I Like Microsoft’s 13-Inch Surface Laptop, but the Larger Model Is the One to Get

8.0/ 10
SCORE

Microsoft Surface Laptop (13-inch)

Pros

• Beautiful, durable and compact design
• Outstanding battery life
• Better-than-expected audio output

Cons

• 13-inch, 3:2 display can feel cramped
• Laptop is harder to open than it should be
• Lacks Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 connectivity

The reason to choose Microsoft’s 13-inch Surface Laptop over the 13.8-inch version isn’t for the greater portability: It’s the lower price. It starts at $900, which is $300 less than the cheapest 13.8-inch model. When you bump up the 13-inch Surface Laptop’s storage to match the entry-level 13.8-inch model’s, however, the price difference drops to $200, where it becomes more difficult to make the case for the 13-inch Surface Laptop.

Like the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop I reviewed, the 13-inch model uses an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X series CPU and boasts a wonderfully streamlined and expertly crafted design that rivals that of the MacBook Air. I love the look and feel of the 13-inch Surface Laptop, but I like the added performance, superior display and haptic touchpad of the larger 13.8-inch model. It’s the better value if you’re shopping for a workhorse, everyday laptop. I’d only consider the smaller and cheaper 13-inch Surface Laptop as a secondary machine for travel. It makes sense as your primary laptop only if you have a work setup with an external monitor or two.

The Surface Laptop (13-inch) starts at $900 for a system with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1-P42-100 processor, 16GB of RAM, integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, a 256GB SSD and a 13-inch touch display with a boxy 3:2 aspect ratio and a 1,920×1,280-pixel resolution. There’s just one upgrade offered, and my test system had it: 512GB of storage for an extra $100.

If you opt for the $1,000 model, then you can choose from two other colors — Violet and Ocean — in addition to the default Platinum. I received the 13-inch Surface Laptop in Ocean, which is a muted aqua color. The Violet looks more vibrant than the Ocean, judging from Microsoft’s site.

The Surface Laptop (13-inch) starts at £899 in the UK and AU$1,699 in Australia. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop (13-inch) performance

Microsoft offers a lone CPU for the 13-inch Surface Laptop — an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus processor — which can’t match the performance of Apple’s M4 MacBook Air or the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop I tested with a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite chip. I didn’t test the baseline 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, but it should also offer a bit more performance than the 13-inch Surface Laptop from its 10-core Snapdragon X Plus processor. 

Its performance on the 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark shows that it’s not a great pick for gamers or graphics pros, even if you were willing to use the small, 13-inch display. With a total of 45 TOPS, the 13-inch Surface Laptop’s Snapdragon X Plus has the same TOPS count and AI-processing capabilities as higher-end Snapdragon X series CPUs. It performed well on our Procyon AI Computer Vision test, which measures integer math proficiency for AI workloads. 

The little laptop also performed admirably in battery testing. Even among long-running, Arm-based laptops, its battery life was outstanding. It lasted 24 hours and 20 minutes on our YouTube streaming battery drain test, putting it in a select group of laptops that can last for longer than a day on a single charge. The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop lasted 19 hours and 50 minutes on the same test, in large part because its larger, higher-resolution display has more pixels to power. Likewise, the M4 MacBook Air has an even higher-res display than the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop and lasted 15 hours and 50 minutes.

Windows ultraportable masquerading as a mini MacBook 

You might not get more performance than expected for the price with the 13-inch Surface Laptop, but you certainly get a better build quality and sleeker design than most laptops around its $900 price. It’s every bit as well put together as the pricier 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, which is one of my favorite laptops. The 13-inch model boasts a simple, sturdy all-metal design that looks a lot like Apple’s minimalist approach with its MacBooks.

The 13-inch Surface Laptop is smaller than the 13.6-inch MacBook Air and 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, more than even the size of the display might indicate. The 3:2 display allows it to be narrower and more compact than the other two laptops with 16:10 displays. It’s just 11.3 inches wide, compared to nearly 12 inches wide for the MacBook Air and the larger Surface Laptop. At 0.6 inches thick, it’s a bit thinner than the larger Surface Laptop but not as thin as the MacBook Air, which is just 0.4 inches thick. It may be a hair thicker than the Air, but the two weigh the same at 2.7 pounds. The larger 13.8-inch Surface Laptop is still eminently portable at 3 pounds.

I was worried the small 13-inch, 3:2 display might result in a cramped keyboard, but my fears were unfounded. The keys are widely spaced and feel very comfortable for typing. The spacebar and the keys along the sides, such as Tab, Shift, Backspace and Enter, are shortened to accommodate the narrower keyboard deck, but each is still wide enough that I didn’t need to relearn any typing habits. The keys offered slightly deeper travel than with the MacBook Air, and didn’t feel mushy with a firm, snappy response. 

The touchpad also offers a firm and snappy click response, but it’s one area where Microsoft makes a sacrifice to hit a lower price than the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop. It’s a basic, mechanical touchpad as opposed to the lovely haptic touchpad you get with the larger model. The touchpad is perfectly acceptable but suffers somewhat from the diving board effect, where clicks are firmer toward the top edge and looser as you move toward the bottom edge. I much prefer the consistent (and customizable) click response you get with a haptic touchpad.

My only other complaint about the design is that the laptop is hard to open. There’s no notch cut out on the front edge to help you lift the lid like with a MacBook, and nor does the lid have a tab that overhangs that would also provide something for your fingertip to grab onto to lift. With the 13-inch Surface Laptop, it’s a two-handed operation to open the laptop. I found that the easiest way to lift the lid was by gripping each side of the display. Either that or using a fingernail to get between the top and bottom of the laptop to open it.

Once you do manage to lift the lid and open the laptop, you’re greeted with a boxy 13-inch display with a 1,920×1,280-pixel resolution. Not only is the resolution and pixel-per-inch lower than you get with the 13.8-inch model — 1,920×1,280 (178 ppi) versus 2,304×1,536 (201 ppi), but the refresh rate is also slower. The 13-inch Surface Laptop runs at a steady 60Hz to the 13.8-inch model’s dynamic 120Hz rate, which results in smoother movement. Text and images still look crisp on the 13-inch Surface Laptop’s display, but things just aren’t quite as sharp, and scrolling through web pages doesn’t look quite as smooth.

You also take a hit in color performance and brightness with the smaller Surface Laptop. On my tests with a Spyder X colorimeter, the 13-inch Surface Laptop hit a peak brightness of 414 nits and covered 96% of the sRGB gamut and only 71% of the larger AdobeRGB and P3 color spaces. Compare those figures with those of the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop: 572 nits and 100% sRGB, 87% AdobeRGB and 99% P3. The larger model is definitely the pick for color-accurate work, but I found the 13-inch Surface Laptop’s display to be plenty bright. With its non-reflective finish, the display is usable outdoors under all but the sunniest of conditions.

The basic pair of 2-watt stereo speakers produced a bigger sound than I anticipated. You don’t get much bass, but the audio output was loud enough to fill a small room while also maintaining clarity. For such a compact laptop, I give the speakers an above-average grade. They are perfectly suitable for video chats and casual listening. 

The 1080p webcam produces a sharp, well-balanced image and offers the full suite of Windows Studio Effects. On many Copilot Plus PCs, you get the trio of automatic framing, eye contact and background effects, but not the portrait light and creative filters. With the 13-inch Surface Laptop, you get all five. The camera doesn’t have an IR sensor for facial recognition, but the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, so there’s at least one secure biometric feature.

The port selection is a bit of a disappointment because the pair of USB-C ports is of the slower USB 3.2 Gen 2 variety that offers half the 40Gbps transfer speed you’d get with Thunderbolt 4 or USB4. If fast USB speed is important to you, then that’s another reason to spend more for the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, which has two USB4 ports.

Is the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop worth buying?

For a secondary machine used for travel, the 13-inch Surface Laptop makes sense for its sturdy and compact design. As a primary machine, the larger 13.8-inch is the better pick. For just $200 more (when you factor in the SSD upgrade required on the smaller model to put things on equal footing), the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop provides greater value with its superior display, haptic touchpad and faster USB connectivity. I like the 13-inch Surface Laptop, but the 13.8-inch model is currently my favorite Windows laptop.