Microsoft's new Surface Laptop has the same sleek design that I am familiar with (and like!). It is thin and lightweight and elegant with clear design inspiration from the MacBook Air line of laptops (the Surface laptops are a bit thicker and heavier).Microsoft is proclaiming how impressively the Snapdragon X Elite processor performs (3.42 GHz), and surely it must perform better in some benchmark testing - it should, but for simple daily use by a human I see no clear difference in performance against my old Surface Laptop Go 2 (2.42 GHz with half the RAM). The importance of this chipset is that it allows the laptop to run on-device AI (the Copilot+ of this laptop's extended name).The standout performance improvement here is, without a doubt, the amazing ... MoreMicrosoft's new Surface Laptop has the same sleek design that I am familiar with (and like!). It is thin and lightweight and elegant with clear design inspiration from the MacBook Air line of laptops (the Surface laptops are a bit thicker and heavier).Microsoft is proclaiming how impressively the Snapdragon X Elite processor performs (3.42 GHz), and surely it must perform better in some benchmark testing - it should, but for simple daily use by a human I see no clear difference in performance against my old Surface Laptop Go 2 (2.42 GHz with half the RAM). The importance of this chipset is that it allows the laptop to run on-device AI (the Copilot+ of this laptop's extended name).The standout performance improvement here is, without a doubt, the amazing improvement in battery life! While I am lucky if my older Surface can stay with me for more than a few hours of continuous use, this new 7th Edition Surface truly delivers all-day battery life. Alas, Microsoft is continuing to require a proprietary charger that is awkward to insert and always looks like it is threatening to get caught on something and pull apart. Sigh.The 120Hz display is gorgeous - bright and VERY clear. But it is worth noting that the recommended display resolution of 2304x1536 renders the screen unreadably tiny - so in this resolution there is a recommended scaling (magnification) of 150% which gives some applications a slightly unfamiliar look and feel.Superficially, Microsoft's new Surface Laptop (7th edition) is a stunner with great battery life.But the reason this new laptop can supply amazing battery life is not because of better batteries, but because this laptop uses an ARM-based processor (so, not an x64-based processor). That makes this Surface a very different kind of Windows laptop than most people are used to having.While this laptop reports running Windows 11 Home like my old Surface, it is NOT able to run just any add-on program that you might want to run. I found this out immediately when I attempted to install my antivirus and performance software suite (install would not even initialize on an ARM-based processor - at least not at this writing). Simpler things like my Kindle Reader app installed just fine. I was able to get my Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 program to work with a crazy workaround that bypassed the initialization screen (thank you to the industrious user who dropped that wisdom on Adobe's site!). In general, program installation was my introduction to the drawbacks of having an ARM-based processor that I would have never considered when shopping for a new (Windows!) laptop. So there is an unexpected trade-off for great battery life that I don't think Microsoft is fully honest about in their hype and advertising for this laptop.Finally, this laptop integrates Microsoft's Copilot+ AI assistant that provides an interactive "chat" environment. The chatty interface is very ChatGBT-y? So, yes, there is a dedicated Copilot+ button on the laptop and it takes you directly to the chatting interface. And AI is all the rage right now, right? But my own experience with Microsoft's AI feels gimmicky and underdeveloped.The Microsoft AI is fully integrated into their Microsoft 360 suite, but I don't have lengthy documents to test this functionality. Surely the integration of this new Microsoft AI product with existing Microsoft products will be amazing?As an AI novice, I love the algorithm's desire to summarize and to provide relevant links. I have queried the algorithm many times now with questions I knew the answers to and was not disappointed, but was also not impressed. Microsoft is surely anticipating my malaise with their AI by presenting a series of gentle introductions to AI queries that summarize elegant AI requests for things that feel foreign to me.One crazy-amazing AI analysis that I received resulted from a personal photograph I submitted in search of a response...a photograph of my very moody porch toad.Ultimately, I like the summarization capabilities of Microsoft's Copilot+ AI, but as someone old enough to read books and query effectively, this summarization capability feels a little bit delicate and incomplete. I can't recommend this laptop based solely on the novelty of AI integration (there's a whole key for that AI!).AI is fun and engaging right now. But the implementation of AI here is not going to be the tie that binds you to the greater AI developments you're seeing out there.Overall, this is a beautiful laptop with incredible graphics. But Microsoft appears to be releasing a new type of chipset that might create significant impediments to unsuspecting users.Please do you due diligence before investing in this laptop based solely on battery life. OK?

I have spent the last week setting up and evaluating this very interesting and unique machine, the ARM based Microsoft Surface CoPilot+. Combining a week’s intensive use with watching many YouTube videos and numerous podcasts and reviews, I can say that this machine seems to boil down to two main considerations. First, it's a new type of Windows machine that runs on an ARM processor, which is a departure from the usual Intel or AMD machines. Second, it has a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chip for AI tasks.Let me address the AI aspect first.Short version: This AI stuff is pretty cool and having a CoPilot+ laptop with the built-in AI chip will let you do AI things that other computers cannot do.Long version: You can experience AI and play around with ... MoreI have spent the last week setting up and evaluating this very interesting and unique machine, the ARM based Microsoft Surface CoPilot+. Combining a week’s intensive use with watching many YouTube videos and numerous podcasts and reviews, I can say that this machine seems to boil down to two main considerations. First, it's a new type of Windows machine that runs on an ARM processor, which is a departure from the usual Intel or AMD machines. Second, it has a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chip for AI tasks.Let me address the AI aspect first.Short version: This AI stuff is pretty cool and having a CoPilot+ laptop with the built-in AI chip will let you do AI things that other computers cannot do.Long version: You can experience AI and play around with creative applications without this specific computer. Before getting this AI laptop, I got a subscription to Microsoft CoPilot PRO, which integrates well with my Office programs, and I've had a lot of fun using Microsoft 'Designer' to create cool graphics for social media and emails and using AI to look at spreadsheets and whip up PowerPoints. What’s new for AI here is this machine is the first to have a built-in Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chip, which is designed to take the load off the main processor when the laptop is running AI processes. At the moment, some of the graphic functions like Designer for graphics and the language translation use the NPU chip to boost processing speed, and there are some video conferencing filters that have been around a while - but more significant is the tremendous potential for apps and ‘small models’ that will use this onboard neural chip to great advantage. Having an on-board Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chip is a new thing and developers are cranking out AI apps and AI program updates on a daily basis. I am looking forward to more and more of these program updates and apps to become available to really help the AI functions of the CoPilot+ show its capabilities. This is about as “future proof” as you can get for the surge in AI capabilities at the moment. Having the built-in Neural Processing Unit (NPU) will help speed up some of the AI process, allow use of AI applications and plug-ins, and provide many AI functions even when the machine is offline.Now, to put the AI aside and evaluate the Surface CoPilot+ as a laptop – Microsoft Surface machines have a reputation for being well engineered and this machine looks good and feels very sturdy in the hand. The edges are nicely chamfered and easy on the hands. This machine is well-built, with a backlit keyboard, solid hinge, and a very nice 120MHz screen. The haptic touchpad is wonderful. My first haptic touchpad, and this is a whole new experience as I really never liked touchpads until this one... very smooth, responsive, adjustable, and clicks anywhere! I can also use an inexpensive capacitive stylus for basic drawing on the screen when using OneNote or playing with the AI graphics. This 15” machine has a micro-SD slot and first thing i did was pop in a 512GB card for game files, software repository, and cloud storage. Long battery life is one of the main benefits of the ARM-based machine—it lasts much longer than my other laptop. My experience is easily 2x to 3x the battery life of my i5 laptop (which just got a brand-new battery). Another very nice feature of this ARM based machine is 'instant on' when you open the lid to resume work – the laptop instantly jumps back to life every time and doesn't drain the battery when asleep. The more I use this laptop the more I appreciate how nice it is to not worry about shutting the lid when I step away for a moment or pack up to go to the next location and know that I can pop the lid and go right back to work without having to wait for the computer to wake up. With the facial recognition enabled (and it works very well) you don’t have to put in a PIN code or password – the laptop recognizes you and is instantly ready to pick up where you left off. Really nice!As for gaming, it has been well established that this isn't a hardcore gaming machine, but don’t sell the ARM laptop short - it can handle many fun and modern games. It runs all the normal programs for office work, school, photo and light video editing without any issues. It's fast, lasts an incredibly long time on battery, and doesn't keep me waiting.In conclusion, if you want a well-built, long-lasting laptop that's quiet, cool in your lap, and on the cutting edge of AI, the Surface CoPilot+ is a great choice.Greetings from Central Georgia and Happy 4th of July!banjo

For the hardware itself, the size, shape, and weight are amazing. It's thin, light, and slips easily into a small backpack or even a sling. The construction is solid with little to no flex with a tight hinge for the display. I've owned Microsoft laptops in the past and this is by far the most impressive and highest quality piece of hardware I've seen from them yet. It's hard not to see striking similarities to a MacBook Air though but that's a very good thing in this case.The keyboard and trackpad are also a pleasure to use. The keys have a positive and firm feel with a nice amount of throw and the trackpad is fantastic. It's predictable with taps and touches and the haptic feedback is positive. I'm a stickler when it comes to trackpads and this one is ... MoreFor the hardware itself, the size, shape, and weight are amazing. It's thin, light, and slips easily into a small backpack or even a sling. The construction is solid with little to no flex with a tight hinge for the display. I've owned Microsoft laptops in the past and this is by far the most impressive and highest quality piece of hardware I've seen from them yet. It's hard not to see striking similarities to a MacBook Air though but that's a very good thing in this case.The keyboard and trackpad are also a pleasure to use. The keys have a positive and firm feel with a nice amount of throw and the trackpad is fantastic. It's predictable with taps and touches and the haptic feedback is positive. I'm a stickler when it comes to trackpads and this one is awesome.For ports, it has one USB A port and 2 USB C ports along with a headphone jack and charging port but I would have loved to see an SD card slot.The touchscreen works very well - just like the trackpad is quite predictable and responsive requiring just a light touch to interact with it.I find the 13.8" display with 2304 x 1536 pixels to be a great size with enough real estate to have 1 to 1.5 windows open at a time so I can easily switch between windows.Battery life is pretty astounding for a machine of this size. I've been using it for about 4-5 hours a day for web browsing, writing, and watching videos and I usually have to plug it in every 3 days or so. This should absolutely be able to last a full work day or a long-haul flight without having to plug it in. Even though it uses a proprietary charging cable with their Surface connector you can also charge it via USB C if you don't have the stock charger, which I would actually recommend as the stock charger only supplies 39 watts.The "highlight" of this laptop are the Copilot+ AI features which allow you to call on it at any time using it's built-in Copilot+ key. I was a bit skeptical of this initially but have come to enjoy the convenience of being able to ask it to provide quick summaries of different search topics without the need to sift through numerous search results in a browser. You can also customize the interaction and results with different "conversation styles" which I found particularly interesting where you can choose from "Balanced", "Creative", and "Precise" styles. I liked the Precise conversation style as most of my usage with Copilot+ was to do research.Responses are also quite quick where results come back within 3-5 seconds at most and I also quite like how it saves your AI history so you can go back to a particular task to see the results. Of course, you can delete these results at any time.One thing to be aware of is that this uses a Snapdragon processor vs an Intel processor and apparently it's so new that not all software is optimized to be used with it quite yet. I do almost everything through a browser so I didn't run into those issues but it could be worth looking into if you have a specific piece of software that you use.The built-in AI features are incredibly convenient but the hardware is what really makes this laptop shine. It's an absolute pleasure to use for its speed, the fantastic keyboard and trackpad, portability, as well as the superb build quality.