Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (Intel model)
The fourth iteration of the Surface Laptop is focusing on the finer details of laptop design, but is this pretty product still a competitive offering?
It doesn’t feel that long ago that Microsoft was announcing its first Surface Laptops, but now more than a few years on we have the fourth iteration of this clamshell Surface range... and it’s really starting to mature into a sophisticated and reasonably priced offering. What’s most notable about the Surface Laptop 4 is that it’s still one of the only Ultrabook ranges to offer various AMD and Intel based models side by side, clearly the strategy has been working for them since the Surface Pro 3 launched at the end of 2019.
In addition to processor choice, the Surface Laptop 4 devices offer much longer than average battery lifespans, vibrant 3 by 2 displays, a sophisticated chassis design and many sophisticated colours to choose from. Many of the upgrades might seem less dramatic with this year’s Surface 4 update, but as we saw through the evolution of the Surface Pro range, as the updates get smaller, it usually means the devices are closer to exactly what you’d want in a laptop.
Size matters
In much the same way as it’s always been, the main choice you’ll make when buying the Surface Laptop 4 is the size device you want. You can opt for either a 13.5 inch display at a resolution of 2,256 by 1,504 or a 15-inch screen at a 2,496 by 1,664 pixel resolution. These PixelSense displays are designed to be as similar as possible with both featuring 201ppi resolution densities, a 3 by 2 aspect ratio and 10-point multi-touch glossy panel. They look vibrant and are more than adequate for general office use and media playback, but for anyone hoping to do professional colour work these screens only achieve partial sRGB colour reproduction and rely on Windows baked-in enhancements for HDR media. These screens are still ahead of many competitors in a number of ways, but if you’re a designer or visual pro, you’ll be better equipped with the DCI-P3 colours of a MacBook Air.
Harking back to a more traditional way of splitting laptop models, the screen you choose will affect how powerful the device can be in some ways. While you can get the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 4 with your choice of an 11th Generation Intel Core i5 or a more powerful Core i7 processor, if you want an AMD processor you’re limited to just the Ryzen 5 CPU. The 15-inch Surface Laptop 4 however can only be configured with the more powerful AMD Ryzen 7 or an Intel Core i7 processor.
The cost of business
AMD has been hamstrung a little in the 13.5-inch model options,