Microsoft Surface 4 laptop review – powerful and sleek with a soft touch

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  • VERDICT

The Microsoft Surface 4 laptop is an impressive laptop that offers a slick design with excellent performance for mid to high-end users.

Microsoft’s latest Surface 4 laptop has just been released and it is an ideal choice for users who are looking for a powerful and attractive laptop computer that can go anywhere.

This is not an entry level laptop – it starts at $1,599 – but for your money you’re getting a decent system powered by the latest Intel 11th Gen Intel Core i5 Processor which is what we received for review.

There’s also a version of the Microsoft Surface 4 that’s running the AMD Ryzen Mobile processor with Radeon Graphics.

On our Intel Surface 4 laptop was 8GB RAM with 1TB SSD (solid state drive) which is more than enough to meet the needs of even more advanced users.

It has a 13.5-inch display with a resolution of 2256 x 1,504. There is also a 15-inch model available from $2,199.

The 13.5-inch model is available in four finishes – Platinum, Ice Blue, Sandstone and Black. The Platinum and Ice Blue models also come with the Alcantara keyboard which offers a softer felt-like finish.

Our review model was the Platinum with Alcantara.

The 15-inch models are available in all-metal designs – Platinum and Matte Black.

On the design side the Microsoft Surface 4 looks pretty slick.

It is quite thin (14.5mm) and light (1.27kg) so it’s no effort to take it anywhere with you.

One big plus was the Alcantara keyboard so your wrists are not resting on cold-metal but rather soft and comfortable material.

The keyboard itself is also nice and responsive and the keys are well spaced with just the right amount of travel.

The trackpad is also generous size so it’s easy to navigate the system without a paired mouse.

Surface 4’s display is also impressive with a 3:2 aspect ratio which means its more square than wide so great for tasks like writing, browsing web pages and editing.

But when watching movies or TV shows there are solid black bars top and bottom.

One thing that ages the laptop are the bezels which are thicker than competitor laptops.

Here’s a chance for Microsoft to easily offer a 14-inch display without increasing the size of the laptop. Maybe on the Surface 5.

On the software side, users are rocking Windows 10 which works fast and efficiently – as you would expect with Microsoft software running on Microsoft hardware.

Performance is quite impressive whether you’re streaming content through the new Edge browser or editing photos in Photoshop or videos in Premiere.

Another thing we liked was not having to type in a password every time we opened the laptop.

It would immediately recognise our face and unlock it seconds.

Connectivity-wise, it would have been nice to have more ports.

You get one USB 3.0 and one USB-C plus a headphone jack on the left edge while the right edge had Microsoft’s proprietary magnetic blade charging port.

Users can actually charge the laptop through the USB-C port on the left side which to us make Microsoft’s charging method redundant.

We would have preferred another couple of ports or a memory card reader in its place.

Another strong feature of the Microsoft Surface 4 laptop is the battery life which Microsoft says runs for up to 19 hours.

In the real world for our review when we actually used the computer for our daily tasks including emails and connecting to wi-fi at home and on the move, we got closer to about 13 hours before we needed a charge which was still respectable.

VERDICT

The Microsoft Surface 4 laptop is an impressive laptop that offers a slick design with excellent performance for mid to high-end users.

Editor