Microsoft Surface Laptop 13
Specifications
Primary Camera: 2 MPix
Price comparison
Average of 7 scores (from 6 reviews)
Reviews for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13
Microsoft has brought out a new Surface Laptop with a 13-inch display. The problem, however, is that it is worse in almost every respect—and it costs more than the well-known Surface Laptop 13.8. Update: Removable SSD photos added.
Source: CNet
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.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 07/02/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Expert Reviews
The Surface Laptop 13in is a very likeable little laptop. It has a battery that goes on and on and on. It’s small, lightweight and compact, it has a lovely touchscreen display, and the keyboard is decent, as are the webcam and the speakers. I do not like the fact that Microsoft has gone backwards where repairability is concerned but that’s my only major gripe from a hardware standpoint. For all its strengths, though, I keep coming back to that price: £899 is a lot to ask for a cut-down version of your flagship laptop when your main rivals’ flagship ultraportables are either cheaper, more powerful, better specified or some combination of all three. If I had this much money to spend, I’d spend it on a M4 MacBook Air or an Asus Zenbook A14 at around the same price – the former for its superior performance, the latter for its OLED display and still fantastic battery life.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/25/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Techradar
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is a gorgeous laptop that is great for everyday and productivity tasks with some of the best battery life of any laptop of its size, but its weaker Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip falls far short of a similarly priced MacBook Air 13-inch, making it much harder to recommend unless you absolutely don't want a Mac.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/16/2025
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 70% performance: 70% mobility: 100% workmanship: 90%
Source: T3
The new Surface Laptop 13-inch shows Microsoft's considerable experience in the laptop space, delivering a gorgeous-looking and impeccably built machine with little compare. It hits the right price point without considerable compromise, although the reflective screen and 60Hz refresh rate won't outsmart its best OLED rivals. Still, with all other essentials on point, this is a balanced proposition that lasts extended periods away from the plug (which isn't included, by the way) and will be a 5-star buy for many a Windows user.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/04/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: The Verge
Would I buy one for myself? Truthfully, no. I moonlight as a wedding photographer, and while Lightroom Classic works with Windows on Arm now, it’s just not fast enough to rely on yet. And my gaming sensibilities lead me to feeling that if I can’t play games on a laptop, I might as well switch back to a MacBook. But nearly every downside of the Surface Laptop 13-inch is just a downside of Windows on Arm. If developers keep updating their programs to use the architecture properly, the edge cases get fewer, and the closer the Surface Laptop 13-inch gets to being the easy answer to “what laptop should I buy?”
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 05/28/2025
Rating: Total score: 80%
Foreign Reviews
Source: Computerbild
DE→ENSingle Review, online available, Medium, Date: 06/30/2025
Rating: Total score: 91%
Comment
Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 1.7 TFLOPS: An integrated graphics adapter that the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core X1P-42-100 SoC features. Compared to the faster 3.8 TFLOPS and 4.6 TFLOPS X1-85 iGPUs, this one does not just run at lower clock speeds but also has fewer unified shaders at its disposal, with 768 being the most likely number. The underlying architecture is reportedly not much different from what was used in the Adreno 730. As for its gaming performance, it's only just sufficient for pre-2020 games at resolutions such as HD 720p on low graphics settings.
Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
SD X Plus X1P-42-100: A relatively affordable ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. The X Plus 8-core chip features 8 Oryon CPU cores running at up to 3.4 GHz, along with the 1.7 TFLOPS X1-45 Adreno iGPU and the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU. The super-fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller known to us from other Snapdragon X chips, USB 4.0 support, TB 4 support and PCIe 4 support are all onboard as well.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
13.00":
This range of display format is largely the upper limit for tablets and the lower limit for subnotebooks.
The advantage of subnotebooks is that the entire laptop can be small in size and therefore easily portable. The tiny display has the added advantage of requiring little power, which further improves battery life and thus mobility. The disadvantage is that reading texts is exhausting for the eyes. High resolutions, which one is used to from a standard laptop, are almost not usable.
The same applies to tablets in this size range.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.Microsoft:
Microsoft smartphones and tablets have been tested since 2012. There are many reviews with average ratings. The reader's interest is quite given, but the market share is not big enough for the Top 5 smartphone manufacturers (as of 2016).
82.19%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
