Surface Laptop 7 vs. MacBook Air M3 - GAME OVER?

[@davidTs4]

I've had the new Surface Laptop 7 '13 for a few weeks now. I have to say that at first, I had serious doubts about the battery life (the main reason I bought it) and the compatibility with non-native ARM applications. Well, primarily working with Office, email, browsing the Internet, watching some videos, the battery that used to last me 6-7 hours now lasts around 20. The pleasant surprise has been so great that even today I can't believe it. I won't talk about the design and so on, because we all already know the excellent quality of the Surface. I am delighted!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

The battery life is pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[@RemofRenaissance]

Great stuff - I had a similar experience with the base model Surface Pro 11. Even now I have anxiety when I pull it out thinking it would need a charge but somehow the battery life doesn't deplete in sleep mode and I can get a lot of work done sipping off under 20% to 30% per day. Very nice. Enjoy!

[@JustifyJustin]

How do you find the app compatibility has been? I'm thinking of one as an office productivity machine, but I've heard some horror stories of crashing MS Teams with the new ARM devices...

[@hirwaaxel9656]

how long does surface laptop 7 last for normal usage

[@RemofRenaissance]

⁠@@JustifyJustinfor me it’s been pretty great. No issues with office apps at all. Actually I think that’s it’s strong point. Office apps only better on Arm especially MS Teams. On the Snapdragon website I am pretty sure there is a page dedicated to telling you which apps are compatible also. Maybe just google “snapdragon Qualcomm comparability”

[@SenselInc]

Thanks Andrew! Very much appreciate the shout-out of the Sensel-powered haptic touchpad at 13:25! 😍🙏

[@DonJuravin]

Thanks!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Thanks 🙏

[@rafaelperez9652]

The Surface Laptop 7 is my choice here. It is obviously cheaper than the MacBook Air M3 and overall a better value for your money in my opinion. The fact that you can upgrade the SSD is a good thing and what Andrew did in getting the one with 256GB of storage and then upgrading is exactly what I would do. The audio from the MacBook Air M3 is a little richer, fuller than the Surface Laptop 7 but for a Windows machine, it's not bad. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, obviously go for the MacBook Air M3 otherwise the clear winner here for me is the Surface Laptop 7 from Microsoft. Excellent video Andrew once again my friend!! 👍😁

[@newetman4382]

This channel deserves a milliok subs! Quality, informative & honest!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I appreciate that!

[@swissheartydogs]

“Quite Unique” channel, love your reviews & this music (got it through my Epidemic Sound account for some drone or scuba diving videos, edited with DaVinci Resolve, native ARM version on the Lenovo slim 7x 32GB/1TB).

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Cool, thanks!

[@Jan96106]

I have both. I like them both for different reasons. I got the Surface 7 in the 13.8 screen, the Mac in the 15-inch. Fortunately, I always like the one I am on at the moment.

[@williamcohen3351]

Nice comparison video. Cameras on both units are good. Soeakers on Mac sounded better although the Surface unit was still good. Until compatabity issues with these arm processors are worked out it might be an issue with some users. When you upgrade the ssd drive in the Surface unit it would be interesting to run the ssd speed test to see if the read write speeds are significantly improved. Great comparison review.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

@@williamcohen3351 will do! Thanks 🙏

[@elliekim6666]

I have a M3 pro Base Macbook pro 14 and a Surface Laptop 7 with the X elite with 16GB of Memory and 512GB SSD and if this was out when I had bought my Macbook I probably would of not bought the MacBook. I love it so far.

[@venuev]

I have macbook 2023 M3 pro, 36gb ram, 512gb ssd and yoga slim 7x (ARM64 78-100 processor), 16 gb ram, 2 TB m.2 ssd. The yoga launched 4 to 5 times faster than the macbook for Word and Excel. From usability standpoint, macOS (Sonoma) is absolutely no match for Win 11. Got so sick of it, the macbook is going to storage. Yoga with OLED and touch screen can not compare at all. Yoga is my daily driver, no competition.

[@PayneWewton]

would have*

[@bfwaring]

Hey Andrew, I'm seriously torn: Surface Laptop 7 13.8", or Yoga slim 7x? Thanks for your time 👍

[@deneguil-1618]

the surface 15'' looks like the perfect laptop for me. My main usage for a laptop is social media, youtube, some office documents and some dev work, for this workflow Alex Ziskind made an amazing in depth analysis and the X Plus surface 13.8'' lastest the longest period, even against every macbook. I think the IPS displays helps a lot with battery life, can't wait to see how the Acer fares in that regard Once again an amazing review, to the point, as objective as you can be an never fail to mention when something is your opinion rather than the Truth. I really liked how you pointed out that it's a lot cheaper to buy the smaller SSD option and buy another drive on its own

[@MikoleVeinga]

This was an awesome review Andrew! Thank you for hitting on all the important details!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Glad it was helpful!

[@thenubianspeaks4329]

I tested the surface laptops at Best buy. Surprisingly, the 13.8 suface audio sounded better than the 15 inch

[@rfcontreras2009]

Software and compatibility ?

[@Best0fBritish]

Microsoft kicked Apple where it hurts the most - 120hz, better ports and a swappable SSD. One big issue that stops me - Geforce NOW Windows client won't work on the Surface Pro 7 but it will on the Macbook Air.

[@Desilv]

i just wish microsoft surface will come with new amd strix cpu and gpu.. it will be better at gpu for sure and also better priced i guess.. we still have to wait for adreno control panel.. that shows that snapdragon elite x was pushed to soon for a great all round product imo. i got the surface 7 with snapdragon and the gpu definitly needed to be better than its now.. can't understand microsoft left intel for snapdragon instead of amd !

[@jaywalker.]

I feel like it's gotta be a pretty small percentage of people that are regularly choosing between Mac and Windows for their main machine. Once you've chosen your OS, you're just gonna buy the best one in your lane instead of switching sides every few years, right? So, the matchup seems kinda empty in way. But don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna watch every one of these comparisons and feed the algorithm 🤓

[@adl-2]

Thanks for informative review, do you recommend surface 7 or asus vivobook s 15 that has same processor? Or better to get thinkbook carbon x1 2024?

[@adl-2]

@@Bluestreak589 Thank you am planning to got it by amazon ,But in general how is the device?

[@adl-2]

@@Bluestreak589 Thanks Can you recommend which laptop to buy? Performance, wait and battery my interest

[@RK-um9tu]

@@adl-2 No one else know your laptop needs, so do you own research. Takes about a week to learn about the basics of a good laptop...

[@itsacookie1]

The surface is so close to being a legitimate alternative to the MBA/MBP but that web cam isnt great, and the chip just doesnt compete with the M3 and upcoming M4.

[@vernearase3044]

The MacBook Pros have active cooling, better speakers, and better displays - they also have better M3 SoCs including not just he base M3 but he M3 Pro and M3 Max as well.

[@thefunkypopcorn]

Surface Laptop 7 in black or deep blue would be cool!

[@techzolute]

Amazing review as always.

[@PavitBieber]

I think software updates and life span should've also been considered for those who want their laptops to last

[@keev9882]

Hello, can't you use battery benchmarks that caters to productivity? unfortunately people buying these laptops, especially at this price point, ain't gonna use it solely for watching youtube or movies. Tablets, phones and TVs can do a better job for that purposes.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I usually use PCMark 10 Modern Office, but I can't get it to work on Snapdragon X Elite laptops right now.

[@KingBorisIII1894]

Hi, David. Is the battery replaceable? Greetings.

[@justmoch8985]

microsoft surface already TOUCHSCREEN? ofc, macbook fked. 😂 damn snapdragon chip really a game changer here. can’t wait to try it! love the video comparison Andrew. ❤

[@aryehpaulwalter7520]

I switched over from being a longtime MacBook user and I do love the SL7. However, I almost laughed when you said the scrolling is really good. Mine has been frustratingly bad. It’s super choppy and there’s almost no scroll inertia. Like my cursos will jump sometimes and my page will jump when scrolling (choppy). Super disappointing in that aspect. Do you think this can be fixed with an update? Or I have a faulty laptop?

[@RK-um9tu]

So why haven't you contacted Microsoft for assistance or gotten a replacement?

[@handlemonium]

Audio mids and highs seem on par with Macbook Air. The Macbook still has the richer lows, and much weightier *thump* of the bass drop.

[@teoanh6752]

Hi Andrew , I really love your review, professional and objective. Are you planning on reviewing the MSI SUMMIT E16 AI STUDIO? configuration: intel core ultra 7 155H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD. I found it really great, so far no one had posted a review.

[@CPA003]

I think one crucial test that needs to be done next time with these laptops is running performance tasks on battery because although yes, the surface has excellent battery life doing light tasks, when running performance tasks on battery, I think the efficiency of Apple silicon will come out on top. The channel justjosh explained this very well how the efficiency of apple silicon is better when doing performance tasks. But still after wathching this, I would say the surface is a little bit better than the MacBook overall for all types of buyers.

[@SharedCookies]

Is it possible to change the color of the backlit keyboard on either laptop? Just curious.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Not that I know of

[@akramhossain9576]

What about the limitations of ARM processor in using some applications such as Google Drive desktop, SPSS, etc?

[@RW-Toiya]

Mac Air not having a fan is key for me

[@theofiloschamalis161]

Would you recommend the Surface Laptop 7 for a developer workflow (even with 16 GB of RAM) or do you think that the ecosystem is not mature yet for WSL and other developer tools? Thanks for the great content as always!

[@andrewmarcdavid]

It depends which apps you use.

[@theofiloschamalis161]

@@andrewmarcdavid It's mostly web development with the occasional mobile development tasks, i.e. Electron based apps like VSCode, Slack, Postman, Gitkraken, Webstorm, Android Studio and WSL.

[@sachin.rathee]

​@@theofiloschamalis161You should be good with a surface laptop then

[@laurentiuenulescu6893]

Watch Alex Ziskind videos. You'll get the right answer.

[@latinreuben]

Don't you void extended warranty when you upgrade SSD yourself?

[@MinagaGodallage]

the base macbook air 13 inch and zenbook q425 is the same price here what should i get?

[@realCriminalLawyer]

Great vid Andrew. Im debating on getting either the Surface 7, the Lenovo Yoga x7 or the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge. Which one would you recommend? I really am hooked on OLED displays. I heard the Samsung Books have a screen crack issue though... I dont know what to do

[@andrewmarcdavid]

If you like OLED go with the Yogla Slim 7x

[@omarenm]

Same here. I'm inclining on Lenovo given excellent previous experience with their products.

[@milenaabramczuk5418]

Hi @andrewmarcdavid, I would like to buy this laptop with a 256GB drive and replace it with a larger SSD, as you mentioned in the video. Do you know if doing this will void the Microsoft's warranty?

[@24hrstolive27]

New to channel love the content, which laptop is your daily use?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I don't really have a daily driver as I am constantly testing laptops and rotate them quite often.

[@RusselsMindspace]

Has anyone used Chemdraw, Mnova, Schroedinger apps on the surface devices?

[@norbertsangano1529]

Thank you Mr. Andrew. I have one question that I asked to many reviewers since 10 years. I never had any answer: why Apple does not put a numeric part on their keyboards. I ask this because when typing not only me but french and other language speaking people use alt + numbers functions to add quickly special characters. Please help.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Good question. Unfortunately I don't know the answer as Apple has never commented on it.

[@carsonherren4527]

If you had to pick between the Lenovo slim 7x or the surface laptop 13.8 which would you recommend more?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

That is a tough one. I think for the price, the Yoga Slim 7x is the choice as it gives you more bang for the buck.

[@JimAtHome]

Shalom Andrew, how do or where do you get the Windows 11 multi coloured desktop image (squiggle) I can't find it anywhere so I'm stuck with the standard all blue one, wish I had watched your review before ordering this I got the one with 512gb I could have saved myself a good bit of cash and got a larger 1TB drive instead O well no point in crying over spilt milk, it's not cheap £1,450 but you're right the build quality is up there with my Macbook pro m1 pro (not the speakers though) which I still love but did cost about £400 more, I absolutely love the solid unibody design and the Sapphire colour, so far I haven't had any issues with apps running slowly or not running at all maybe I'm just lucky, MS is still being very slow and quiet about recalling the recall thing and copilot doesn't really wow me tbh but dam the battery life does it was the reason I jumped ship to Apple a year and a half ago now Windows machines are back in the game and I must admit I still prefer Windows 11 to Mac OS. Thanks for your very informative in depth reviews

[@JJ-bj6hg]

lenovo yoga slim or this microsoft laptop?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Good idea for a video.

[@vinyasperla]

If ports are a deciding factor for you, Surface has more ports which includes microsd, 3.5mm which are missing in Yoga if I am not wrong.

[@Dragonblaster1]

I bought the 128GB SP9 ARM, Within half an hour of it being in my house, it had 2TB of internal storage that cost me just over £70.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Nice!

[@karlgunterwunsch1950]

You forgot the big downer for the Surface crap - no decent printer drivers (the new printing architecture on Windows for Arm sucks) and it's a windows system. As a software developer who primarily targets Windows services I can say that Microsoft is completely clueless with regards of system design - it's so full of crap that I wouldn't take one if it were free, that would be too expensive to begin with...

[@alpcrdh3702]

My XPS 13 is dying, need a good business tool. The SL7, Yoga Slim 7 and whatever ThinkPad is x elite (T14s I think). Decisions, decisions.

[@karlgunterwunsch1950]

Forget the Windows on Arm systems - they have very poor compatibility with business applications.

[@alpcrdh3702]

@@karlgunterwunsch1950I was put off by the incompatibility issue but I've heard the opposite so far from peple using ARM, general business tools seem to run fine.

[@PromitChanda]

Sir once again requesting for snapdragon x plus chipset review ❓

[@Fyahking619]

They need to put the cpu in the s25 ultra.

[@bharat5194]

Can any video editor test the performance of After Effects on these machines?

[@Cuirenteria]

Will you review the Zenbook s16?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

I am under embargo, but to answer your question, yes.

[@peter-lammersma]

It looks like the Surface 7 doesn't come with a microSD card reader.... It's only available on the Surface Pro. Maybe a difference between US and Europe?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

@peterlammersma2109 SL7 15" comes with SD card reader 13.8" does not. Watch the video

[@mike8725]

the weight in kg & lbs at 2:37 are switched

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Thanks for letting me know.

[@yurikasperovich5664]

Interesting, Macbook Air is lighter in kilos and heavier in pounds compared to Surface, bases on the video 🤣 How about length? Wider in cm, but shorter in inches? ))))

[@stevennguyen9001]

I just got one, x elite 13.8...still wait for Google Drive App for this new chip, or I will need to switch to One Drive totally for my work data sync

[@tserentamiraltankhishig7979]

do OLED laptops still have burn in? if so is it common?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Not common. But it is possible to get screen burn in.

[@karlgunterwunsch1950]

It is very common that color accuracy doesn't survive the first year...

[@curtispenner2]

Poor computer system, hardware is 1/4 of the value, software is 3/4 of value. You’ve shown the Surface 7 to be an excellent hardware choice. Unfortunately, it runs windows. The air runs macOS. I find windows to be an inferior operating system, and macOS is a poor implementation of UNIX. If I had the Surface 7, I would convert it to any of the major Linux distros. Remember, software has 3x the value of hardware.

[@ir1keren]

My guess is when video playback starts, video decoder plays a major role here while CPU cores don't do much. And Snapdragon's video decoder is a newer generation than Apple's video decoder, so no wonder Snapdragon wins

[@alexs.5107]

Take the L in silence brother. M3 has better graphics though

[@sobhial9509]

Surface Laptop 7 battery 66mh MacBook 100mh I get both

[@linuxlesson]

What do you think, should I wait intel lunar lake? Or just get x elite laptop? I use linux

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Linux is coming but if you need laptop now than get the X Elite assuming you are using compatible apps

[@linuxlesson]

@@andrewmarcdavid Now I have old laptop, I just wanted to know if new intel chip is coming in 1-2 months , i can wait, cause I need virtualization, but when it comes in 2025 , maybe i will get intel ultra

[@sumitchaudhary343]

Poor me waiting for inspiron 14 with snapdragon x plus.

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Coming up

[@claudiameier666]

cant afford either of them.....

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Understood.

[@BurlyDuck]

2:47 the math is not mathing

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Swapped by mistake

[@BurlyDuck]

@@andrewmarcdavid still a great video

[@knotsable]

Should you get the macbook of surface …. Erm … does that really depend on performance battery life? 😁

[@karlgunterwunsch1950]

Nope, it's do you like pain then go for Windows or do you rather like a system that simply works...

[@knotsable]

@ must … not … feed … troll …

[@asadanik5987]

I hate new design MacBooks becuase of its notch display.. This notch is useless and i don't like it.

[@andrewjutub]

I love Microsoft Surface

[@Pomegrante460]

why do people like touchscreen on their laptops???

[@handlemonium]

Because people are already used to doing certain things with touch on their phones?

[@Pomegrante460]

@@handlemonium lmao let me touch my stove, cause I have a phone

[@TimKozak]

F*ck mac os, welcome to Blue screen

[@DaKrawnik]

Trillion dollar company: 60Hz 😐

[@Spoonfed78]

Word is even upcoming phones will still be that too. Yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices 🍏

[@justgreat5608]

the battery life of surface is not as good as macbook air form my own using experience

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Based on my testing both have excellent battery life.

[@hirwaaxel9656]

@@andrewmarcdavid how long does surface laptop 7 last for normal usage

[@sirt9528]

No where near close and other reviewer have stated that. Starting to look like a little Mac hate going own here. 😂

[@andrewmarcdavid]

@@sirt9528 no offense and with all due respect nobody cares what you think.

[@vladmihai306]

m3 air has the biggest advantage imo and that's FANLESS.

[@Spoonfed78]

Most important feature EVArrrrrrr. 😂 Straws, so many clutches. Forget about all the other abilities and features because if there's a fan it blows them away 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@josephle2381]

How is that an advantage? Thermal throttles and limits performance over no fan noise really?

[@okemefulachidera5440]

Apple always know how to make a good sound It has the edge over the surface 7 based on sounds

[@latinreuben]

Like Air m3 but i still cannot rationalize spending over 1500 for a laptop with only 2 ports...i should not need a dongle at that price.

[@Technocrat.]

Maybe the weaker GPU helped keep battery use low on surface laptop

[@queen-lf4vj]

the problem is windows, not the laptop 😅

[@gwojcieszczuk]

if only MS stopped adding useless features and that telemetry, it actually could be quite good OS.

[@DrFurb]

Remove the telemetry then run battery tests

[@laurentiuenulescu6893]

Macbook Air is by far better all-rounder. Better gaming, great for encoding, great for developers. For now, because of Microsoft, all X-Elite laptops are great for office only. They are really bad for developers, gamers and 3D stuff. Why majority of the KZbinrs are comparing an 8 core CPU (last year tech) with 12 core CPU? You guys hate Appple that much for their premium pricing?

[@andrewmarcdavid]

Apple released the MacBook Air with M3 this year. What else should I compare it too?

[@chikaogbu9616]

If MacBook is your choice, then stick to it. I don't see the Apple hate in this video.

[@laurentiuenulescu6893]

@@andrewmarcdavid I know what you mean, but let's be fair, Mac Air it's an entry-level machine compared with middle-top from other companies, regarding the price. Price wise, Surface is the best choice but what about comparing it M3 PRO 12 cores. I'm not pro Apple but those machines just work. I bought my Macbook Pro M1 when was released, and I installed Win for ARM on VM straight away praying for Microsoft to release a machine like that. 4 years later Microsoft still didn't managed to create what everyone hoped for. I would love to see a Surface good for developers, gaming, video editing, linux, vm's etc. But probably we have to wait at least one more year.

[@laurentiuenulescu6893]

@@chikaogbu9616 if you know a better all-rounder, please let everyone know? In my opinion, Microsoft and Qualcom should have everything in place before the release, drivers, OS and software alike. Probably the community asks too much from them. They still haven't released the X-Elite dev kit yet. I wonder why?🙃

[@Spoonfed78]

The Air is already more expensive in the spec compared so what more do want 🤦‍♂️ It doesn't matter how reasonable comparison is there's always one of Tim's minions that has a cry or will point out one single thing that discounts everything else 🤦‍♂️

[@inamulbhuyan]

Surface Laptop 7 real Winner❤Snapdragon X Elite 🔋🔋💪

[@retrogaminga1072]

clickbate title.... dissapointing.