Has Microsoft’s confidence dialled down the upgrades in its Surface Laptop 5?
Microsoft’s supreme confidence in the product line means its latest Surface Laptop 5 doesn’t pack any surprises.
Has Microsoft’s confidence in its fan-favourite laptop left its latest device without much of an upgrade?
The company has long boasted about consumers taking to its Surface laptop range rather kindly since it first came out in 2017, and its product team has had no issue relaying that information to journalists and tech gurus in media calls.
Five years on and in its fifth iteration, does the Surface Laptop 5 still punch above its weight?
At first glance, the new device is a little underwhelming when sat next to its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 4.
It’s more responsive, has great screen resolution and it’s noticeably faster than the new Surface Pro 9 and its predecessor the Surface Laptop 4 – which Microsoft claims to be almost 50 per cent slower.
But those upgrades are such that one would hardly notice unless upgrading from a much earlier model.
The Surface Laptop 5 comes in two sizes: a 13.5 inch option and a 15 inch option.
It’s also now available in four colours including sage, black, sandstone and platinum with either a metal keyboard or the alcantara cover keyboard the Surface Laptop range is well known for.
The metal option – which in our opinion is not as nice – is just 20g heavier in the 13.5 inch model at 1.29kg. The 15 inch is 1.56kg.
Pricing for the 13.5 inch range begins at $1699 – $50 more than the Surface Pro 9 – for the 12th Gen Evo Core i5 model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive. It goes up to $2699 for the i7 model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB hard drive.
The 15 inch model begins at $2149 for the i7 processor with 8GB RAM and a 256GB hard drive, and goes up to $2899 for double the RAM and storage.
The Surface Laptop 5 comes with Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax compatible and Bluetooth Wireless 5.1 technology. The device didn’t struggle to pick up older Bluetooth speakers and earphones which is a notably different to Apple’s new iPhones and iPads, and Google’s Pixel Phones and watches.
When it comes to drawing on the new laptop with the Microsoft Surface Pen Slim 2, everything works well and connection is a breeze – you only have to bring the pen near the device before seeing the cursor fall in line with the pen.
One does have to wonder the point however.
The Surface Laptop 5 doesn’t fold flat, nor does it correspond to rotation, so when it comes to drawing, is the user meant to lay the laptop upside down and later flip the image?
Microsoft says the device’s lowlight settings had been adjusted for working from home, and a quick test alongside the Surface Laptop 4 did show a wider range of brightness, beating the old device on the brightest and dimmest settings.
If given the option, we’d still chose the Surface Laptop 5 over the Surface Pro 9 because with all things two-in-one, there are still considerable compromises for getting everything in one package.
The verdict? After a week with the device I’m certainly not sold on upgrading the Surface Laptop 4.
The Surface Laptop 5 is a great a device and it has what one might consider the bare minimum in upgrades, but not much more.
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