GoKawiilis a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
Last year, Microsoft’s 13-inch Surface Laptop quickly became one of my favorite thin-and-light Windows notebooks. At $900, it was easy to recommend to anyone wanting MacBook Air–like build quality and battery life on Windows — I even convinced my sister to buy one on sale.
But that was last year. This year, thanks to RAMageddon, that same laptop costs $950, and now that price gets you half as much RAM — just 8GB. It’s the same great hardware on the outside, but it’s not the same laptop on the inside.
It’s been a long time since we tested a Windows laptop with so little RAM. We’ve been saying for years that 8GB isn’t enough. But this is Microsoft’s laptop, and Windows 11 is Microsoft’s operating system. Maybe it’ll be good enough.
It’s not.
All the good things I wrote about last year’s hardware still ring true: The keyboard is nice and tactile, the trackpad is great (only outdone by ones that allow you to click corner-to-corner), the webcam is sharp and clear, and the battery goes and goes — easily lasting 10 hours. The processor, an eight-core Snapdragon X Plus, is nearly identical to the one in the Surface Laptop I reviewed last year. In fact, it has a slightly faster boost speed. In last year’s Surface Laptop, it was a solid performer and could even handle light photo editing in Lightroom Classic. But last year’s model had 16GB of RAM. It turns out that makes a big difference.
Component report card Screen: B
Webcam: B
Keyboard: B
Trackpad: B
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