Microsoft Surface Laptop Challenges Apple MacBook & Google Chromebooks

Microsoft has revealed the Surface Laptop, a take on its Surface range designed to run the slimmed down Windows 10 S and tackle Google Chromebooks and Apple MacBooks.

Mixing glass, metal and alcantara fabric (the kind you get in a sports car), the Surface Laptop fits in a 13.5inch PixelSense touchscreen display with a Full HD 1080p resolution with it measuring in at 14.47mm at its thickest point, leading to Panos Panay, head of engineering at Microsoft’s devices division, to boast that the Surface Laptop has the  “thinnest LCD touch module on a laptop”.

That slimness is also helped through mounting a PCIe solid state drive to the motherboard, a claimed world-first by Panay,  and the use of Vapour Chamber lines etched into the bottom panel of the Surface Laptop.

Surface Laptop

Microsoft is offering the Surface Laptop with either Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, which Panay boasted helps make it 50 percent faster than Apple’s MacBook Air. He also noted how it has 14.5 hours of battery life yet only weighs 1.25kg.

Connections come in the form of a USB port, mini DisplayPort, a power connector and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

With a bent toward creative workers and students, the Surface Laptop boasts comparability with the Surface Dial, which allows for context related controls with Windows 10 software.

While users may initially be limited to Windows Store apps as part of the Windows 10 S package, if they need apps not available on the Windows Store, they can download the Windows 10 Professional version.

Burgundy, Cobalt Blue, Platinum, and Graphite Gold make up the colour options for the Surface Laptop, which is available for pre-order right now, starting at $999 (£772) for the Core i5 version, and due for release 15 June.

With Microsoft debuting a new laptop and Acer building out its laptop line, the slim side of laptop market looks to be in a healthy state despite death of the PC cries.

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