Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Is Marked Down by $350

While Apple may With the MacBook lineup taking over the first-party laptop market, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop has been steadily improving over the years, and has now become an increasingly attractive option. The base model of last year’s seventh-generation Surface Laptop is currently marked down by $350 on Amazon, bringing the price down to $849.

Although the screen is a somewhat rare 3:2 aspect ratio, it’s an excellent panel for everyday use and productivity. It can get up to a decently bright 600 nits, which should be enough for quick work calls from the park, and it has a 120-Hz refresh rate, which will smooth things out a bit even if you don’t plan on gaming. It also has a touch panel if you want to physically interact with your windows, but I’m still not too enthused by touchscreen support in Microsoft OSes.

Instead of opting for Intel or AMD processors, Microsoft has chosen mobile chip maker Qualcomm and the Snapdragon line of CPUs. You shouldn’t experience any issues with performance, at least for work and general use, and Windows now has built-in emulation software for programs that aren’t already set up for ARM CPUs, though you may still encounter occasional issues with custom applications or third-party software.

The processor is intended to provide strong support for AI applications and usage, but our reviewer Brenda Stolyar wasn’t particularly happy with the actual results. Companies often try to jam AI in places it shouldn’t, so some features like AI captioning worked properly, while others, like a feature that turns your eyes as if they’re focusing on the webcam, had weird side effects.

I saw two different configurations on sale, availability varied depending on your color choice. The price of the base model with a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD has been reduced to $849. The upgraded model, which features a 12-core Snapdragon If you’re still not sold on the Surface and the ARM experience, be sure to check out our other favorite laptops to see if a different system catches your eye.