It’s safe to say that Microsoft’s Surface lineup has been directionless over the past few years. Rather than revolutionizing these Windows PCs with new and interesting designs, radically faster processors, or intuitive features, the company has been refreshing Surface hardware with minor spec bumps year over year.
The recent push with Copilot+ PCs has been exciting—especially alongside the announcement of the new Surface Laptop 7th Edition and Surface Pro 11th Edition. Could artificial intelligence breathe new life into the Surface name? The Surface Laptop has a bigger and brighter screen, thinner bezels, a higher refresh rate, a haptic touchpad, and an all-new Qualcomm processor to boot. I’ve spent a few weeks with it, and while it’s a good laptop, the Surface Laptop 7th Edition isn’t as big a leap ahead as Microsoft wants you to think it is.
Timely Touch-Ups
With the new Surface Laptop, you can choose between a 13-inch or 15-inch version (very much like Apple’s latest MacBook Air models). Microsoft sent me the smaller size, which is now slightly bigger. The display still has a 3:2 aspect ratio, but the size has gone from 13.5 inches to 13.8 inches. With thinner bezels, the machine is still just as portable.
The 2K-resolution LCD screen is brighter, reaching a max of 600 nits (up from 400 nits on its predecessor), with a 120-Hz refresh rate to make everyone on the screen appear smoother. You can toggle on Dynamic Refresh Rate, which adjusts between lower and higher refresh rates to conserve battery life.
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Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
The screen is a nice upgrade overall. Movies and shows are vivid and sharp, even outdoors in broad daylight, though I do have to crank up the brightness past 80 percent when I’m under the sun. I didn’t use it much, but the touchscreen was responsive whenever I poked at it. I wish there was an option to add a nano-texture or matte finish (like on Apple’s iPad Pro), because the glare on the display can be distracting. My main gripe, however, is that Microsoft really should offer an OLED display option, especially if you opt for some of the higher-end configurations on this laptop. It offers it for the Surface Pro 11th Edition, so why not here?
Microsoft has finally upgraded the 720p webcam to 1080p, a bare minimum in 2024. You’ll also have access to Windows Studio Effects, which uses AI to enhance how you look on video calls (more on this later). My picture quality looked sharp in my meetings, but I noticed it still struggles with lighting. Despite the abundance of natural light in my home office, the camera would sometimes cast a dark shadow before adjusting back to normal lighting conditions.
Another noteworthy upgrade is the new haptic touchpad. You can customize the feedback via settings depending on how intense you prefer the clickiness. If you prefer none at all, you can turn it off completely. I kept the haptic feedback at the highest intensity while testing, and clicking anything was super satisfying. I’m glad Microsoft finally added this feature.
