The Surface Laptop 4 has finally been announced after a year of working from home, which means that there are new demands that people might have of it. Before, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop lineup was great because it offered an excellent and portable Ultrabook, with one of the most comfortable typing experiences we’ve ever had.
With the increased focus on working remotely, and with more of our work being done on our laptops than ever before, the Surface Laptop 4 looks like it might just be up to the task.
Packed with the latest processors from Intel or a custom chip between Microsoft and AMD, the Surface Laptop 4 should be more than capable of handling everything you have to throw at it.
We went ahead and gathered up everything we know about the new Surface Laptop right here, so you can decide whether or not it’s worth waiting for if you’re on the market for a new laptop.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The new Surface Laptop
- When is it out? April 15
- What will it cost? Starts at $999 (about £730, AU$1,310)
Surface Laptop 4 release date
The Surface Laptop 4 is available to order right now, but orders won’t start shipping until April 15 in the US. That means if you preorder one, you should be able to get it in your hands in just a few days time. Of course, these days it’s anyone’s guess how long things will actually take to ship.
Surface Laptop 4 price
The Surface Laptop 4 starts out at $999 (about £730, AU$1,310) in the US. Now, that’s just the entry-level model and you’ll be able to kit it out with more powerful hardware, with prices going up from there.
As for what you’re getting for that money, the starting $999 (about £730, AU$1,310) configuration will be rocking an AMD Ryzen 5 processor with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which you can bump up to 16GB of RAM for $1,199 (about £870, AU$1,570).
You can also get the 13-inch Surface Laptop 4 for $1,299 (about £945, AU$1,090) with an 11th-generation Intel Core i5 processor and a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. If you want to go up to an Intel Core i7 processor, that can be yours for $1,699 (about £1,240, AU$2,230). That one comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD standard.
There’s also a 15-inch model of the Surface Laptop 4. That one starts with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $1,299 (about £945, AU$1,090), which you can upgrade all the way up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $1,699 (about £1,240, AU$2,230).
The 15-inch model can also be cranked up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD – though only with an Intel Core i7 processor. That model will set you back a whopping $2,399 (about £1,750, AU$3,150).
We kind of wish that the Ryzen processor would be available with the 32GB of RAM, especially since Microsoft itself said that users that need more power should opt for the AMD-equipped model, but you can upgrade the laptop after you buy it.
Surface laptop 4 specs and performance
One of the biggest things that the Surface Laptop 4 is aiming to do is provide excellent performance for working on the go, but with enough battery life that you won’t feel pressured into taking your charger with you during a normal workday.
And it certainly has the power to get you through pretty much anything, even at the base level. At the very least, you’re getting an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. We don’t know exactly what the specs on the Ryzen 5 chip are going to look like, but it probably won’t be much different than the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U. That is a 6-core, 12-thread part with a max boost of 4.0GHz.
This is a custom processor between AMD and Microsoft, though, so it’s possible that clock speeds have shifted a bit, though we expect the 6-core configuration to remain unchanged.
Microsoft says that you should be able to get through an entire workday, charge the Surface Laptop 4 battery overnight and then be good to go for another day of work the next day. That’s something we’ll have to test ourselves when we get the laptop in for review, but we’ve definitely seen some excellent battery life out of 11th-generation Tiger Lake processors and AMD Ryzen 4000 chips.
And that’s exactly what you’re getting out of the Surface Laptop 4. You’ll get a choice between Intel and AMD processors, whether you go with the 13-inch or 15-inch model. However, while Intel was able to get its newest processors in the laptop, the Surface Laptop 4 is going to be using a custom AMD Ryzen processor based on the Zen 2 architecture.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s still a lot of mileage in Zen 2, and it’s still probably faster than the Intel option here. It’s just a bit disappointing that Zen 3 is out and is so much better, but Surface Laptop 4 buyers won’t be able to take advantage of it.
This is just speculation on our part, but it’s likely that Microsoft went with a Zen 2 core because it was able to create its own custom variant of the processor, which allowed the company to customize the laptop around it. Microsoft claims that this partnership allows the Surface Laptop 4 to reach up to 19 hours of battery life. Again, something we’ll have to test ourselves, but if Microsoft was able to stretch battery life out that much, it would be worth the slightly older processor.
Unlike a lot of other laptops as well, you can both repair and upgrade the Surface Laptop 4, which means you can expand the storage and memory later on if you feel the need.
The color options are also slightly changing. Microsoft has dropped the Cobalt Blue color option of the Surface Laptop 3 and replaced it with an Ice Blue option. That’s right, now you can’t get the slightly light blue, and you have to settle for a different slightly light blue.
Beyond the new processor, though, most of the laptop is remaining relatively the same as the Surface Laptop 3. You’re still getting a 3:2 aspect ratio for the display with a 201 PPI display, which means 2,256 x 1,504 on the 13-inch Surface Laptop 4 and 2,496 x 1,664 on the 15-inch version.
