Although the new Surface Laptop don’t go out before June 15, we already know all the specific material and pricing. And in terms of price and performance, Microsoft’s laptop clearly competes with Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Weight, size, components, performance, autonomy: there are however some important differences.
Two face-to-face meetings for the price of one
You plan to buy a laptop in the next three months, but between a Mac and a PC, your heart rocks? Here is a small summary of everything there is to remember between the Surface Laptop on the one hand, and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro on the other. We have voluntarily made two types of comparisons: the first is based on a MacBook Air, and a “basic” Surface Laptop (with only 128 GB of SSD).
The second comparison is based on a MacBook Pro and a Surface Laptop in a more muscular version. Note also that Microsoft and Apple machines come in different configurations, with a more powerful processor, more RAM or storage capacity.
Is Microsoft more generous than Apple?
Described at the time of its announcement a few days ago by specialists because of its price and its unique USB 3.0 port, the Surface Laptop is ultimately not as expensive as it seems. Because the machine benefits from a newer processor and above all more powerful than the MacBook Air. In addition, it has a more advanced definition than the MacBook Air: the Surface Laptop is capable of displaying up to 2256 x 1504 pixels, when the Apple computer peaks at “only” 1440 x 900 pixels. the downside: the basic version of the Surface Laptop has only 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage capacity. Difficult to work comfortably with such an amount of memory. We therefore prefer the more advanced version, that equipped with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. It is certainly more expensive, since it is announced at 1449 euros, but it should really allow you to enjoy your PC in very good configurations, especially with the most demanding applications (Photoshop and Premiere, to name a few). And above all, this configuration remains all the same 250 euros cheaper than the MacBook Pro, with equivalent configuration.
So which one to choose?
Clearly, the “basic” version of the Surface Laptop is far from being a wise choice, even if it stands up to the MacBook Air in many respects (touch screen, definition of 2256 x 1504 pixels…). In this case, and if you want to keep the Microsoft ecosystem, it is better to turn to the side of a laptop like the HP Specter x360 (do not hesitate to refer to the comparison ofultrabooks from our colleagues at Tom’s Hardware for more details). On the other hand, if your wallet is a little more stocked, the Surface Laptop equipped with a Core i5, 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of memory, is a very good choice. Regarding the problem of the single USB 3.0 port mentioned above, a small doubler for less than 7 euros will be perfectly suitable. We simply regret that Microsoft has not dared to take the plunge by offering a USB Type-C port. For Surface Laptop v2, maybe?
