Surface Laptop 7 (2024) First Look REVIEW: THE DAWN OF A NEW AI ERA?

[@PrestoMoto02]

I was pleasantly surprised by this laptop. It gets insane battery doesn’t overheat or kick the fans on and just works.

[@patrick.771]

Fans were already great before for a windows laptop. Much better than its competition (Lenovo, HP, Dell) when it came to fan noise …

[@balloonredd]

your coverage of these new machines are some of the best. thanks for your work

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Glad you like them!

[@YBZeus-me]

That battery life is just insane 🤩

[@williehutch03]

Really how many hours are you getting?

[@zargis]

I wish there was some testing on X Plus. Considering that these machines are basically only for light use, the base price model (999$) seems like it could be a great deal.

[@ruzaroos]

I saw one from a guy with a tiny channel if you search. Basically the X1E-80 and X1P-64 have the same single core performance and the multi core is about 5-10% better for the Elite. The thing is, on battery the Elite benched the same as the Plus plugged in. That’s how close they were. They have the same GPU until you get up to the X1E-84 which is only sold in the larger Samsung Galaxy Book Elite right now. So there was a reason MS felt comfortable putting the Plus in the base config. This is almost analogous to Apple binned chips in their base configs. Not much difference for normals doing normal things.

[@marcgtsr]

performance is almost the same, save for specific multitreading, short ones specially. The plus seems a better deal

[@anthony8890]

I have the Plus model, and my Geekbench scores were actually better than those Andrew had on his unit whilst on battery power. My score for single core was 2409 and Multi was 13286. Whilst plugged in I got single core 2443 and Multi was 13141, so actually higher speed on battery. Both set to full performance mode. My battery life has not been tested yet, and I have the 512GB SSD and my speeds were Read 3611 and write 2484, so not the best really, my current ThinkPad SSD is almost 8000 read and 7000 write. So will upgrade the SSD in the near future. I think there are very marginal gains with the Elite CPU, the Plus is the way to go. Hope this helps.

[@mikke87]

Can confirm. The basic model with Snapdragon X Plus is a real deal. Benchmarking by myself X Plus (vs. X Elite): Cinebench 2024: Singlecore 108 (vs. 108), Multicore 829 (vs. 1124) Geekbench 6: Singlecore 2432 (vs. 2452), Multicore 13179 (vs. 14344) The daily work performance with browsing feels incredible with X Plus.

[@nexxsam]

@@ruzaroos i thought they have a different gpu cause apparently x plus uses adreno 735 but x elite uses adreno 750?

[@simonm9964]

I've had my Surface Laptop 7 running ARM and haven't noticed the fan kick in once, if it has, i haven't heard it. Loving it so far and it's so responsive. Awesome reviews Andrew A+++

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Great to hear!

[@emmyleke7049]

Would you recommend it for heavy software development?

[@rafaelperez9652]

I'm in love with the sapphire blue version of this laptop. It is simply gorgeous! Thrilled about the battery life, the Sensel Haptic Touchpad, the premium build and the Surface Connect Port. The AI effects is somewhat gimmicky in my opinion, the webcam and mic audio are clear. I do prefer the 15" version however as I like a bigger screen. While not a dealbreaker by any stretch of the imagination, it's somewhat of a letdown that there is no OLED option. In conclusion, The Surface Laptop 7 (2024) has peaked my interest and I might be ordering one but not before I see it put through its paces by the Great Andrew Marc David! Thank you again my friend!! 👍😁

[@mattsanchez4893]

Finally a genuine upgrade for this laptop, been waiting for this forever. Based on the Surface Laptop 3 I have, it should be incredibly reliable! Time to upgrade!

[@inigab]

great video! waiting for lenovo 7x review

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Working on it as we speak.

[@AllTimeTech12]

This with Linux will be superb

[@williamcopeland2617]

Awesome video! Look as if it's time for me to upgrade my Surface Laptop 5 now.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Go for it!

[@akin242002]

Great to hear that the battery life has actually lived up to the expectation for this laptop. Now they just need the drivers for all the X86 apps and Linux distros.

[@sujitjoshi1240]

No one gives a F about Linux distros. I haven’t used that trash in ages.

[@akin242002]

@@sujitjoshi1240 I wouldn't say no one. They have their nitch community. Statistically speaking, most people are using Windows and MacOS worldwide. Roughly 4% use Linux.

[@cynicist8114]

@sujitjoshi1240 I care. Apparently so does Qualcomm, since they are up streaming support in the Linux kernel very soon.

[@JEYMS]

Wait until Windows forces you to use their new “recall” feature, more and more people will turn to Linux and Mac.

[@hikeskool]

@@JEYMShaven’t people been saying “wait until companies ABC does XYZ _then_ people will turn to linux in droves!!!” for like the last ~30 years?

[@diegoms89]

Something that concerns me its the "low resolution - i know it's not", compared do the surface. You you say its much different to the eye from someone coming from the surface pro 8? Cause i've been think to go back to an laptop, but really like the surface line. Right now, on a surface pro 8 i7, 16gb DDR4

[@yu-gi-oase7498]

I absolutely love your reviews. Keep up the good work! Nonetheless i catched one misinformation here. The brightness actually is 600 nits for both hdr AND sdr content. But i mean.....thats even better xD

[@MarxMarvelous37]

Can't wait to get mine on Monday. Very curious how that battery life will hold up in real world usage scenarios (web, Office, etc.). Also curious how previous gen SL5/6 did on the same video rundown test.

[@manasbekov]

@andrewmarcdavid what is the best laptop Snap X Elite in your opinion?

[@morm2173]

I had that surface book 2 and the CPU died unfortunately recently. Are the Asus, Lenovo, and or Samsung better options? Also is this one better than the book 4 ultra for a gaming , business combination?

[@hikeskool]

These snaps dragon CPUs don’t natively support x86 and x64 programs right? Namely thinking about Steam 👌

[@alphabasic1759]

Love your reviews. Did you get a Yoga with the haptic touchpad? That’s my only concern with the Yoga

[@andrewmarcdavid]

No haptics on that one

[@Frankenwookie]

I grabbed the Galaxy book edge since it was running the X elite vs X Plus and had double the storage, but tried a friends S7 13.8 and the keyboard/trackpad are so much better than the Samsung. I use it almost entirely for writing and web/research, so I am considering returning it for the S7. For my use case would I notice the difference in performance?

[@RovexHD]

The webcam couldn’t be any better really.

[@deltax7159]

which of these new surface devices are supposed to be a more powerful machine? I currently have a SP7 but am really interested in getting one of these new machines. I primarily would use it for data science work, so just curious which of these would be the better choice. Or should I just jump ship and get a macbook pro?

[@xKoMox]

What version of the Snapdragon X Elite is the 14” using, I’m assuming its either XIE-78-100 or XIE-80-100?

[@anthony8890]

Yet again, the fountain of all things tech! Great video, can't wait for the other 432 Snapdragon videos you'll have to make. haha. Thanks

[@andrewmarcdavid]

More to come!

[@anthony8890]

@@andrewmarcdavid Looking forward to them all. Keep it up, before you know it, it will be time for the new Intel and AMD units to review :)

[@EduardLevesque]

interesting, its a 54wh battery that means it would be drawing about 2.8 watts to get 20 hours

[@PrestoMoto02]

I already put 2 TB in it and it works great

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Nice! Was it hard to open up?

[@PrestoMoto02]

It was one of the easiest laptops to open, pop the 4 stubs and 4 screws and used a offline ssd clone from Amazon. No issues at all

[@andrewmarcdavid]

@@PrestoMoto02 great to hear!

[@anthony8890]

Hey there, What size SSD does it take?

[@PrestoMoto02]

2230

[@itsmilan4069]

11:27 considering the m3 max as 2 m3 fused together and 2 core disabled that's still great as X elite 80100 is a m3 competitor

[@sampadkar19]

only 39 watts? Is it full powered X-Elite?

[@michadejnas753]

@Andrew, could you please compare screen quality and sound to the SGB Edge 4?

[@bicillinjw]

Thank you for the review! I've had this for 2 days now. Has anyone noticed any ghosting? I confirmed with models at Best Buy. The pixel response time must not be super great as I can see trails with I move my cursor and when scrolling. Otherwise this thing is amazing. Given that though, I am probably going to take my spec'd out version I bought and get the plus with 16/512GB. I have been reading there is only like 5-10% difference in performance between the plus and elite.

[@najmulmalitha1108]

Is it really a macbook killer?? waiting for your opinion sir

[@itsmilan4069]

for now not really, it's a competitor for M3 but not the higher tiers

[@VladdyDaddy369]

As always, thanks for what you do, Andrew!... I'm curious if you think that one could expect more or less the same from the 15" model regarding the battery, performance and temp. Thanks!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Perhaps. I am hoping get one in for review. Stay tuned.

[@VladdyDaddy369]

@@andrewmarcdavid Awesome, thanks!

[@Kyt2024]

I would think there’s a reasonable enough chance the thermals will be a bit better on the 15 inch model.

[@luc7976]

According to Surface specs 10% more battery for video loop for 15" model. But would be nice to see a similar wifi real test.

[@slncbrkr]

Does anyone know what surface pen to buy for the surface laptop 7?

[@iCrackr]

20 hours is insane, wonder how the XPS 13 9345 stacks up with its OLED

[@Doppelski]

Best review of the world, as alway. Thanks mister

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Glad you liked it!

[@blackgold1859]

Awesome and comprehensive review as always. Thank you AMD! Now we need your X Elite XPS and T14s Review! 👍🏼

[@adequatequality]

For the first time, I can actually make out the additional $200-300 you're paying for the Surface Laptop compared to the other Copilot+PC that have been released. The battery life and haptic trackpad alone make it worthwhile tbh

[@_Digitalguy]

I would love if you could compared the speakers to the MacBook air in your full review

[@umtomcat]

Does it have a physical SIM card slot?

[@norbertsangano1529]

Wow phenomenal battery autonomy. I am also extremely impressed about this. CPU and graphics are also enough for this kind of laptops.

[@vartannazarian3451]

The performances in video edition are disastrous it seems. Can you confirm it? Maybe they use emulation?

[@simpleman9306]

Andrew! What do think, is it safe to wait some time and then to get arms?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I would wait a little bit as they iron out the kinks. That being said, if all you do is simple tasks such as MS office, web browsing, watching youtube and movies it will work really great right now.

[@williamcohen3351]

Nice looking laptop. These blue units look quite impressive. Keyboard for this size units designed nice. Camera looked very good. People who want long battery running life will appreciate these units. Great first look review.

[@chuckg6039]

Too bad you must pay more for that color.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

Does the charger still have a USB-A port on it?

[@Subhrajyoti]

That depends on the manufacturer not on Qualcomm but most probably u can still charge it using USB c charger

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

@@Subhrajyoti Surface chargers used to have USB-A ports on them, so you could carry one charger to charge your Surface and your phone, for example. I was asking if this latest charger still offered that.

[@franciswong311]

Can you test hooking up 4k 120hz tv or AVR receiver if it can passthrough lossless audio like dolby atmos true hd and dts x?

[@kuau714]

I received mine the other day top tier config with 64gb 1TB. After using it for the past two days, Im a Lightroom user and for me unfortunately Adobe still has some work to do on there ARM version so I will be returning the unit and will look at it again in a few months

[@inigab]

whats not good on adobe for arm? i'm considering to get lenovo 7x or mba m3 16/512 for photoshop & illustrator and still can't decide

[@itsmilan4069]

​@@inigabthey are lazy when it comes to updating or porting arm versions of their apps

[@kuau714]

@@inigab I shoot with 2 Nikon Z9's in RAW He* and Adobe does not support this format on there ARM software also at this point another feature I use a lot is the A! Denoise which barely runs on the ARM version of LR and PS. I hope Adobe in the future continues to improve the ARM version of LR and PS,..

[@TheBadFred]

Is there hardware accelerated HVAC encoding on the SOC?

[@user-007-wtf]

Could you please mention in specs if the display is oled or ips?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Ok. It is an IPS display not OLED as I mentioned multiple times in the video.

[@user-007-wtf]

Sorry I usually watch video on mute with cc on and look mostly for specs, would help people like me 😅

[@cranialsurge]

Wish you could get that sapphire color with 32GB of RAM. Looks like that is reserved for the Black model :(

[@PSYCHOV3N0M]

Weird how you didn't mention no HDMI port and you didn't mention if the RAM or Wi-Fi card are soldered.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

In the upcoming full review

[@osbert]

Nice battery result, but difficult to give it much weight without comparisons against other machines. Everywhere else a 4k video loop is getting much less, somewhere in the 5-6hrs max? browser loop topping out around 10-11hrs. Still impressive compared to other win laptops but still miles behind macs unfortunately. 20hrs is the kind of jump qualcomm and MS were promising would be attainable, so if that's already happening now after some updates, while the rest of the win class is stuck at 6hrs that would be an insane result.

[@seahawkers101]

KZbin likely caching portion of the video that doesn’t need to be redownloaded for each loop.

[@abudilijan5953]

What is DCI-P3 level? And could you measure real sdr brightness? Thanks.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Still looking for a colorimeter that works with windows on arm

[@SenselInc]

Thrilled that you love the touchpad with haptics powered by Sensel, Andrew! 🙌

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Yes, works great on both the Surface Laptop 7 and on the Flex Pro Keyboard Cover for the Surface Pro 11.

[@anthony8890]

Me too! Mine works great!

[@SenselInc]

@@anthony8890 Love to hear that! Is this your first haptic touchpad?

[@anthony8890]

@@SenselInc It's not my first, but by far the best!

[@SenselInc]

@@anthony8890 Woohoo!! 🙌

[@RobertDunn310]

Excellent preliminary review! The battery life is great but those compatibility issues...they are just not acceptable at this time and with those prices when better options without ARM compatibility pitfalls can be had.

[@moviesynopsis001]

If i accidently block the vents with my sheets will it stop the laptop from breathing?

[@McDowell666]

Ah I was waiting for this one. Looks good, honestly. Battery life exceeded my expectations. Thanks, Andrew! P.S. looks like you're getting bombarded with p*rn bot comments

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Yeah the porn bots are so annoying. KZbin refuses to fix it for some reason.

[@McDowell666]

@@andrewmarcdavid I try and report as many as I can. Not sure if it helps though 😅 Oh and about the Surface, can you please try and play some games on it? I know it's not a gaming laptop in any way, but I want to see if it's better than a Macbook Air in this regard. ✌️

[@noherczeg]

Please cover where are we at with Linux distros, maybe test it with Ubuntu, if it supports it. Us devs are looking forward for a non spyware OS ARM PC.

[@cynicist8114]

Not yet. Gotta wait for kernel 6.11, which should be out in a few months. The next wave of Linux distributions should work out of the box if we are lucky.

[@RovexHD]

You look at this laptop and wonder if Foxconn assembled it (as they do the MacBook airs).

[@Diego-xc6yf]

Andrew, I don’t make a move until your review.

[@nafeeahnaf6296]

Please do a Samsung Book 4 Edge review that has the X Elite 84-100 variant of the chip 🙏

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Coming

[@emekaobiefuna4509]

I'm impressed with this pc especially the battery, and processor. However, I'm skeptical if this would work for Deep Learning training especially since it doesn't have CUDA which only comes with an Nvidia GPU

[@RR-zq3mk]

Any plans to review the ASUS vivobook s15 with snapdragon?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Yes, I unboxed it on the mega unboxing I did live and will have the review on the way.

[@jimgargas2480]

Very informative!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tharlinhtet97]

Does it contain fan?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Yes

[@winhteinlin1]

Can it be used on other surface pen

[@andrewmarcdavid]

There is no pen support whatsoever.

[@winhteinlin1]

@@andrewmarcdavid Thanks a lot for the information, basically, surface pens could not be used in these laptops, that is sad

[@AgentZeroNine1]

Really hope the Intel Lunar Lake CPUs match or surpass the experience

[@vytrocorp6754]

in future very important h266 for gpus, will see if nvidia add in blackwell support h266 decode/encoder. intel add in lunarlake decode. its important for 8k 24p movies, video cameras 8k 60p/120p or 12k 60p,video editing 8k60p,120p/12k30p,60p,television 4k,8k. ,8k gameing, streaming and .... .H265 intel add decoder/encode 4k 60p from skylake ,8k 60p h265 from tigerlake. will see what from patherlake

[@hosseindianati7798]

Thank you for your efforts. I believe this surface is the best arm pc right now. However, I think Surface Laptop 9 will be a dream laptop. Till that timez they will probably add OLED

[@LeicaM11]

Great, you did get a fitting leather jacket. I will never get one in my size (102).😮

[@DannY-oz3hq]

I drain alot more battery than i should on my SL7, and i am not the only one, I got told by several people that they experience the same. Also, when surfing the web i drain like 1% every 5 minutes, that shouldn't be normal either. Do you know anything i can do? I could exchange it for a new laptop but if i am not the only one, i am afraid i will get one with the same problem.

[@zacmullins7811]

not use windows, everyone is getting less than the advertised battery time. Windows is still having compatability issues with the ARM processors, they are scoring less than projected on benchmarks

[@israellewis5484]

Which browser do you use?

[@DannY-oz3hq]

@@israellewis5484 google

[@jakejoyride]

no hdmi, only 2 usb :(

[@fenriswolf-always-forward]

I'd buy it if it had OLED. I can't go back. 5G is important too.

[@neven572]

Hopefully those app updates will come sooner rather than later so we could retire mba...great review as per usual.

[@ShoeGod]

Yoga Slim 7X seems to be the better buy

[@LockwoodLegal]

Are you ever going to release the latitude video?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Yes I am planning on it so stay tuned

[@patrick.771]

Did they solve the coil whine issue? The older surface laptops were making annoying „buzzing noise“ in idle which you could clearly hear in silent environments. (When I remember correctly only when plugged in)

[@qlimax1986]

same on xps13 (2020)

[@Futrd]

Is this laptop suitable for editing?

[@inamulbhuyan]

Snapdragon X Elite ❤❤❤

[@hexagonal7075]

Please check it out with eGPU

[@divyanshaggarwal8741]

Please make a sheet of laptop compared by you with their scores and price

[@TheBoko7]

Excellent specs for that price! Microsoft and Qualcomm are now real competitors to Apple. It will be nice to record an interview with the Sensel team; their work should not be overlooked.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Great idea. I will reach out to Sensel.

[@TheBoko7]

@@andrewmarcdavid I hope they agree. I think their touchpads should be on almost all Windows laptops.

[@xkolm49]

That battery life just numerically shows how much is Intel lagging behind.

[@chuckg6039]

Lacking until Intel releases a lunar Lake.

[@imopn]

How do the speakers compare to a Macbook? Ive always found Windows laptop speakers suck

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I will be comparing in the full review. That being said, for a windows laptop these are really good.

[@imopn]

@@andrewmarcdavid legend. Thanks and looking forward to the full review

[@thenubianspeaks4329]

I don't want a 13 inch laptop period, and I hate it that Microsot limits the most popular color to 13 inch and it is not included with the 15 inch, with a boring black color and a sort of off white. Neither of which i find very attractive. And what about the speakers that no one seems to want to address in all their prasie

[@TokyoNeko8]

I guess Windows OS is the culprit that slows down performance when unplugged. 19% off off in performance for single core. Machine should not lower power when unplugged to give the impression the battery life is better when it really gimping the machines. The video test though... - 40% brightness video playback for 20 hours is crazy. at 600 nits , 240 nits (40%) is respectable!

[@curbsidetech]

very nice!

[@drpradeepyadav110]

Love from india.. I will highly appreciate if u help me..want to buy a windows laptop out of lenovo yoga slim7x, surface laptop 7 15 inch or galaxy book 4 edge 16 inch.. which is best for long term use like 5-7 years.. casual office user (no gaming or creative work) . Need premium laptop alternative to mac. Ram 16 or 32gb(preferred for future proof) long battery & good display with good build quality . Android user. Good performance on battery with long battery life. Samsung user

[@xKoMox]

There's not a lot of difference between these as their all in the same classification. Short answer, Laptop 7 is on par the others but 7X allows higher RAM configurations, 4 Edge is lower build quality.

[@RampartDistric213]

The fact that there isn't an OLED is terrible on a Gen 7 Surface, smh.

[@inamulbhuyan]

Snapdragon X ❤❤

[@annieford6043]

I really like it❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@stevennguyen9001]

pls review Thinkpad Nano gen 4 with Snapdragon X elite (i comment beforehand😂)

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Do you know something we don’t?

[@stevennguyen9001]

@@andrewmarcdavid I just assume (& wish) Thinkpad Nano Next Gen will use Snapdragon x elite

[@rushmore3927]

x86 and ARM are not real friends.

[@rushmore3927]

AI (especially here) is a legit Trojan Horse. They should pay consumers to use them.

[@kimochi33]

Now that Windows on Arm is better, I can't wait to install Windows on my Mac again

[@biasedthoughts]

This could have been a MacBook Air review. Great processing power, long battery life, mediocre graphics and limited compatibility.

[@vladmihai306]

no

[@satmax-tv]

As long as you can't even run Microsoft's own programs like SQL Express Server, it makes no sense to use arm64 processors! These notebooks are nothing for gaming, without MS SQL Server they are also useless as work PCs. Sorry Microsoft, that's not how it works!

[@AliAbidalkareem]

Emulation on a windows?!!! No thanks.

[@andrewchen3247]

MacBook is still better 1:14

[@RR-zq3mk]

As an apple fan boy why do even watch these videos about Microsoft then…..what are you afraid your pretentious apple company might be lagging?😂

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Nah...

[@VadimMarchenko]

Still a glossy screen? Then still a strong pass ..

[@RR-zq3mk]

Your eyes are bad then. Most people adapt

[@VadimMarchenko]

@@RR-zq3mk wow... This is kinda "you holding it wrong" vibe. When I look at the display I want to see the content. Not my reflection, not reflection of the light bulb, or window... And I don't want to "adapt". And I will give my money to a company that understands what is important to me!

[@nft5646]

bad GPU 🙃 than amd 780M/arc

[@andrewmarcdavid]

It's just not optimized right now.