The Surface Laptop is a

laptop computer A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

as part of the company's

Surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...

line of

personal computing A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...

devices. When it debuted, the laptop was intended to compete with Apple's

MacBook Air The MacBook Air is a line of ultrabook computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc. It consists of a full-size keyboard, a machined aluminum case, and, in the more modern versions, a thin light structure. The Air was originally positioned ...

and MacBook Pro. The laptop was announced at the #MicrosoftEDU event by Microsoft on 2 May 2017, alongside

Windows 10 S Windows 10 has several editions, all with varying feature sets, use cases, or intended devices. Certain editions are distributed only on devices directly from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), while editions such as ''Enterprise'' and ''E ...

and an updated version of Surface Arc Mouse that includes a large capacitive surface. It became available for pre-order on the same day, and began shipping on 15 June 2017.

Configuration

Features

* 7th generation

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Kaby Lake Kaby Lake is Intel's codename for its seventh generation Core microprocessor family announced on August 30, 2016. Like the preceding Skylake, Kaby Lake is produced using a 14 nanometer manufacturing process technology. Breaking with Intel's ...

CPU. *

Intel HD and Iris Graphics Intel Graphics Technology (GT) is the collective name for a series of integrated graphics processors (IGPs) produced by Intel that are manufactured on the same package or die as the central processing unit (CPU). It was first introduced in 2010 ...

GPU * Alcantara fabric keyboard with a 1.5mm travel backlit keys * Windows 10 S operating system * 13.5-inch PixelSense display with a 3:2 aspect ratio * 14.5 hour battery life * 110.6 Mbit/s SSD * Integrated vapor chambers into the aluminum finish

Hardware

The Surface Laptop is the 5th addition to

lineup, following the Surface Pro,

Surface Hub The Surface Hub is a brand of interactive whiteboard developed and marketed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft Surface family. The Surface Hub is a wall-mounted or roller-stand-mounted device with either a 55-inch (140 cm) 1080p or an 8 ...

Surface Book The Surface Book is a 2-in-1 PC designed and produced by Microsoft, part of the company's Surface line of personal computing devices. Surface Book is distinguished from other Surface devices primarily by its full-sized, detachable keyboard, whi ...

, and the

Surface Studio The Surface Studio is an all-in-one PC, designed and produced by Microsoft as part of its Surface series of Windows-based personal computing devices. It was announced at the Windows 10 Devices Event on October 26, 2016, with pre-orders begin ...

. Unlike the other products, the Surface Laptop is aimed toward students. Microsoft claims a 14.5-hour battery life when running

, but testing suggests that the battery can be depleted to 50% in just 2.5 hours. It comes in four colors: Platinum, Graphite Gold, Burgundy, and Cobalt Blue as advertised. It has a 13.5-inch "PixelSense" Display at 2256 × 1504 using a 3:2 aspect ratio. It features a 10-point touch screen along with

Surface Pen The Surface Pen is an active stylus and digital pen developed by Microsoft for its series of Surface computing devices. It is designed to showcase the pen computing capabilities of Microsoft's Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems. Fir ...

support. Unlike other ultra-portables by

, this does not feature any sort of detachment mechanism from the keyboard. The Surface Laptop uses seventh-generation "

" processors, with both Intel Core i5 and i7 variants. It uses Intel HD Graphics 620 on the Core i5 version, while the Core i7 model uses Intel Iris Plus 640. Three system memory options are available at purchase: 4, 8, and 16 GB and three

SSD A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is ...

options: 128, 256, and 512 GB. These cannot be upgraded in the future. The SSD has a transfer speed of 110.6 Mbit/s, which is quite slow when compared to its competitors. The Surface Laptop cannot be opened without destroying it, making it impossible to repair or upgrade by anyone except Microsoft. It has an unremovable battery with a capacity of 45.2 Wh. All other parts are either glued or soldered.

Software

Surface Laptop models used to ship with

, a feature-limited edition of

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

with restrictions on software usage which has now been replaced with Windows 10 in S Mode; users may only install software from

Windows Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps ...

, and system settings are locked to only allow

Microsoft Edge Microsoft Edge is a proprietary, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. It was first released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One and later ported to other platforms as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project: Android ...

as the default web browser with

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

as its search engine, since third-party web browsers using custom layout engines are banned from Windows Store. The device may be upgraded to Windows 10 ''Pro'' for free, which removes these restrictions.

Timeline

References

External links

* * {{Microsoft 1 Computer-related introductions in 2017