Surface Laptop 7 13.8 Copilot+ PC (2024)

Surface Laptop 7 13.8 Copilot+ PC (2024)

Manufacturer	Microsoft
Product family	Surface
Release date	January 2024 (2024-01)
Discontinued	No
Operating system	Windows 11 Home
CPU	Snapdragon X Plus (10 Core) Snapdragon X Elite (12 Core)
Memory	16 GB or 32 GB LPDDR5x RAM
Storage	256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB Gen 4 SSD
Storage slots	1 user accessible
Removable storage	MicroSDXC card reader
Display	Screen size: 13.8 inch Panel type: PixelSense Flow Coating: Glossy Resolution: 2304 x 1536 PPI: 201 Aspect ratio: 3:2 Refresh rate: Up to 120 Hz Brightness: 600 Nits Contrast ratio: 1400:1 sRGB: 98.2 % Adobe RGB: 87.3 % P3: 97.8 % Variable Refresh Rate: Dolby Vision IQ
Graphics	Qualcomm Adreno GPU
Sound	Omnisonic® Speakers with Dolby® Atmos®
Camera	Front: 1080p Full HD with Windows Hello face authentication
Touchpad	Precision Haptic touchpad
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 2 x USB-C/USB4 1 x USB-A 3.1 1 x 3.5 mm headphone jack Surface connect port
Battery	54 Wh Li-Polymer
Keyboard	White backlight
Chassis	Color: Sapphire, Dune, Black, Platinum Materials: Anodized aluminum
Fingerprint reader	No
Facial recognition	Yes
Website	Microsoft

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The Surface Laptop 7 13.8 Copilot+ PC (2024) is a high-performance laptop from Microsoft, featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite processors. It is designed to compete with Apple's MacBook Air, offering a premium design, advanced display technology, and robust performance for everyday tasks. The laptop is available in multiple colors and configurations, catering to a wide range of user needs.

Primary Hardware

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Processor

The Surface Laptop 7 13.8 Copilot+ PC can be configured with the following processors:

• Snapdragon X Plus with 10 cores.
• Snapdragon X Elite with 12 cores.

The Snapdragon X Elite processor is praised for its performance in multi-core tasks, closely competing with Apple's MacBook Air M3 in benchmarks. It is particularly effective for traditional computing demands and AI applications, although it shows limitations in gaming and older software compatibility. The X Plus version, while slightly less powerful, offers better battery life, making it a suitable choice for users prioritizing longevity over raw performance.

Benchmarks:

• Geekbench 6.2:
  • Multi-Core: 14,458 Points
  • Single-Core: 2,845 Points

Graphics

The Surface Laptop 7 is equipped with an integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU. This GPU is sufficient for video playback and basic graphics tasks but struggles with more demanding applications, particularly gaming. The performance is comparable across all models, with no significant advantage in graphics performance between the different configurations.

Benchmarks:

• 3DMark Fire Strike Score: 6,294 Points
• Wild Life Extreme Unlimited: 6,335 Points

Memory

The Surface Laptop 7 comes with 16 GB or 32 GB of LPDDR5x RAM. The memory is onboard and not upgradeable, which may limit future-proofing. However, the available configurations provide adequate performance for multitasking and general use.

Benchmarks:

• AIDA64:
  • Memory Copy: 63,007 MB/s
  • Memory Read: 120,605 MB/s

Storage

The Surface Laptop 7 offers removable solid-state drive (Gen 4 SSD) options of 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB. The SSD is user-replaceable, providing flexibility for users who need more storage. The performance of the SSD is noted to be faster than some competitors, such as the M3 MacBook Air.

Benchmarks:

• CrystalDiskMark 5/6:
  • Read Seq Q32T1: 3,618 MB/s
  • Write Seq Q32T1: 2,522 MB/s

Co-processors

The Surface Laptop 7 includes the Qualcomm® Hexagon™ coprocessor, capable of 45 trillion operations per second, enhancing AI and machine learning tasks.

Input Devices

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Keyboard

The Surface Laptop 7 features a chiclet keyboard with sufficient key travel and a pleasant pressure point. It includes a new Copilot button and offers three levels of white backlighting that can be adjusted manually. The keyboard is praised for its comfort and suitability for long typing sessions.

Touchpad

The notebook is equipped with a precision haptic touchpad, which is large, responsive, and provides a smooth user experience. It is considered one of the best touchpads outside of a MacBook, offering a premium feel and functionality.

On Windows 11, the following categories are supported with respect to customising the touchpad:

• Touchpad feedback (enable/disable)
• Tapping on the touchpad
  • Tap sensitivity (low, medium, high or most)
  • Tap with single finger to single click (enable/disable)
  • Tap twice to drag and multi-select (enable/disable)
  • Press the bottom right corner to right-click (enable/disable)
• Scroll and Zoom
  • Drag two fingers to scroll (enable/disable)
  • Scrolling direction (inverse direction of scroll, enable/disable)
  • Pinch to zoom (enable/disable)

Furthermore, this touchpad, in conjunction with Windows 11 offers customisation of three and four-finger gestures, including disabling the gesture. Below are the following three-finger and four-finger swipe gestures:

• Nothing (i.e. gesture is disabled)
• Switch apps and show desktop
• Switch desktops and show desktop
• Change audio volume

Below are the following four-finger tapping gestures available for this device:

• Nothing (i.e. gesture is disabled)
• Open search
• Notification centre
• Play/pause media
• Middle mouse button

This touchpad supports advanced gestures which enables finer tweaks such as a three-finger swipe left to perform a different action than a three-finger swipe right.

Webcam

The Surface Laptop 7 includes a 1080p Full HD front-facing Surface Studio Camera with Windows Hello face authentication. The webcam provides decent quality for video calls, although it lacks a mechanical or electronic shutter.

Microphone

The device features dual Studio Mics with voice focus, which perform well in rejecting background noise and focusing on voice, even in noisy environments. This makes it particularly useful for video calls and recordings.

Output Devices

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Display

The Surface Laptop 7 is available with a 13.8-inch PixelSense Flow™ Display, offering a resolution of 2304 x 1536 pixels, a 3:2 aspect ratio, and a dynamic refresh rate up to 120 Hz. The display is individually color-calibrated and supports Dolby Vision® IQ. It provides excellent brightness and viewing angles, although the glossy finish can cause reflections in bright environments. The display supports touch screen.

Benchmarks:

• Maximum brightness: 613 cd/m²
• Contrast ratio: ~1,400:1
• Color coverage: 87.3% AdobeRGB, 98.2% sRGB, 97.8% Display P3

Wireless Display:

This device has been tested on Windows 11 with the Samsung 7 Series (50) with the maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440 @ 30 Hz. The resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz is not supported.

Audio

The laptop is equipped with Omnisonic® Speakers with Dolby® Atmos®, providing good sound quality for a thin and light laptop. The audio experience is satisfying for media consumption, although not as strong as some competitors.

Connectivity

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WiFi

The Surface Laptop 7 supports Wi-Fi 7, providing high and stable transfer speeds, and performs well in real-world scenarios.

Benchmarks:

• iperf3 transmit: 1,483 MBit/s
• iperf3 receive: 1,720 MBit/s

Bluetooth

The device includes Bluetooth 5.4 technology, enhancing connectivity options for peripherals.

SD Card Reader

The Surface Laptop 7 includes a MicroSDXC card reader, providing additional storage options for users.

USB

The laptop is equipped with the following USB ports:

• 2 x USB-C/USB4 ports with support for charging, data transfer, and DisplayPort 1.4a.
• 1 x USB-A 3.1 port.
• 1 x 3.5 mm headphone jack.
• Surface connect port.

Display Outputs

The Surface Laptop 7 supports DisplayPort 1.4a, allowing for external display connections.

Case

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The Surface Laptop 7 features a metal case with good construction quality, available in multiple colors: Sapphire, Dune, Black, and Platinum. The design includes thinner bezels and rounded display corners, enhancing aesthetics. The laptop is well-made with a sleek and light design, contributing to its portability.

Maintenance

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The base of the Surface Laptop 7 is secured by screws, allowing for easier access. While the RAM is soldered and not upgradeable, the SSD is replaceable, providing some upgrade options for users.

Cooling System

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The Surface Laptop 7 features an effective cooling system that remains quiet under load, similar to a MacBook. The laptop stays silent during light tasks and produces minimal fan noise even under full load, making it suitable for quiet environments.

Heat

The laptop can reach up to 47 °C under load, which can be uncomfortable. However, it manages heat well under light use, maintaining a comfortable temperature.

Benchmarks:

• Maximum temperature on the upper side: 47.1 °C
• Average temperature under load: 40.7 °C

Noise

The Surface Laptop 7 is generally quiet, with maximum noise reaching 40 dB(A) under load. It remains silent during undemanding tasks, providing a pleasant user experience.

Benchmarks:

• Idle: 23.8 dB(A)
• Load: 40.3 dB(A)

Energy Management

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Power Consumption

The Surface Laptop 7 comes with a 39W power supply. It is efficient under idle conditions but can reach 41 watts under load, indicating robust power management.

Benchmarks:

• Idle: 1.4 / 6.3 / 7.6 Watt
• Load: 26.9 / 40.7 Watt

Battery Life

The laptop is equipped with a 54 Wh Li-Polymer battery, offering impressive battery life. It can last over 14 hours in Wi-Fi testing, making it suitable for a full day of use.

Benchmarks:

• WiFi Websurfing: 14h 12min
• WiFi Websurfing max. Brightness: 7h 47min
• Big Buck Bunny H.264 1080p: 19h 41min
• Load (maximum brightness): 1h 20min

Biometrics

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The Surface Laptop 7 supports Windows Hello face authentication with an IR sensor, providing secure login options. It does not include a fingerprint reader.

Software

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The Surface Laptop 7 ships with Windows 11 Home and includes preloaded Microsoft 365 Apps, a Microsoft 365 Family 30-day trial, and the Microsoft Defender App. It also supports Microsoft Accessibility Features.

Preinstalled Software

The laptop comes with standard Microsoft applications and a preloaded Xbox app, along with a 30-day trial of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Linux Support

Linux support is limited, as ARM versions of applications may not be available. In fact, as of right now, the only supported OS is Windows 11. It is worth noting, however, that WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is supported and has been tested. However, there may exist software (e.g. packages in deb format) which are explicitly compatible with x86_64 systems only. When installing a software using the following command:

sudo dpkg -i package_0.24.0__amd64.deb

You are likely to receive an error such as:

dpkg: error processing archive package_0.24.0_amd64.deb (--install):
 package architecture (amd64) does not match system (arm64)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 package_0.24.0__amd64.deb

Several Linux distributions (e.g. Debian 12, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 40) have been tested and none of their kernels allow for Linux support at the time of writing.

TUXEDO Computers is working on an innovative ARM notebook with the new Snapdragon X Elite SoC from Qualcomm and Linaro have managed to get Debian to work on the reference unit by Qualcomm. It is worth noting that at the time of writing, none of this has been upstreamed.

Accessories & Warranty

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The Surface Laptop 7 comes with a 39W power supply and standard documentation. Warranty details are not specified in the reviews.

Reviews Summary

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Overall Sentiment

The Surface Laptop 7 is praised for its performance, design, and battery life, making it a strong competitor to Apple's MacBook Air. It is particularly noted for its premium build quality, excellent display, and responsive touchpad. However, it faces limitations in graphics performance and compatibility with certain applications.

Problems Summary

• Limited graphics performance for demanding tasks.
• Compatibility issues with certain applications and games.
• RAM is not upgradeable.
• Glossy display can cause reflections in bright environments.
• Lacks a mechanical/electronic shutter for the webcam.

Links

13-inch X Elite: JustJosh, MaxTech, TomsGuide, NoteBookCheck