Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 is what happens when PC hardware wears its software like a glove

One of the biggest advantages Apple has in the laptop market is that it controls both its hardware and software. It could be one reason why its MacBooks ride so high as the best laptops for graphic design, and it’s not something that any other major player can claim apart from Microsoft. In the Surface Laptop 7, the benefits of this really show.

I’ve had a lot of laptops come across my desk, and this one really stands out. Most Windows laptops are made by third parties, and therefore Microsoft’s operating system has no idea what it’s going to be installed on. It might be something ridiculously powerful like an MSI Stealth 18-inch gaming laptop, or it might be a low-power mini PC. It needs to be ready for every eventuality, and obscure components can occasionally upset it. When the software maker builds the hardware as well, it’s able to tailor it to fit the needs of its operating system. The two feed into each other.

The Surface Laptop 7 uses the new Snapdragon X CPU from Qualcomm, something that Windows and by now most of its app ecosystem has been fully updated to use. The chip in the Surface Laptop 7 Creative Bloq reviewed is the Elite variant, which comes with 12 processing cores, which means it’s pretty fast at burning through office and creative apps. Right now, there’s 16% off the Snapdragon X Plus model on Amazon, which is a pretty good deal.

After Apple transitioned its chips away from Intel to its home-grown processors based on the ARM architecture with the launch of the M1, the writing was on the wall for the PC. It took a few years, but the Snapdragon X chips have taken the PC world by storm. They offer CPU performance on a par with Intel and AMD alternatives (though their graphics processing abilities lag behind a bit, and they’ve yet to be paired with a discrete GPU such as an Nvidia GeForce card) but come with one huge advantage: they unlock extra battery life.

By using a more energy-efficient chip architecture, the Snapdragon CPUs use less battery power to do the same amount of work. This leads to the battery lasting longer, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is no exception, able to squeeze over nine hours of constant use from its cells. Intel’s Lunar Lake CPUs are catching up, but right now Snapdragon is the tech to look for if you want a Windows laptop that can go all day.

One of the best things about the Surface Laptop 7 is the way it takes on Apple at its own game. It’s beautifully designed, sleekly finished and with two USB4 ports, which means it can use top-spec external SSDs such as the SanDisk Extreme Pro USB4 at huge speeds. But Microsoft has fitted it with a single USB-A port too: there are so many devices around that use that connector that having the port on the laptop rather than an extra USB4 means you don’t have to mess around with clunky adapters nearly so much. Likewise the Surface Connect port, used by Surface tablets to connect keyboards, but largely useless on a laptop except for one thing: charging. Apple went back to MagSafe for charging, and I’m glad Microsoft decided to deploy a dedicated port too (though you can still use it for a dock). And it has a touchscreen, something yet to roll out on any kind of MacBook.

And of course there’s AI. Snapdragon chips were the first to get machine learning features such as Windows Recall, and we can be sure they’ll be in the forefront of new features as the latest Windows updates roll out. Every time CB has reviewed a Surface device, such as the Surface Pro 12, the reviewer has praised its looks and ease of use.