Micah
9 de octubre de 2024
Finally, a proper Macbook Air Competitor
Years ago, I had the original Surface Laptop, and I loved it. It remains one of my favorite laptops of all time.So before I purchased the Surface Laptop 7, I actually had a 14" 2021 Macbook Pro. It was honestly too much laptop for my needs, but the limited port selection on the Macbook Airs ruled them out for me. Of course, my Macbook Pro was better than the Surface Laptop 7 in many ways - the mini-LED screen is just about the best laptop display you can get, full-stop, whereas the Surface's display is good but not great. The speakers on the Macbook were amazing; the Surface's are quite good but can't compete in that regard.However, I don't regret my purchase for one second because the Surface Laptop 7 is really a Macbook Air competitor, and that is where it shines. I compared the Surface and Macbook Air 13" side by side and came away with the following conclusions:-Screen: I don't do any serious photo editing or graphic design. To me, the Surface screen is slightly better. It gets much brighter than the Air and colors seem more accurate. However, the Air has better black levels. The Surface is a touchscreen, but I never use it as I don't like fingerprints on my screens. However, if you want a touchscreen, the Surface is clearly the better option. The Surface also has a 120hz display, whereas the Air is stuck at 60hz. The difference in smoothness when scrolling or using trackpad gestures is very noticeable. The Surface's screen looks much smoother.-Speakers: I can't tell the difference between the two. The Surface's speakers are really good compared to other laptops in this class. The same is true of the Macbook Air.-Ports: I had hoped that by 2024, USB-A would be all but gone, but alas it is not. It was very annoying to have to carry around dongles to use USB-A devices on my Macbook Pro, and now I don't have to! The Air has only two USB-C ports, so clearly the Surface wins here. The Macbook Pro does have HDMI, which is nice, but I just bought a USB-C to HDMI cable that I carry around with me, so I don't need a dongle for that either.-Keyboard: I like that the Macbook Air has more than 3 levels of brightness control, but I slightly prefer the key feel on the Surface.- Trackpad: somehow, the Surface's trackpad is better. I am thrilled that Microsoft finally brought a haptic trackpad to the Surface lineup. It feels more delicate and the tactility is stronger. Macbook trackpads are still among the best in the business, but there is finally a Windows laptop that is comparable in this regard.-Login: hands down, Windows Hello is better than the fingerprint reader. It's so fast that my Surface often logs me that it feels like the laptop was left unlocked. The fingerprint scanner on Macbooks are very good, but they are not as fast, nor as convenient, as Windows Hello. My Macbook Pro could also unlock with my Apple Watch, but that almost always took longer than unlocking with my finger.-Build Quality: This has always been a strong point for Surface devices, and the Surface Laptop 7 doesn't disappoint. The laptop can be opened easily with one hand, and the fit and finish is flawless. The same is true of the Macbook Air. I can't say whether one is better than the other. The Surface is designed to be easier to service, however, and you can actually replace the SSD, which is very nice. Additionally, the black finish on my Surface is more resistant to showing fingerprints than the dark blue on the Macbook Airs, which is a fingerprint magnet.-Performance: After owning an Apple Silicon laptop, I could never go back to using an x86/x64 processor. I used Windows 11 for ARM on my Macbook for two years virtualized in Paralells, so I knew what I was getting into. All of the applications I need work beautifully on the Surface, and it is so darn fast. Of course, there are more powerful processors out there using traditional x64 architecture, but I have never used a Windows laptop that is just so snappy for every day tasks. Office apps open in 1-2 seconds. Firefox, Chrome, and Edge open in less than a second. Using gestures to swipe through apps is super snappy, and the high refresh rate screen makes transitions look so smooth. This is the kind of performance I came to except from my Apple Silicon Macbook, and it's wonderful to finally see Windows operating just as responsively.Overall, the Surface feels like an upgrade over my Macbook Pro, and I personally am fine with the tradeoffs that come with the thinner, smaller, and lighter Surface over the more powerful Macbook Pro. It is an utterly fantastic laptop that, in my opinion, is currently the best thin-and-light laptop in the world.Ver másVer menos
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