Microsoft says its new Surface laptops beat the MacBook Air, but is this the right comparison?
Microsoft has unveiled new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices that it says will directly compete with – and outperform – Apple’s MacBook Air. But while their performance is truly impressive, there is one notable caveat that suggests the MacBook Air comparison isn’t all about the money.
Yesterday, Microsoft hosted a special show for its new laptops, which are equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips based on the Arm architecture. This is the same architecture that Apple’s latest M3 chips are built on, and is known for its ability to combine blistering performance with ice-cold efficiency.
In testing seen by The VergeMicrosoft’s laptops – called Copilot+ PCs – beat the M3 MacBook Air in a series of benchmark tests measuring chip performance. Also in terms of battery life, Microsoft apparently came out on top, with just under 17 hours in a web browser test and over 20 hours of video playback.
Microsoft also tested the MacBook Air in these areas, and it clocked a time of 15 hours and 25 minutes in the first and 17 hours and 45 minutes in the second, putting Microsoft’s device comfortably ahead.
The Arm Advantage
Is this the end of the MacBook Air’s reign? Well, not quite. If noted by Ars TechnicaMicrosoft says its new laptops come with fans, which the MacBook Air doesn’t.
This means that Microsoft has a clear advantage in cooling, which means that a chip can always deliver extra performance. The MacBook Air can deliver its remarkable performance while remaining completely silent, and while the Surface’s performance is undoubtedly incredibly impressive, equipping it with a set of fans means it will likely always have the edge over Apple’s fanless laptops.
Perhaps a better comparison is to the Intel-based Microsoft Surface laptops that came before the latest Snapdragon X Elite models. The Verge notes that the 2022 Intel-based Surface Laptop 5 offered eight hours and 38 minutes in a web browsing battery test – just half of what the latest Surface now offers.
Now, if you have an Intel-based Surface laptop and are considering upgrading to the Snapdragon model, you’ll likely notice a significant improvement in performance and battery life. Microsoft also says it has radically boosted app compatibility for its Arm-based chips, with a new emulator called Prism that Microsoft claims is as good as Apple’s Rosetta 2 at running non-native apps.
The new Surface laptop starts at $1,000 for a 13-inch model with Snapdragon The Surface ProMeanwhile, it starts at $1,049 for an LCD screen or $1,549 for an OLED screen. The base model offers 16 GB of memory and 256 GB or 512 GB of storage, depending on which display option is chosen.