Released last year with the then-latest Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is one of the best ARM-based Windows laptops on the market. As such, it is a worthy contender for everyday use thanks to its excellent craftsmanship, comfortable inputs, strong battery life, and good display.
However, like virtually all Surface Laptop versions, the Surface Laptop 7 can cost quite a bit more than other similarly positioned Windows laptops. For instance, the base SKU with 16 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, and the Snapdragon X Plus SoC normally retails for more than $1,000. This is a pretty steep asking price for what you are getting in return.
Fortunately, B&H Photo has now dropped the Surface Laptop 7 price by a substantial $700 margin, bringing it within reach of many budget-focused users at just $899. Moreover, this price drop isn’t for the base model but for the high-end variant (linked at the end).
So, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 on sale brings a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-80-100) chip, 16 GB of memory, and 1 TB of storage. The M.2 2230 SSD is easy to replace using only a Torx T5 screwdriver.
Display duties are handled by a 13.8-inch IPS panel that, per our testing, gets pretty bright at 600 nits, covers 97% DCI-P3, and refreshes at 120 Hz. The panel also comes pre-calibrated and supports touch input.
Moving on to performance, our measurements paint the Snapdragon X Elite inside the Surface Laptop 7 as a powerful chip capable of handling CPU-intensive tasks. Unfortunately, app compatibility is still somewhat of an issue for the Snapdragon-based laptops. So, if you rely on specialized software, be sure to check compatibility before springing for an ARM laptop.
A big advantage of going with an ARM SoC instead of an X86 one is the added power efficiency and this shows in the battery life of the Surface Laptop 7. The laptop lasted 14 hours in our websurfing test performed at 150 nits at 60 Hz. At 120 Hz, the notebook could still hang on for around 13 hours.
In conclusion, if you want a nice balance of system performance, battery life, and price, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8 fits the bill rather well at just $899.
Disclaimer: Notebookcheck is not responsible for price changes carried out by retailers. The discounted price or deal mentioned in this item was available at the time of writing and may be subject to time restrictions and/or limited unit availability.
Source(s)
slickdeals, B&H Photo (linked above)