Microsoft Surface Laptop Review – Bringing PC Laptops into the current day

I don’t think anyone expected the stunning specifications of the MacBook laptop range when Apple came out with their own Apple Silicon to power their devices going forward, especially the PC world. Well, the PC world is back and ready to challenge Apple on that all-important measure – Battery life.

It might not seem as important as you think, but pulling up short of a days work because your battery is getting to extremely low levels is a real issue. And for School Students and Uni Students there’s almost nothing as important as Battery life.

Apple’s original MacBook Air with M1 processor had battery life claimed at 18-20 hours.

Today, Microsoft’s first “Copilot+” enabled Laptop the Surface Laptop has a battery life of up to 20 hours.

Putting it simply, our testing shows the battery life is unlike any PC laptop we’ve used before now. Is it 20 hours? Maybe just. It’s all about what you use it for – just like reporting on Electric Car driving range, that depends on the hills, the speed, the temperature.

For my testing I chose to run a YouTube live-stream and saw battery degradation between 4 and 7 percent per hour. That was on WiFi, and with brightness set just above 50%.

What that meant was I call this an all-day battery life. A full, longer than “usual” working day and you’re covered. The same can be said for a school day.

That’s a winner, a massive winner for Microsoft overall.

This is just the second Copilot+ PC we’ve reviewed, the ASUS Vivobook S15 and it too had a cracking battery life.

Expect the same to come from HP, more ASUS products, more Microsoft Surface products as well as a range of other brands.

On this front, we can safely now say that Microsoft Copilot+ PC laptops are a strong alternative to Apple’s MacBook Air/Pro range.

Microsoft Surface Laptop AI Features

Billed strongly at launch were all of the Artificial Intelligence Features of these Copilot+ PC’s.

Each has a dedicated Copilot button to the right of the space bar which launches the “chat” with Microsoft Copilot the AI agent to rival any other you can imagine.

I was using it just to ask things like finding settings and found it a better way to get advice – like the live manual you need for the device you’re struggling to use.

Additionally, I did find myself checking in with Copilot more and more for “answers” to things that might previously been things I would Search Google for.

This is the start of a fundamental shift in how we use “search” and these new “windows” into the world of knowledge are a fascinating evolution of that space.

The much famed Recall feature announced at Microsoft’s launch of Copilot+ PCs isn’t on this Laptop, because it was recalled by Microsoft and thrown into their exclusive Insider program after concerns were raised about security. Valid or not? Well, I would have used it happily in the form it was announced – but, narks being narks, we don’t get that chance.

Live Captions is another great AI feature, potentially huge for video conferences with work colleagues or overseas connections.

Once enabled this places a caption bar at the top of the screen for any spoken word content you’re seeing or hearing.

I tested this with a YouTube video of Tom Segura doing a podcast in Spanish – it was outstanding. Real-time translation into English.

You need to enable this in settings, and then you can engage this at any time with the Microsoft, CTRL and L keys.

Perhaps the coolest example of AI built-in to Copilot+ PCs is the integration of AI into one of the oldest bits of software we know on Microsoft Windows – MS Paint.

Paint is notoriously the worst possible way to look at images, resize them or edit them. But it just works for some real basics. Now, it becomes the remarkable place for next level image generation.

Within Paint you have the Image Creator tool which is a direct integration of the OpenAI image tool DALL-E. Basically any image you can describe can be created with a text prompt.

Unfortunately there are some limitations on the amount of times you can use this – and right now, I can’t create any more.

Strangely, that limitation doesn’t exist in Copilot so I can just ask Copilot to make me an image!

However, the thing you really want to try is the Image Co-Creator in MS Paint.

This allows you to sketch something with a stylus or your finger on the touchscreen, and then describe what you’re thinking of.

I drew this:

Described my idea as:

You can then choose just they level of “creativity” and get more impressive images the higher the threshold.

Pretty bloody impressive stuff.

However, it still feels like a Gimmick.

The world of AI has a huge risk of glazing over people who just don’t need these features.

What users need is to make their life easier. For the device to know what they want, perhaps before they want it. That’s why Recall excited me. I get messages on so many platforms, If I could just type a keyword and find that message.

We don’t just need help composing emails, we need help sorting our inbox and knowing what to do next.

AI has great potential, much of it is still to be revealed.

Compatibility of Apps

Because Copilot+ PCs are a new architecture, some of your apps might not work. I was able to install Adobe Photoshop, but Premiere Pro is not yet compatible. That meant I couldn’t do my core performance test of video rendering.

Like any new architecture this takes time – but it’s important to note for now that if you have core apps for your daily use – you should check with the App Developer on their Copilot+ compatability.

Should you buy a Copilot+ AI PC?

The best thing this “class” of PC has going for it is battery life. Simple as that.

If you want day-long battery life and you want a Windows PC – then Copilot+ is the place to be.

Frankly it’s the reason to buy Copilot+.

Is the Microsoft Surface Laptop worth the money?

The device I’m testing has 32GB RAM and a 1TB Hard drive. It’s priced at $3,699.

Ouch.

By comparison the MacBook Air with 24GB and 1TB is $3,399.

So we’re paying more, but the broad benchmarks say you’re getting more too.

Bottom line, it’s neck and neck.

I’d love to see an OLED screen on this thing to be honest, I think that would really set it off.

Windows laptops outsell Apple by some margin, but Apple has been chipping away, with performance and battery features promoting them as a core option.

Today, you have a viable alternative with the Surface Laptop.