Microsoft - Surface 13.5" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core m3 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive (First Generation) - Platinum

I was a bit worried about the m3 processor but its low-power, fanless design is actually perfect for on the go computing. Battery lasts a full workday. Screen is beautiful. Windows hello works every time really quickly. I can just open up the laptop and get right to work from anywhere without fiddling with floppy tablet keyboard cases or waiting for traditional laptops to wake up. It has really increased my productivity when I’m on the go. It won’t replace my desktop pc, but it now is my go to device when i want to do something quickly. Also, it is a delight to use on my lap, unlike my ipad pro. It is also really light and slim. I feel like this is a great MacBook 12 inch competitior for Windows users, but it is better than the MacBook. It is faster and less laggy. Also, it has better port selection. I ilke the traditional usb port with a mini display port. Also, the surface connector future proofs the laptop because Microsoft will come out with a usb c dongle for it later this year. The keyboard is absoultely phenomenal. I love typing on it and can type fast and accurately. It has a forward delete key, and page up and page down keys which I use all the time to scroll through web pages. The alcantara is actually really nice and feels durable. My only negative for this laptop is that for data intensive operations, the m3 processor is painfully underpowered. But this would be a rare use case for most people. For most people web-surfing, document editing, emailing, and using productivity programs, this laptop is plenty powerful and fast. In fact, the underpowered aspect is an advantage for portablility, silent operation and battery life. I did upgrade to Windows 10 Pro right away and the performance has been shockingly good. I am really picky about my tools and I really love this device. It is just a perfectly balanced and well-crafted portable productivity device. If you're looking for something more for entertainment, I would recommend an iPad. If you need a main PC to do your heavy-lifting, I would recommend something with at least an i5 processor and more storage. But if you need a computer you can throw in your bag without worrying about the weight, and whip it out whenever you need it and get to work right away without lag and without fuss, this is the perfect computer.

For a Windows 10 laptop, this was among the best I tried. I'll compare it to my 2011 Apple Macbook Air, which it has replaced. The overall performance is no better than the 7 year old Apple, which is to say, it's fast enough for my needs. The keyboard has a longer than average stroke for such machines, but it is noisier than some. It also occasionally fails to register a stroke which your ear and finger says was made. The touchpad is very good for a Windows machine, but it is not as good as on the old Air. The Apple integrates various multi-finger gestures better and into a wider array of applications. It also fails to register some taps, requiring you to make a full "click" press to get its attention. This will happen on the Apple, but far less often. While good at rejecting your palm, it is a little too sensitive to a stray finger passing over it, much more so than the Apple. The screen is sharper than the old Apple and has better contrast, but the older machine was good enough. I chose the Core m processor figuring it would have no cooling fan, and I was not disappointed. This machine is eerily quite. On the Apple, when a program runs amok (Safari, for example), the computer would get hot and the cooling fan would scream. In this first week with Windows, all the software has behaved properly, so I've never felt the machine run hot. This processor is, sadly, only available with 4 MB of RAM, and this is really not enough for Windows 10 (8 MB would be better). The 4 MB is serviceable for most use, though, and I'll only regret it if I try to run some detailed engineering application. The SSD is noticeably slower than others, something I noticed when transferring my files over from two other PCs I own. Battery life is very good, but no better than the Air when it was new. While I could buy today a new, aftermarket battery for the Air, I've read this machine will not be possible to service so, for much of the innards are glued in place. The price is very attractive, and because my high school age children also use it, we qualified for a current student promo on it. For the money we paid, this machine is an excellent value, and I can recommend it for most users. If MS would offer it with 8 MB of RAM and a faster SSD, it would be nearly perfect (5 stars), quick but silent. For my work, I prefer Windows to the Mac OS, and this machine allowed me to retire the Air and an earlier Win 10 machine.

I picked up the m3 version of this machine because I needed something comparable to the MacBook Air whose low-res TN panel is beyond dated in 2018. I was a little apprehensive about the m3 processor paired with only 4GB of RAM, but I figured I could always return it and go with a faster model if the system turned out too slow for my needs. But I have to say that I am very positvely suprised by the speed of even this low-end configuration. For everyday computing tasks (Word, web browsing, listening to music, watching streaming video), there is no perceivable difference between this laptop and my Surface Pro tablet that runs the faster Core i5 and has twice the RAM. Amazingly, it's even able to do light gaming--I downloaded World of Warships from the Windows app store as an experiment, and it's perfectly playable at low detail (it defaults to 1500x1000 full-screen windowed mode and looks shockingly decent for running on a mere Intel HD615.) Older games or simpler stuff from the app store should work just fine. Best of all, the system is fanless, so there's no noise even while gaming. But this isn't a gaming rig, so don't expect it to be one. It's the cheapest way to get into the Surface Laptop, which is fantastically well put together and has build quality and design to match anything that Apple puts out. The Surface Laptop is light, sturdy, very sharp-looking, and the alcantara-covered keyboard deck combined with the excellent backlit keyboard make it a joy to type on. The m3 low-end variant is completely adequate if you're just looking for something for everyday computing that is exceptionally well-made, has long battery life, and a fantastic pin-sharp screen. The m3 version is much cheaper than the Core i5 and i7 versions, and unless you work with lots of image files, do video editing, or use your laptop as a gaming rig, you won't notice much of a difference between this and the higher-end SKUs.

I'm a business student, mainly do heavy Excel, Word, and web browsing (media consumption). Performance wise, it has been great, I didn't expect much from an intel core M3 but it overran all my toughts. 4gb of RAM have been more than enough for the particular use I give it, and as I store everything on the cloud 128gb are not a problem. Design and quality are astonishing, you can be 100% sure its a premium laptop. As is a Microsoft made laptop, Windows 10 Pro is brilliantly integrated with all its features. All keyboard shortcuts work as they are supposed to, the screen goes on and of fast with the touch of a botton, function keys can be toggled on and off its amazing how it changes the Win 10 experience. Only main concerns are Alcantara and its reparability. I'm not sure how much will Alcantara last before starting to stain, but it may impress me as all its other features did. Reparability wise, it got a 0/100 from iFixIt. Normally you can't replace must laptop parts, but in this particular model, you can replace none, not even the battery which will be a problem in a few years. Appart from that, don't hesitate to buy this laptop, Im in love with it.

I find the build quality of the Surface line to be top notch. So, what are you giving up with this unit? For web browsing and using Office, I swear absolutely nothing. Rock solid & fast, with almost ridiculous battery life and premium build. Now, I am talking about the M processor here, 4 GB of RAM, Windows S, the whole stripped down thing (of course, you can upgrade to "full" windows if you like). The price was right, so I took the gamble. For my uses, this is perfect, and (I think) much better than other options in the price range. People may scoff at the M, and at the 4GB of RAM. I understand. For me, this is virtually a Chromebook competitor running native Office -- significantly cheaper than the Chromebook Pixel with similar build quality, a couple hundred more than some "nice" Chromebooks with much inferior build quality. If you want solid, reliable, simple, Windows, office, web browsing, high quality, this is a great purchase. Just do your research so you know what you need first. I'm very pleased.

I took the gamble and purchased this laptop with the M core processor over the i series because I wanted the improved battery life of a lower TDP and didn't want to pay extra for a more powerful machine since anything that requires extra power I do on my home PC (Video Encoding, Gaming). But I am happy to say that there really is no trade off here if you're the average user. I do decently heavy web browsing on Firefox, modify spreadsheets, write up documents, play videos, etc. For these things this laptop is perfectly snappy. The trackpad is also very smooth though not quite as perfect as a Macbook, it's probably the best trackpad you'll find on a Windows machine. However if you want 1000 things open at once you should find yourself a laptop with at least 8 GB of RAM as the 4 GB of RAM is the most limiting factor on this laptop. Also, I keep a general maximum of about 15 GB of personal data on this thing excluding apps/programs. Anything else, which includes photos and videos, I keep on my home PC/NAS.

I wanted a smaller, lighter laptop to replace my old Asus laptop. This one was on sale and at the right price point. I love the size, the 2k resolution screen, the 128 GB SSD drive, touch screen, and the backlit keyboard. It has an ascetically pleasing design, and has a premium feel and look to it. It is very thin and lightweight, two of the most important qualities I was looking for. The screen is very sharp and bright and as I said I love the adjustable backlit keyboard. It is very fast booting and powerful enough for all my tasks. If there is a drawback it is that it is impossible to open up to either replace the battery or upgrade the memory. An SD card reader would have been nice and it only has one USB 3 port. But I guess that is a compromise for its light weight and size. All in all I am very pleased with my purchase.

I bought this machine on 1/1/18 after having a competitors “pro” laptop for less than 3 weeks and seeing a black screen when the machine died while I was preparing a major project for school. I absolutely love this machine! It is sleek, lightweight, and responsive. I usually have an average of 12 tabs open at all times, and don’t experience any functionality issues with MS Word and Excel. The touchscreen is very precisely responsive when I’m not using the arc mouse (which I also love). The only thing I would add is another USB port, because I sometimes use the USB port to charge my phone when working on projects.