Microsoft Surface Laptop 2018

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2018


OUR VERDICT

Microsoft continues its winning streak with the brilliant Surface Laptop, which combines a thin and light design with powerful components.

The Surface Laptop couldn’t have come at a worse time, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a lackluster product. Quite the opposite really. Instead, nowadays, it’s an affordable alternative to the Surface Book 2 for those users who don’t plan on taking advantage of the detachable display. 

In other words, the Surface Laptop is a more traditional notebook compared to some of the other devices in Microsoft’s Surface device portfolio. It isn’t too expensive either, but it comes with the catch of leveraging a new operating system you may not be familiar with – namely Windows 10 S. This is basically what Windows RT was to Windows 8, but done better.

Buy Microsoft Surface Laptop at Amazon for $1299

Buy Microsoft Surface Laptop at Amazon for $1,049.00

That’s right, out of the box you’ll only get access to Windows Store applications, unless you upgrade your Surface Laptop to the Home or Pro versions of Windows 10. You can do this for free right now, but you don’t have much longer to do so. Microsoft has claimed in the past that this offer is set to expire in 2018, though the exact time and date isn’t quite clear.

Otherwise, the Surface Laptop has been well-received, and it’s not hard to see why either. Unlike a lot of other Windows devices out there (we’re looking at you, Surface Pro), the Surface Laptop is worth buying at the most affordable level. You don’t have to pay extra to get an i5 processor, though you will have to hand over a reasonable sum of cash for more memory and storage.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how the Surface Laptop stacks up to its main competitors. Provided the empire Apple has concocted over the years, could the Surface Laptop finally be the one to give its MacBooks a run for their 

Price, availability and value

A premium device commands a premium price tag, and the Surface Laptop now costs $799 in the US, down from its usual $999 value. In the UK and Australia, however, it’s retained the same starting price since launch at £979 and AU$1,499, respectively. 

In all three territories, the entry-level Surface Laptop comes armed with an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage.

The next configuration up includes the more powerful Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD for $1,599 (£1,549, AU$2,449). Finally, you can pick up a Microsoft Surface Laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage for $2,199 (£2,149, AU$3,299). 

Is this upgrade worth the price hike? While the doubling of storage space gives it more flexibility, there are cheaper ways of getting more space to save your files to – including cloud services such as Google Drive.

The aspect ratio of the screen has implications for the size of the Surface Laptop as well, with the device having a wider body due to it. 

Overall, though, the Surface Laptop is a fantastic-looking device that will certainly turn heads when you take it out to use it, while still feeling comfortable to work on and carry around.