Windows Central Verdict
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 is the clamshell form factor perfected.
1.Price & specs2.Design & ports3.Display4.Performance & battery5.Copilot+ AI6.Keyboard & touchpad7.Camera, mic, & audio8.Competition9.Should you buy it?
Overall, it’s remained very much the same laptop for 8 years.
The Surface Laptop 7 is actually a great deal at its entry-level price.
Spoilers: I think the Surface Laptop 7 might be the best laptop ever.
This review was made possible thanks to a review unit provided by Microsoft.
The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.
However, this time, that’s not the case.
Thinning out those display bezels has been long overdue on the Surface Laptop line.
I also love how this laptop looks when it’s closed.
The clean-cut edges meet perfectly with the lid, and it just looks so good.
It’s super clean and contemporary.
The microSD card reader is exclusive to the 15-inch model.
The Surface Laptop 7 13 is 17.5mm, and the Surface Laptop 5 13 is 14.9mm.
I’m glad Microsoft has stuck with it on Surface Laptop 7.
The Surface Laptop 7 is also the first Surface Laptop with a truly repairable design.
The last design point I want to touch on is specific to the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7.
For the first time ever, Microsoft has put a larger battery in the bigger Surface Laptop model.
The 15-inch model is noticeably heavier than previous 15-inch Surface Laptops, coming in at 1.66kg.
The Surface Laptop 7 is actually a great deal at its entry-level price.
While it’s not that noticeable in your bag, it is noticeable when holding it in your hands.
To compare, the Surface Laptop 5 15 was 1.56kg.
Both panels have 201 pixels per inch, with Windows 11 scaling beautifully at 150% by default.
On that subject, color contrast is good for an IPS panel.
Our unit also has no noticeable backlight bleed around the edges, either.
The displays also get quite bright for IPS, maxing out at around 600 nits.
I think the Surface Laptop 7 looks gorgeous.
It no longer supports pen input, a staple of the Surface product line for many years.
It’s a shame, too, because the Surface Laptop 6 for business does have an anti-reflective coating.
No idea why they couldn’t have brought that to the newer unit.
The display corners are rounded, and they look great.
But how does that translate into the real world?
In short, it means longer battery life without sacrificing Ultrabook-class flagship performance in most workflows.
This result trades blows with the Apple M3 in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
The Surface Laptop 7 features that classic wedge shaped design.
Moving on to Cinebench, which also posted a good result.
In our single-core test, the Surface Laptop 7 earned a respectable 123 points and 961 in multi-core.
That’s likely a result of the X1E80100’s ability to turbo-boost on two cores.
In our SSD performance benchmark, the Surface Laptop 7 did okay.
Testing the 1TB SSD, we got a read score of 3,660MB/s and a write score of 3,020MB/s.
Still, in day-to-day usage, you really won’t notice the performance difference here.
The laptop looks thin, but it’s actually thicker than prior generations.
Regarding heat, the only time it ever got notably warm was when running benchmarks and gaming.
In normal use, the laptop isn’t warm at all, and the fan isn’t audible.
An important aspect of the Snapdragon X platform is how the emulated apps feel when used.
I love the display on Surface Laptop 7.
That’s no longer the case here on Snapdragon X.
This means battery life won’t last quite as long when these apps are open.
Discord was only a touch slower but still relatively usable.
The display looks incredibly premium and high-end.
Apps that are natively compiled for Windows on Arm run beautifully.
Gaming
Gaming is the other side of the performance coin.
Of course, that means nothing.
Laptop 7 earns a great score on Geekbench.
With that in mind, the Surface Laptop 7 can game, but with a pretty huge asterisk.
It really comes down to the kind of games you’re looking to play.
Cyberpunk 2077, for example, doesn’t run great on Surface Laptop 7.
A great result in Cinebench, but a slightly lower-than-expected multi-core score.
At 1080p low graphics, I was barely averaging 25fps, so not really playable.
GTA V for example runs great at 1080p with medium-high graphics prefs, averaging around 60-70fps.
That’s a perfectly playable framerate.
These SSD speeds are fine, but nothing special.
There’s also a middle ground here where some games will be playable but with issues.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is an example of this.
So, while the game runs, there are issues.
The Surface Laptop 7 got quite warm under maximum load.
Then there are games that simply don’t run.
So the TL:DR for gaming on Surface Laptop 7 is that it’s the wild west.
You just have to try and see for yourself.
CrossMark is not natively compiled for Arm, but still earns a respectable score in benchmark results.
In our PCMark10 system battery test, the Laptop 7 achieved an incredible 18.5 hours before running dead.
I ran this test twice to verify it wasn’t a fluke, and it wasn’t.
All this is to say, the Surface Laptop 7 simply lasts all day in your usual productivity-based workflows.
Rendering video in Premiere Pro was very slow.
So far, the collection of Copilot+ features has been a little underwhelming.
Whether it be Teams, Skype, Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, or the camera app.
I for sure use these more than any of the other Copilot+ features shipping currently.
Surface Laptop 7 is not a gaming laptop, but earns a great score in benchmark tests when natively compiled for Arm (which most games are not.)
The less convincing effects and eye correction, of which there are now two modes: standard and teleprompter.
So, I just choose not to use these.
Moving onto the creative Copilot+ features, which are Cocreator and Image Generation.
Spider-Man was playable but with graphical glitches throughout.
It’s a cool idea on paper, but the results are often lackluster.
The reason for this is so that Microsoft can verify you’re not generating any offensive imagery.
If you are, it will block your request and refuse to generate, even locally.
The Surface Laptop 7 achieved our best benchmark result yet.
Lastly, we have on-equipment translations using Live Captions.
This feature uses the NPU to translate several different languages into English from any audio source on your system.
This is a great accessibility feature and the second actually useful AI feature on Copilot+ PCs.
Copilot+ is the key to all this… or not.
So overall, Copilot+ features are currently a little underwhelming.
We’ll start with the keyboard, which feels amazing to key in on.
The keys are tactile and responsive and also incredibly quiet.
AI Studio Effects are very fun.
Even slamming my fingers on the keys in a heavy typing fashion doesn’t come across as incredibly loud.
If you’ve never used a haptic touchpad before, prepare to be amazed.
So you’re free to make the touchpad click feel shallow or super deep.
Cocreator in Paint is a fun gimmick.
You should be able to attend meetings with these microphones with no problems at all.
I really like this.
Both come with excellent displays, though Lenovo’s has an OLED panel versus the IPS on the Surface.
Live Captions can now translate different languages locally.
It also has a Snapdragon X Elite SoC, along with a 15.6-inch display that’s OLED in nature.
It doesn’t have a touchscreen though, so you might want to consider that.
So, there are more options compared to the Surface Laptop 7.
Surface Laptop 7 has a best in class keyboard and touchpad.
Surface Laptop 7: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if…
You should not buy this if…
So, the Surface Laptop 7.
The haptic touchpad is configurable!
It’s basically perfect.
It’s peak clamshell form factor.
Many other Copilot+ PCs have this built-in, but the Surface line has omitted it this generation.
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a close competitor.
I think the Surface Laptop 7 gives the MacBook Air a run for its money.
For example, magnets, instead of glue, keep the underside attached to the laptop.
If you want to upgrade the storage in this laptop, it’s a simple 10-minute job.
Surface Laptop’s varied colors on display.
That has never been the case with a Surface before, and that is commendable.
Should I wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday?
So keep your eyes peeled!
