Microsoft Surface (i7-7660U) Laptop Review

The i5 and i7 cases are structurally identical and from the outside, we cannot tell which is which. The overall build quality and the rigidity of the i7 leaves a very positive impression. The unusual use of Alcantara for the wrist rest area is particularly striking. This may cause some problems for certain users. The question of how well the material is going to hold up after some time in use can only be answered after a long-term review. Fresh out of the box, the material looks elegant and feels nice to touch.

The following color variants are available: Platinum grey, burgundy, graphite gold and cobalt blue. There are only minor changes in terms of weight. At 1.283 kilograms (~2.83 lb), the i7-based model weighs just 31 grams (~1.1 oz) more than its smaller sibling. This should not be noticeable in day-to-day use. 

Due to the identical structure of the cases, there is no hope that the significantly more expensive device can offer better I/O than its cheaper and slower counterpart. Unfortunately, that is the case. As with the i5, the i7 version lacks a Thunderbolt 3 port, as well as a USB Type-C port, and even a simple SD card reader. These ports, which are nowadays considered standard fare, should not be missing in a laptop that exceeds the 3000-Euro (~$3500) mark.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Intel Core i7 uses exactly the same Panasonic panel VVX14T092N00 as the Intel Core i5 model. There are only minor differences between the two laptops in terms of the display. With its LG Display LP123WQ112604, the Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) provides better results, as far as brightness and contrast are concerned. There are also differences in resolution between the Panasonic and the LG panels. Whilst the Surface Laptops come with a native resolution of 2256x1504, the Surface Pro (2017) supports a resolution 2736x1824.

We were already somewhat surprised during our extensive testing of the Surface Laptop i5 that Microsoft had decided to go with the rarely-used Core i7-7660U instead of the much more common Core i7-7600U. Here, the decision was made in favor of graphics power, which is the only differentiating feature between the two CPUs. While the Core i7-7660U has the Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU at its disposal, the Core i7-7600U comes with a 6-month old HD Graphics 620 GPU. On account of the Iris Plus Graphics 640, we expect to see a clear advantage with the i7-based laptop in GPU-intensive application, but we do not expect any wonders in video games.

Compared directly with the Surface Laptop Intel Core i5-7200U, the more powerful Surface Laptop i7-7660U is clocked much higher, and with the Turbo boost it can reach 4 GHz, whereas the i5 variant can only hit 3.1 GHz with the Turbo. Therefore the i7 gets an acceptable score in the Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core) test, which puts it a touch above the devices with the Intel Core i7-7600U. But wait! It only looks that way on paper and in the lab. Things are different in real life. The party-crasher here is called “throttling”.

Even though there was some throttling present with the Surface Laptop i5, it never led to performance drops of more than 7% (such drops are barely noticeable in practice), and that is after multiple benchmark runs. The Surface Laptop i7 with the Intel Core i7-7660U, on the other hand, registers huge performance drops after only a few minutes under continuous load. The Surface Laptop i7 as well as the Surface Pro i7 (2017), both of which come with the same CPU, lose anywhere from 12 to 17% in terms of CPU performance in the Cinebench R15 continuous loop. Taking into account all these performance declines, the Intel Core i7-7660U processors take their place a little below the i7-7500U, which can be found in the Acer Switch 5 SW512-52-5819.

Put it another way: Thanks to its throttling, the Surface Laptop i7 comes dangerously close to the cheaper Surface Laptop i5. When it is experiencing throttling, the performance advantage in CPU-intensive tasks of the significantly more expensive i7 laptop is reduced to a ridiculous 6%.

As expected, the system performance of the Microsoft Surface Laptop i7 lies well above that of the i5 model, and also above the Surface Pro i7 (2017). There are two results in the benchmark list, the lower one was observed with the energy saving function enabled.

Although, the performance decline that we saw from the CPU was sobering, comparing the integrated Samsung PM971 KUS040202M 512 GB SSD with the Toshiba THNSN0128GTYA of the i5 model (which we harshly criticized in our review) yielded pleasant results. The i7 with its built-in Samsung SSD is considerably ahead of the Surface Laptop i5 in almost all categories. 

We were quite excited to examine the gaming performance of the Iris Plus Graphics 640. It should blow the HD Graphics 620 of the Intel Core i5 out of the water. The Iris Plus Graphics 640 can go as high up as 1050 MHz, and it has twice as many execution units set up in a GT3e configuration. 

The Iris Plus Graphics 640 of the Surface Laptop i7 will be of at least some use to the gamers. With the minimum graphics settings, the GPU can run a number of current titles, but with higher settings and at higher resolutions getting playable frame rates is really tough on account of all the throttling. As one would expect, the gaming performance of the Surface Laptop i7 is comparable to that of the Surface Pro i7, which is equipped with the same hardware.

At idle or under low load, e.g. surfing the web or editing text documents, the Surface Laptop i7 is almost silent. However, under full load, the fan is clearly audible and is about 10% louder than the less powerful Surface Laptop i5. This is due to the i7 processor, which produces more heat than the i5; the fan has to run at a higher speed to dissipate the heat away from the CPU. One big drawback of our test device is the relatively loud and annoying coil whine, which can be perceived even at zero load.

As with the Surface Laptop i5, the temperature difference between the upper side and the underside of the i7-based laptop is quite striking, especially so in the area of the wrist rest. Here we have measured a difference of 10 degrees Celsius (~18 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature levels off in the keyboard area, though.

Due to the identical construction design, there are no big differences between the Microsoft Surface Laptop i5 and its i7 counterpart in terms of the sound quality. The so-called “OmniSonic” stereo speakers are located beneath the keyboard. There are no holes or slits that are provided for them. But because the sound quality remains at a high level, we consider this solution to be optimal (speaker openings covered with grills in the area of the keyboard tend to turn into unsightly dust catchers over time).

 Frequency diagram in comparison (checkboxes can be selected/unselected!)

While idling, the Microsoft Surface i7’s energy consumption is very close to that of the Surface Laptop i5. Under full load, the more capable i7 CPU draws 25 % more power. On a positive note, Microsoft has managed to reduce the energy consumption of the Microsoft Surface i7 at idle as compared to the Surface Pro, which has the same CPU. However, it bears repeating that when we were reviewing the Surface Pro we had found that its energy consumption was well above what we saw from its competitors.

As far as battery life goes, the Surface Laptop i7, with the Wi-Fi turned on and under full load, behaves very similarly to the Surface Pro (2017), just as we expected. When playing back video, the i7-based laptop lasts longer than the Surface Pro or the MacBook Pro 13, although it cannot reach the same stellar battery runtimes as the Dell XPS 13.