem. Conclusion I understand the push to bring ARM-based CPUs to Windows laptops, and I see the potential as software support improves. Microsoft has built a polished machine with a great display, strong keyboard and touchpad, good thermals, and solid everyday battery life. But at this price, the Surface Laptop 8 is hard to justify for my use. Its benchmark numbers are impressive, yet real-world performance does not feel meaningfully better than recent Intel- or AMD-based laptops, and games or demanding creative apps remain a weak point. For students and professionals who mostly work in web browsers, Canvas, Office, and other ARM friendly apps, this could be an excellent if expensive laptop, provided their software runs well on Windows on ARM. For gamers or users who depend heavily on x86-only software, I would look elsewhere. Rating: 3.5/5 Conditionally Recommended

The first thing that struck me with the laptop was the build quality. It felt hefty in a way that old electronics used to feel, and this is a compliment, not a slight. I wasn't sure if going with the bigger screen would end up being a mistake because of the portability loss, but I'm really glad I got the 15". The 3:2 style is different for me but the screen is absolutely stunning. When it's next to my tablet watching the same video, the colors are brighter and the lines are clearer. The battery life has never been less than a few days, it's an absolute beast. The keyboard does feel like it's placed a little higher on the laptop than I'm used to but I'm getting used to this format as I type on it more. The update process was pretty lengthy to fully complete, probably a little over an hour to download all updates, Microsoft stepped in and used my other PC's settings to make the process smoother although this is optional. The touchscreen is extremely snappy, as good or better than most tablets that I use. The touchpad is excellent as well as the backlit keyboard. (with dedicated backlight settings button. Great Feature.) It doesn't have the haptic clunk I've become used to with older laptop trackpads and it's a huge upgrade. A nice feature that I've never seen, or should I say, felt, before; the touchpad gives a little vibration when you hover over the X button to close out a screen. The dedicated Copilot button has become more useful than I expected it to, even sometimes just to take a random quiz on a grab bag of topics, even though it wants to tailor them to my interests based on my searches or computer usage. This feels like a feature that will become more helpful the more you use it. It's deeply ingrained in the system and works as designed. The recall function seems useful but I find that it's a little too invasive for my needs. I don't do anything important enough to require constant screen monitoring. The system moves swiftly through basic apps and internet browsing with little to no load time. I booted up Steam and put on a pretty weak intensity game in Slay the Spire 2. While it loaded it well, and played fine, I don't think I'll be swapping my gaming PC out for this use anytime soon as it was a little clunky at times. If I was flying and I needed to play something for a while, I think it could handle it, but just barely. The battery handled it better than expected. As I'm tinkering with the settings, Windows does offer power button settings for the keyboard power button. I find a physical button on the external of the body of the laptop is preferential but I don't mind this. It comes in and out of Sleep as fast as any system I've seen. Worth noting that it has two USB-C ports (not for powering, that's a specific cable and my one big gripe.) as well as a USB-A port which is actually perfect for me as all my wireless mice are USB-A still. There's a MicroSD card slot as well next to the Surface Connect (power) port, a feature only on the 15" version. I had to do an interview with Google Meet and it performed better than any other device I could do the chat on. The webcam is almost perfectly aligned with the top of the laptop and it's very clear to use for video calling. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this if you're trying to play a lot of games on it, but it will do in a pinch. What this laptop is suited for is quick on the go work with heavy focus on AI assistance.

I'm a huge fan of the Surface lineup, and I have picked up a few of their devices now. This Surface laptop is the largest Surface device I've owned. The screen is large and very sharp. Color saturation is excellent. It's absolutely great for media consumption. I picked this device up to use for light graphic design (photo editing, light video editing, and simple CAD work) and media consumption. So far, it's excelling at both functions. I've had no issues with software compatibility, and I haven't noticed any lags or glitches. Everything just works smoothly and seamlessly. The device's frame feels very solid. I was surprised by just how heavy the laptop is given its thinness. The laptop is in no way heavy to the point of being cumbersome, but you do notice the weight. the laptop is dead silent during operation. There are no loud fan noises or other distracting mechanical noises. The keyboard is a delight to type on. The key travel and spacing is excellent. The trackpad is quite large. It's a good thing that the palm rejection is as good as it is on this laptop as I often found the edge of my hand resting against the trackpad. Sound quality is excellent, but I'll confess that I prefer to listen to audio over Bluetooth headphones. The built-in storage is fairly ample and should be able to accomodate a reasonable array of programs. My absolute favorite thing about this laptop? The micro-SD card slot. I am absolutely thrilled that this device has removal / expandable storage. Doing graphic design work, I'm constantly shuffling files around, and my storage needs are constantly expanding. I'm relieved that I can pop in an SD card for additional storage when I need to travel with a large library of image assets. I was a little dismayed to see that this device charges via the Surface Connect charger. I was hoping that Microsoft had transitioned to standard USB-C for this device's default charger. I have plenty of third party USB-C laptop chargers, but I don't have any spare Surface Connect chargers. This makes things a little tricky when traveling. Supposedly this device can charge over USB-C, but the chargers I tried only seemed to trickle charge it. I'm quite pleased with this laptop's appearance and performance. Once again, the Surface lineup has another winner.

The Surface Laptop 15” (8th Edition) is the latest premium offering within Microsoft’s laptop lineup. The latest generation features an upgraded Snapdragon X2 chipset, 120Hz screen with higher pixel density, and improved AI performance all while maintaining the premium design and build quality that’s expected. This is my first experience using a Surface product after having used several of the competitors over the last few years. I have come away reasonably impressed with the day-to-day usability and performance of this laptop. There are a few features I thoroughly enjoy but I did encounter some hiccups with software. This entire package comes at a price premium over others in this space, which may make it harder to justify switching ecosystems if you’re already invested in another brand. The Surface Laptop is available in two screen sizes, 13.8” and 15”. The smaller 13.8” version has four colors available while the 15” is available in Platinum and Black color way. The 15” measures just .72” thick and weighs 3.67 lbs. I have been using the black color way and I have to say it is very stealthy looking. IN THE BOX: - Surface Laptop, 15-inch - 65W Power Supply with Surface Connect - Quick Start Guide - Safety and warranty documents USAGE: Upon booting up the laptop for the first time, you’re greeted with the updated 3:2 aspect ratio Pixelsense display which comes in at 3270 x 2180 resolution or 262 PPI. This ratio provides more screen real estate for reading articles or scrolling vertically and the resolution of 3K equivalent, is exceptional for a laptop. The screen being 120Hz refresh rate makes everything buttery smooth and the touchscreen makes it more versatile for use with a stylist or creative tools. The keyboard itself is similar in overall size to other 15” laptops I have used. I will say, the keys feel ever so slightly closer together or tighter in spacing which took a little to get used to. I wish the function keys at the top were full size. The keys have a fair amount of travel and the keyboard is backlit, which is nice. The laptop features all of the ports that are useful on a daily basis. 2x USB-C USB 4 1x USB-A 3.2 1x MicroSD slot 1x 3.5 mm audio jack 1x Surface connect port The laptop comes with a surface connect charging cable but can be charged via either USB-C port for flexibility in how you use the device. The Full HD webcam offers studio grade performance with integrated AI functions such as “eye gaze correction” (which I didn’t even know was a thing). The Window’s Hello system pairs an “enterprise-grade” biometric near-infrared (IR) camera to securely scan your face to replace the need for passwords, pins, or other security steps while using the laptop. This makes logging much more convenient and also the fact it can be tied to any passwords on websites. The updated Surface Laptops are powered by the latest version of Snapdragon X2 processors with either 10 core or 12 core configurations. The X2 Elite provides significantly more graphics performance compared to previous generations and the NPU adds additional AI performance which is increasingly in demand. Copilot+ is built into the hardware and software of this laptop which offers in-device AI for faster responses, AI image generation and editing, enhanced video call eye gaze correction, and real time language & transcription. I like the fact that many AI related tasks can be performed directly from the laptop itself rather than relying on an internet connection or dedicated website. One big issue that came up was the touchpad driver stopped working randomly one morning. I did some troubleshooting online, found the issue and tried removing the driver, reinstalling, and restarting and it didn’t work at first but eventually with some other updates, it started working again. This should not have happened on a brand new laptop quite frankly. Likes: - Slim, Premium Design - 3K Touchscreen - Quick, IR Facial Recognition - Haptic Touchpad - Good Battery Life - Webcam Quality Dislikes: - No Notch To Place Finger To Lift Screen - Smaller Touchpad Area - Speaker/Audio Quality Overall, my first experience with a Microsoft Surface product has been fairly positive but I don’t view it as perfect. From the lack of a notch to make opening the laptop screen easier to the touchpad software somehow breaking itself before some driver troubleshooting and restarts to get it working again, it left a little to be desired. The performance of this laptop is very similar to other high end options on the market with the added benefit of touchscreen display for those who desire this feature. The usability is good with an ok keyboard (not best in class) and great webcam performance. I like the fact that it has a removable SSD for those who wish to upgrade in the future or need to replace it for whatever reason. The biggest drawback is the price point compared to what others are offering for similar or lower prices. Technology has been hit hard by the AI and data center boom in the last 12 months and if this trend continues, it will be more difficult for the average person to afford a high end laptop at all. The Surface Laptop 8 offers enough to be competitive but may not be my first choice for the dollar.

I love the laptop and it does a great job as far as screen camera keyboard, and it does not heat up Also the battery life is great

I am happy with my new Surface Laptop. I bought it to run my coaching business and it has smoothly integrated with my monitor, my wireless keyboard and mouse. I unplug the computer and bring it to cowork a few days a week and it easily complies with other monitors I plug in and hooks back up to my mouse and keyboard seamlessly, as well as any other internet log ins as I am in new places working. The picture is great and the keyboard feels so smooth, although I usually use my external keyboard for ergonomics.

The battery life is good, lasted 6 hours with only 15% reduction. I would have liked if the screen was either detachable or could tilt to write on. Overall, a great product

I love the Microsoft surface I’ve had for many years. Due to it no longer being supported I had to purchase a new surface. Unfortunately Best Buy no longer supports same day data transfer from your old laptop to the new. They wanted me to leave my old laptop with user name and password information and they would transfer the data in 3 days. This is acceptable and a significant security risk. I’m very disappointed with Best Buy’s policy and hope that I will be able to do the transfer of data myself as I am not technically savvy.

I've had the new Surface 15" for a couple weeks now and I'm really impressed. It's incredibly smooth to use and everything feels fast and responsive, the processor handles multitasking without any lag. Build quality is excellent too; it feels great in your hands and looks even better. I've gotten so many compliments on the design alone. Overall, a fantastic laptop that nails both performance and style!

Really like this! Replaces my 10 year old HP and the only glitch has been with my older web security, which caused one update to stall. The Best Buy rep who sold me the laptop sorted the problem out immediately when I went back to the store, so a shout out to Joe at Watertown!

I have always been an Apple user. I finally decided to move forward and move on to a surface pro. This was a great decision that I have made. I can do my school work without any complications. Surface pro is a much better device.

Everything work smoothly. I’m a month in and I yet to have any issues

I've been happy with this purchase so far. Purchase price is on the higher side, but processor speed is quick, screen size and clarity are great, I am still getting used to the sensitivity of the touchscreen, but I really like having this as an option

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 15" 12c/16GB/512GB is quite solid. Packaging is great, well protected, comes with a charging brick and your laptop. Opening/setup of the computer is straight forward as any windows PC, a little time consuming getting updates and account info, but the usual. On the left side you have - 3.5mm audio jack - USB A PORT - 2 USB C PORTS On the right side you have - Surface Connect port - Micro SDXC Express card reader - Has WiFi 7 15 inch LCD Touchscreen HDR, 120hz refresh rate (you can not fold it completely over to use as a tablet) Up to 14-20 hours of usage on battery 1080p Full HD Camera Only weights 3.67 lbs I have the Snapdragon X2 Elite 12 core, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, 16 gig ram(LPDDR5x), and a removable 512gb Gen 4 SSD version. You have a very nice crisp looking screen, I do not see any ghosting or anything, just perfect! The keyboard feels very nice and is backlight, the track pad feels and works great also (with haptic feedback built in), all to my liking. This is my first ARM processors PC, and am quite surprised how snappy it is and every pc program I run, work or home related, just works so far.... The AI built in is fantastic, I especially love the blur of video behind me when in conference calls, when using windows studio effects. You can also search for a photo by what is in the photo, the AI searches your photos for what your looking for. Programs just snap open like a high end I9 processors, very impressive.... BUT the best thing of all is the battery life.... its just WOW , loooooonnnnngggg lasting, I will use this surface laptop for hours and I look down at the battery and can not believe how little battery I used, even playing games. All day battery for sure! Let's talk about games, all basic games work great that i tried, now I load Fort Night and had to give special permissions to the fort night program and 2 other files it needed, I loaded it through the Xbox app so everything should have just went fine, but I guess windows ARM still needs some work. After that Fort Night runs like a charm and looks great on this surface laptop. Then I tried to load COD and forget it, at this time it does not work, COD needs some special ani cheat program that does not load or work with ARM yet, hopefully in the near future. (Note: I tried to get help from within the Xbox app and the second person tried to blame it on the COD Warzone was not included in my Xbox premium, BUT it states right in the Xbox app that Warzone is included free with my version of Xbox premium, then i found an article that COD is not compatiblewith ARM at this time). Conclusion is this Microsoft Surface Laptop 15" 12c/16GB/512GB is a beast, you should not be disappointed with it.

At the end of this school year, I checked in with my daughter who has been using my Surface Book 3 since late 2020. It's been a solid performer, but its battery was hindering her. She is a powerhouse when it comes to her robotics team and the aging Surface Book 3 was only giving 2 hours of runtime. While that's been OK for her while she's been doing CAD work where there is a power outlet, when she's at a competition and cooperating with other teams, she's had to resort to her school issued chromebook to get around and evaluate her game stats. On the other side of the battery scale, you have the latest Surface Laptops running Snapdragon processors that sip on power. This new Surface Laptop is running on the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor. More specifically it's the X2E-78-100. It has 12 cores (6 Prime and 6 Performance), burst clock speed of 4.0 GHz, and has 80 TOPS. Memory is 16 GB of LPDDR5x at 9523 MT/s. Storage is on a SK-Hynix 512 GB NVMe whose sequential read is about 6 GB/s and sequential write is about 4.4 GB/s. I would like to replace the 512 GB NVMe sometime when prices for 2TB drives come into more reasonable prices. From what I've read, this is somewhat simple by removing the 4 rubber feet, remove the screws and the cover comes out somewhat easily. The screen is rated at 15" with a resolution of 3270 x 2180 giving a 3:2 ratio. I like this ratio with a little more vertical height. Refresh rate is 120 Hz. It's rated for 600 nits making it very bright and performs well outdoors. It is very vivid too. The camera has infrared sensors built into it so it is compatible with Windows Hello, but I do not see a privacy cover for it, so I might have to find a solution for that. One of the things that I immediately noticed is the mouse clicks. They aren't actually mouse clicks that you normally get with a micro-switch. The clicks are actually haptic vibrations. It's a subtle difference but every once in a while, I can trick it into a double click. The Surface Laptop is pretty thin at about 19mm in the rear and dropping to 14mm in the front (both measurements include the rubber feet). It's got a very smooth aluminum body. On the right hand side is the Surface charging port which is reversible and a micro-sd slot. On the left hand side is an audio port, a USB-A port and two USB-C ports which I have confirmed you can plug a USB-C charger in to charge your laptop. This isn't my first Snapdragon processor based laptop. In 2024, I got my hands on a Dell Snapdragon X Plus. While it would be fine for someone like myself, I couldn't give it to my parents. However, that was two years ago and things have changed. First, many more vendors are mainstreaming ARM based applications. I utilize a script that automatically installs the apps that I want when setting up a new computer, it now recognizes ARM processors and picked up the right version of Google Chrome without requiring me to seek out the alternative distributions to find the ARM version. Second, Microsoft has been improving the emulation engine for x86/x64 applications (prism). When Macs went to their own silicon, they had Rosetta, which honestly did an impressive job. When Microsoft introduced prism to do something similar, it wasn't as polished but now it's evolved into something that I don't need to really think about. I have the option to tweak some compatibility performance, but I haven't needed it for the applications that I install. She's loaded Bambu Studio for our 3D printer, Autodesk Fusion, and she can do additional CAD work through the browser, none of which gave her any trouble for installation nor operation. Hopefully any other applications she might need will continue to be made for ARM on windows so she can benefit from the power and resource conservation. Otherwise, some software will require the Prism emulation which will pull down more resources to make them compatible with the ARM on Windows architecture. I imagine some hardware might not be compatible with ARM systems, but nowadays peripherals are either Wifi, or Bluetooth accessible so you don't need to worry about the Prism emulator. The big benefit with this Snapdragon X2 Elite processor is that is sips on power. This Surface Laptop is rated for 19 hours of use. I think it can really do it. I gave it to my daughter to set up for her use and she had it running 4 hours and in that time it dropped 20 percent. That translates to roughly 20 hours of total battery life, so it's trending in the right direction for her needs. As far as I'm concerned, ARM on Windows has finally hit a point where they can be used by non-tech savvy people. I'm very pleased with this Surface Laptop and hope my daughter can continue using it without any troubles.

The Surface 8 15” is a capable daily driver for general productivity tasks. Even though I have quite a few nitpicks with this laptop, it is strong enough where it counts that I can recommend it without reservation. The battery life is phenomenal; the best of any laptop I’ve used. It was more than able to handle a full day of moderate to heavy usage. I was surprised by how incredibly negligible the battery drain was while the laptop was in sleep mode, barely sipping battery charge. I can close the lid, come back the next day, and resume where I left off without worrying that I’ve drained the battery. The battery charged from 15% to full in under two hours. I was surprised by the processing power of the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU and integrated Qualcomm Adreno X2-85 GPU, though this is my first laptop with an ARM-based CPU. Of course, this laptop is not designed for gaming and can’t reasonably be compared to gaming laptops. However, it performed surprisingly well, having good performance on a couple of older games I tried. When gaming, there is considerable heat build-up, but I didn’t play long enough sessions to see if this becomes problematic. Loading and execution of X64 (non-native) apps was snappy, and I didn’t run into any compatibility issues. The display is pretty amazing. A whopping 3K 4:3 resolution at 120 Hz packed into a 15” size, and up to 600 nits of brightness, is great to work with. I prefer a 4:3 aspect ratio in laptop displays I won’t be using for gaming, as that seems ideal for browsing the web, viewing and editing documents, and general productivity work. The rounded corners, while not nearly as extreme as what’s found in most phone displays, still seem completely uncalled for. Those missing pixels can be fairly noticeable in some cases, since the PC platform in general is not designed around this, unlike phones, which have strongly adopted this design philosophy. The default color profile seems to be a little oversaturated compared to what I’m used to. The camera is quite decent. It manages to pick up a good amount of detail even when the image is rather grainy. It transitions ISOs well across various lighting conditions and maintains a pretty even color quality even in bad/dim indoor lighting. The speakers are decent but unremarkable for the form factor. The sound is projected directly up through the keyboard, which can be pretty annoying to those with tactile sensitivity. Windows support for the haptic trackpad is new, and its scope seems extremely limited. It felt like a useless gimmick that didn’t add any value. The keyboard has a decent feel and tactile feedback, but lacks convenience/macro keys (for which there is room), and misses some meaningful labeling, particularly the Pg. Up/Down, Home, and End alternative functions of the arrow keys when used with the Fn key. The overall build quality is clean and solid, but I have a few nitpicks. - Many competing products have useful convenience features like a 360-degree hinge or detachable keyboard for tablet-like use, or an included dockable stylus. This laptop seems more narrowly focused in design and features. - This model has Windows Hello face recognition–a feature I’d never use–rather than a fingerprint reader, which is a feature I use often in laptops. It’s a bummer that this is an either/or feature in the Surface product line. - Though the lid has a very slight lip, it’s harder to open than average among the many laptops I’ve owned. I found myself resorting to using my fingernail to open it, which I’d rather not have to do. - Surface laptops are roped into channelling extra, non-optional diagnostic data back to Microsoft. - It’s rather easy to accidentally unplug the power cord (which happened several times to me during my week of testing), which relies primarily on magnetism to keep it secured.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 15"12c/16GB/512GB is a prime example of a premium product. The 15-inch black monolith of a finely crafted aluminum, with no obvious cooling vents (a thin ridge near the hinge provides ventilation) is striking in appearance and only weighs 3.67 pounds. Connectivity includes two USB-C/USB4 which support charging/power, data transfer and Display Port able to drive three 4k external monitors at 60hz, a USB-A 3.2 port, a 3.5 headphone jack and a MicroSDXC card reader. The Display is a bright LCD Touchscreen running at 3270 x 2180 (262 PPI) which is closer to 4k than it is to 2.7k and can drive the panel at 120hz. The DPI and 600 nits brightness contributes to a rich, sharp display, almost perfect for a notebook. However, as a touch screen, the glass can be a bit reflective in certain environments. The integrated HD Webcam does well with contrast and color, as well as low light environments. The keyboard has an auto backlight; the mousepad is responsive and provides haptic feedback. This surface notebook uses a Snapdragon X2 12 core CPU, with an integrated NPU for on device AI, rounding out the SOC (system on a chip) design is a GPU. This combination provides a good mix of performance, sips battery power and runs fairly cool with barely any fan ramp up at load. This version had 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Benchmarks tests place this near the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU for performance, however with much more efficient power consumption. This 15-inch model’s design and size remind me of a MacBook Air. Overall, the design of the hardware is premium, and the laptop screen can be opened with a single finger, with no need to hold down the bottom half of the laptop. The system is preloaded win Windows 11 Home and took about 30 minutes to setup syncing with one of my Microsoft 365 accounts. M365 apps ran well, with Word, Excel and PowerPoint starting up quickly and performing as I would expect (the system also comes with a trial of Microsoft 365 and Xbox Live). Some advanced Excel spreadsheets or intensive element in slide heavy PowerPoint presentations provided a mostly positive user experience. Video editing with the basic Microsoft Clipchamp app could work in a pinch for producing content, but the machine quickly runs out of horsepower when editing and rendering video, even if it is working and outputting from/to local, on device media. Most of the constraint relates to the GPU (which does the heavy lifting in video editing) and the maxing out of available physical memory (in this case 16GB). If there was one performance improvement I would make to the system is an upgrade to 32GB of RAM to better mesh with the Snapdragon’s capabilities. Overall, this is a good multipurpose laptop that will easily last a working day on a single battery charge. The battery also fast charge with the supplied 65 watt which fits into a surface connect proprietary port. Charging via a USB-C port is also an option. >>> Pros >> well designed at the level you would see in a premium notebook or MacBook >> superior integration with Microsoft Windows 11 Home >> excellent webcam with Windows Hello >> nice looking touchscreen >> only 3.65 pounds <<< Cons << could come with more RAM standard << better GPU could improve the experience << pricey