Surface Laptop 4 Review
Surface Laptop 4 Pricing and Availability
The Surface Laptop 4 configuration was sent to TechRadar as a review.
Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU (up to 4.8GHz boost), Graphics Intel Iris Xe RAM 16GB LPDDR4x Screen 13.5 inch PixelSense (1,256 x 1,504). touch Storage: 512GB SSD. Ports 1 x USBC and 1 x USB.A., combi audio jack. Surface Laptop 4 Size 12.1 x 8.8 x 0.57 Inches (308 x 223 x 15 mm; W xD x H For $999 you can get the 13.5-inch model with AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB RAM and SSD (AU$1,599).
A Surface Laptop 4 is $1,299 (PS1,299 AU$2,199) if you wish to upgrade to a model 15 inches. This configuration includes an AMD Ryzen7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a SSD of 256GB.
The CPU is what makes the difference between the Surface Laptop 4’s 15- and 13″ sizes. AMD Ryzen 54680U is a 12-thread 6-core part while Ryzen 74980U can handle 16thread 8-cores. The 15 inch will do a little better when it comes to multi-threaded work like video editing. Other than that, everything else remains the same.
Although the 15-inch laptop has a higher resolution technically, it still maintains the same pixel density. You won’t see a significant difference in the resolution of either laptop with 201 PPI. A bigger screen on a laptop is still a better screen.
You can also upgrade the rest of the laptop’s hardware if you need a bit more power. Strangely enough, higher configurations have Intel hardware rather than AMD. Surface Laptops with Intel Core i7 processors are the fastest available. The 15-inch version comes with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SATA SSD. It costs $2,399 (AU$3,999)
It is certainly an odd arrangement, considering that those workloads that will require the highest RAM usage are the same as those that would use the Ryzen 7 4960U to power. Microsoft might add the configuration to their product line in the near future. Some traveling video editor would surely appreciate this.
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Ryzen Performance For the Win: Surface Laptop 4, Tested
Surface Laptop 3 has a slightly lower performance, but it’s understandable that Microsoft is investing a lot of time and resources into Surface Laptop 4. The Ryzen 7 4980U chip in our review unit features eight cores, 16 threads, and a base clock speed of 2.0GHz. This Ryzen 7 4980U chip, which is called the Microsoft Edition, can be found on no other laptop. It’s coupled with an integrated Radeon Graphics processor that has eight graphics cores of its own. While it’s a fourth-generation Ryzen part rather than the latest (fifth) generation, it’s still plenty powerful.
Surface Laptop 4, with its multiple cores and threads is well-positioned against similar priced laptops on our benchmark charts. These laptops include the LG Gram 17 as well the Dell Inspiron 15 7000-2-in-1 – another 15 inch notebook that features Intel Iris Xe Max dedicated Graphics. I also included the MacBook Pro (16-inch), and XPS 15. These laptops cost significantly more than Surface Laptop 4, and feature more powerful components. You’d expect them to perform better. This is not always the case. That’s why I included them. You can see the PCMark 10 results to immediately assess how the Surface Laptop 4 performs on daily computing tasks. A score of 4,000 or more is considered exceptional performance. Breaking 5,000 is exceedingly rare, but the Surface Laptop 4 manages to do it. Our PCMark 10 testing simulates real-world productivity levels and workflows for content-creation. This is how we assess the overall performance of our system for office-centric tasks.
PCMark 8 features a Storage Subtest to determine the speed of the system’s storage subsystem. The results are very consistent. All of the laptops scored well because of their fast SSDs.
Surface Laptop 4 can’t handle more demanding tasks like editing videos and rendering images. For this type of task, you might consider buying an XPS 15 laptop or a MacBook Pro 16 inch. So, it is encouraging to see that Surface Laptop 4 scored similarly to the MacBook Pro 16-Inch and XPS 15 despite having a higher price.
It takes the Surface Laptop 4 just seven minutes to convert a 12-minute 4K video from 1080p to 4K using the Handbrake App. This is comparable to the MacBook Pro which costs $3,899 according to the review.
With a score of 1,550 on the Cinebench R15 test, its 3D rendering prowess is even better than the MacBook Pro’s, and on par with that of the $2,299 XPS 15, which employs one of Intel’s power-user H-series, not thin-laptop U series, 10th Generation “Comet Lake-H” chips.
The Surface Laptop 4 has fallen behind the competition in photo editing. Inspiron 17 as well as the Gram 17 are comparable priced. However, it was able to beat the Gram 17 in our Adobe Photoshop testing. The test involved applying complex filters and effects over a JPEG file. Video encoding and 3D render tests are CPU-based exercises. Photoshop taxes a system’s resources differently. That means laptops equipped with powerful components won’t always be able to finish faster.
Screen
13.5″ IPS LCD display. 2496 x 1664 resolution. 3:2 aspect ratio
1200.1 contrast (as rated), 95.2% SRB coverage
380nit luminosity (as measured)
However, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 does have a touchscreen. After a while, we have come to realize that the touch point on a Windows laptop is the touchscreen. We often reach for it when browsing websites. One would not have thought that it was possible.
You may have already seen the Surface Laptop 4’s screen in different shades of “beautiful” if you did some research. This is true in some senses, and it’s a particularly great display given the asking price of the entry-level laptop, but it’s not a complete masterclass in screen tech.
The display is also not wide in color. There isn’t the same level of saturation available in OLED laptops. The OLED has a very nice “normal” color, but it doesn’t have the ability to create eye-popping colours.
We’re fine with that, but we do think contrast could be a little better. Blacks look slighty lifted in dimly lit areas if there is enough brightness. In the six-months since then, laptops less costly than this one have received a lot of attention. Some even had a 30% better contrast.
Performance
AMD and Intel 11th Gen CPU options
The big news for the 2021 Surface Laptop 4 is that you can get it with either an AMD Ryzen 5, an Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 processor. AMD Ryzen support has been limited. A Ryzen can be purchased in the PS999 Entry-Level model. This includes 8GB RAM as well as a SSD of 256GB.
This is what we think a majority of people should purchase. The Ryzen processors have a great battery life and should perform well unless your laptop has at least 16GB RAM.
Surface Laptop 4 was our review. The laptop has an Intel Core i5 11th Generation Core i5, 8GB RAM, and a larger 512GB SSD. It comes with an additional 25% or higher price. It is worth the extra cost. If you have a real need for extra storage, it is unlikely.
Microsoft seems to be charging far too high for SSD storage or RAM upgrade. But, this year there is a great real-world advantage to upgrading to Intel because you get Intel Xe graphic. This is pretty much Intel’s first genuinely decent integrated graphics ‘card’. The Witcher 3 was tested on this card. It’s certainly an old title, but the game is still very enjoyable. At 1400 x 10050 pixels, you can get a decent 30fps.
Connectivity and Battery Life
47.4Wh Battery – “Up to 17 Hours” claimed
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 uses a 47.4Wh lithium-ion battery. The figure is pretty low for a thin laptop. Microsoft claims that the laptop will last up to 17 hours between charges. This Intel version can be used for up to 17 hours before needing to recharge.
Our results were not close to that, but were still better than some of the Intel-powered laptops we’ve reviewed at around this price, and better than the Surface Laptop 3. Mixed productivity work took it to last 10 hours and 42 minutes. It’s not too demanding, but still manages to do the same things that most of us do every day. It was set at 65 percent brightness. This is what you would use indoors.
While working outside with the Surface Laptop 4, we kept an eye on its battery. When outdoors, we increased the brightness of the screen to meet the harsh ambient light. One hour of normal use of the tablet, where we mainly used WordPad to type, resulted in a 16 per cent reduction of the battery. This indicates that the device will only last six hours and fifteen mins, as well that the maximum brightness of the display is somewhat of a power hog.
Windows laptops are more durable if purchased in 1080p resolution with the AMD Ryzen processor. But we’re pretty happy with the Surface’s stamina given how sharp the screen is. More pixels often mean higher power requirements. The benefit of a further jump to 4K in a rival is arguably outweighed by the dip in battery life we usually see, even with laptops from this generation.
Microsoft kept the Surface Laptop 4’s connectivity minimal. There are three standard connections: an old-style USB, a USB C and a headphone port. While the USB-C has nothing extraordinary, it does not have Thunderbolt connector support. This allows you to connect multiple monitors together or external SSDs. This socket uses USB 3.2, which reduces bandwidth by 10Gbps (or 1250MB/s). It is still quite acceptable.
Microsoft Surface Laptop4 15-Inch Reviews: Redemption
Surface Laptop 4 has higher chips than the Surface Laptop 3.
There has been very little change in the look and feel since the previous generation. There are some differences, but the Laptop 4 has a thinner design and a new Ice Blue color option. But you get the same 3:2 touchscreen, the same port selection, and the same design.
Inside, the big changes occur. You can configure both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Laptop models with either Intel’s 11th-Gen processors or AMD’s Ryzen 4000 processors. Microsoft said that new Surface models would have significantly higher battery life and performance than their predecessors.
So this review will largely focus on the new system’s performance. It wasn’t my primary goal to evaluate the Surface Laptop 4 at 15 inches compared to its predecessor. For one, the Laptop 3 set a low performance bar it had mediocre battery life, and couldn’t even play a 4K 60FPS video without stuttering, so even a competent budget laptop would blow that out of the water. The most important thing is that Apple with its Arm-based, M1 has recently updated its flagship models. Its massive chip upgrade has left other 2020 upgrades behind. So my big question when looking at AMD’s new Ryzen 7 Surface Edition (also known as the AMD Ryzen 7 4980U Microsoft Surface Edition because of course it is) is: Does it beat Apple’s M1?
Answer: No. But it’s generally not as great. Surface Laptop 4 purchasers may not care about this, however.
The Ryzen 7 Surface Edition is first. While this isn’t AMD, the Ryzen 7 Surface Edition chip is a part of the Ryzen 4000 and Ryzen 5000 mobile series. Since the Surface continues to use older Ryzen processors, it’s disappointing. The new generation has a lot of performance enhancements and is built on Zen 3, Zen 2, and 4000 series Zen 2.
Of course, that doesn’t make the Ryzen 7 4980U a bad chip. Ryzen 4000 chips outperform Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake processors across the board. The AMD Radeon integrated GPUs are excellent on the 4980U, which has eight cores. While the M1 does have eight cores too, those cores don’t always work in harmony. An easy way to think of it is that AMD’s chip has eight all-around-pretty-good cores, while Apple’s chip has four high-performance cores and four weaker cores. You can see the difference in our benchmarks results later.
Surface Laptop 4 15″ I Agree to Continue
Smart devices require that you accept certain terms and condition before you can use them. This is a list no one ever reads. Unfortunately, we are not able to go through and review every agreement. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
Use the Surface Laptop 4 at 15 inches by
Send your region, language and keyboard layout.
These agreements can be optional:
Delivery April 15
Microsoft will start shipping the Surface Laptop 4 from April 15
In both its classic display sizes (13.5″ and 15″) Two microprocessors are available inside the notebook: an Intel 11th-gen Tiger Lake (Tiger Lake Core) chip, or the Surface Edition (Codesigned by Microsoft & AMD), based in AMD’s Ryzen 4000 Mobile CPUs (Zen 2 technology). Surface Edition CPUs will be cheaper than the Intel ones, and they are faster than any other laptops. For the specifications and prices of every Surface Laptop 4 see our original news article. We were sent a Surface Laptop 4 15 inch variant with the 8-core Ryzen 7 4980U Surface Edition. It is reported by the operating system as having a 2GHz chip with boost speeds which (per CPU-Z utility) do not appear to exceed 4GHz.
This short story provides a peek at Surface Laptop 4 performance on limited benchmarks. It is not part of our final review. It is possible that you will notice slight differences in the results we ultimately publish. That’s because we typically run more than one benchmark per day to confirm accuracy. We haven’t done any battery life tests.
Also, this preview has been artificially limited. This is to see how the Surface Laptop 4 compares in performance to all other Microsoft devices and the Surface Laptop 3. We will compare the Surface Laptop 4 to other third-party notebooks.
Surface Laptop 4: Conclusion
These preliminary benchmarks offer some very positive clues regarding the Microsoft Ryzen 7 Surface Edition processor running on the Surface Laptop 4. Many of the questions are unanswered including about battery life. It’s not clear if the Surface Laptop 4 can throttle its GPU or CPU under various load conditions. It is possible that an Intel-based Surface Laptop 4 has been provided for us to review. Last but not least, we will need to test the Surface Laptop 4 on display quality and keyboard/trackpad performance as well as other attributes.
In our formal review, all these and other questions will be addressed. One thing we do know is that our Surface Laptop 3 performs twice as well as it. Twice as fast. Microsoft’s Ryzen-powered Surface Laptop 4 has delivered on its promise.
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As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He was previously a writer for PCMag.
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.Surface Laptop 4 Review