The surface laptop studio looks like a beautiful piece of hardware, but the CPU performance is simply lacking. I wish Microsoft had gone with Ryzen or with Intel H45 series instead of the silly H35 series. The entry 14 Macbook Pro is miles ahead in CPU performance while being competitive or similar overall across the board. As a long time PC/android user who doesn't want to switch to the apple ecosystem, I'm hoping Android and PC manufacturers/AMD/Intel step up their game (e.g. alder lake efficiency is a joke on desktop, hope it's better on laptop). Raw performance or perf-per-watt isn't everything, but it's hard to continue to ignore especially when emulation is pretty decent.
typical AMD apologist post. people buying surface studio just want to get work done. have you actually *used* adl on desktop? and i don't mean lunix desktop, an actual win 11 desktop? no? ah, go back to your AMD space heater running twm under x11.
Did you even read my comment? Funny thing is you don't get the irony of calling my post a fanboy post...
My main contention with the laptop studio is that a 8 core CPU (eg. Intel H45) would be a better fit (esp. for the price). Not necessarily AMD, just not a boosted quad core.
And my whole point about desktop alder lake is that efficiency doesn't seem good on "Intel 7", even compared to TSMC N7. Curious to see how the mobile chips perform with limited TDPs, given that the node is the same as desktop. No doubt performance is good, but for laptops efficiency matters a lot too. If you've followed recent tech news, you'll know that amd 5xxx chips are noticeably more efficient than Intel 11xxx chips on laptops right now.
The high end alder lake chips are inefficient by design. Whether or not it’s a good design is up for debate, but they were deliberately given unlimited power limits to eke out the final few % of performance. Mostly so that the 12900k could have more consistent wins over the 5950X. Setting these power limits to be more sane still leaves you with quite good performance, especially when the 12900k is compared with the similar-in-price 5900X. The i7 and i5 parts also do quite well efficiency wise. But Intel evidently decided people would be happier to have the last 5% of perf rather than 30-40% less power.
You can see that especially with the 12600k, which posts some pretty good efficiency IMO against its competition despite the power limit fiddling.
That's a good point. I agree that for the Desktop efficiency is not as big of a concern, and maximizing performance on the flagship i9 is probably the better option. At least we're getting some innovation with all the competition. The trend of overall increasing TDPs for CPUs and GPUs for laptops to eke out that last bit of performance at a significant power cost is not the right move IMO.
I suspect efficiency on the laptop ADL chips will be worse than non-chiplet TSMC N7 (and worse than TSMC N5), but I look forward to seeing reviews of the laptop chips when they launch. I hope the performance is tuned considering perf-per-watt to some extent, at least on battery. Also excited to see what the E cores can bring to the table in this regard.
That moment when you go on a fanboy rant, without realizing you are being a fanboy... Because you failed to read the Ops comment in the appropriate context.
He doesn't care if it is AMD or Intel, he cares about core counts.
It seems to me that this is a very good laptop for students who work with a wide variety of software. It is very important to choose a device based on its internal characteristics in order to have access to full-fledged work. I often use https://writix.co.uk/do-my-coursework and do my homework right on the computer, so I bought myself a very powerful laptop that never lags. I often have to write various texts, write my coursework and generally work with a large amount of data. Therefore, I have never regretted this purchase, because my laptop copes with all this 100%.
I've been using a surface laptop 4 for work (programming) and it is very underwhelming. Considering the $1600 price tag, it would fall under the "premium" category, but in almost everything I do it performs slower than my 2013 MBP.
The build quality is good, and on paper the specs sound good, but somehow the final product just doesn't perform as expected. Battery life is also much less than advertised.
I also have a Dell XPS15 from 4 years ago that still performs like a champ. So if I had to pick again I would definitely go with another Dell over a surface.
I bought the base AMD surface laptop 4 (pre ordered) for $900. I genuinely enjoy using the laptop. Battery life is excellent. Performance while plugged in is very good. Unplugged performance is acceptable but noticeably slower compared to plugged in (this is my main caveat).
I also have a $2000 4 year old XPS 15 that I had a lot more issues with (gets way too hot, gpu throttles hard while casual gaming, wifi is shit, webcam / mics have issues). I don't notice a performance difference, except for the lack of hardware acceleration in one application I use. I haven't touched the XPS since I got the SL4.
I have an XPS 13 2 in 1. I like it pretty well except for one thing. A couple of weeks ago, I left my charger at home. I figured I could just use whatever USB power source, it might charge slowly but at least it would charge. Nope. Dell has pulled an Apple. If you are not using a Genuine Dell Charger, it will refuse to charge at all.
Did you use, at least, a USB-C PD 60W charger? Dell laptops have this weird feature where they won't charge, if the charger is below a certain wattage, depending on the max battery capacity.
For a thin and light, you should be safe with a USB-C PD 60W charger, and those are readily available.
Sound like you either used a off spec/cheap type-c charger and or cable. Any USB PD charger should work. I did a quick google search to confirm. The same is true for apple. In Apple's and Dell's case that has been the reality for a number of years now.
The M1 MBA is $800/850 at a couple US retailers. Sure most people have an os preference, but if that preference is not a hard requirement, it's an insane piece of hardware for that price. The M1 is just comically fast and power efficient. The build quality. No fan or any moving parts.
I'm still acclimating to macos but even so, I have zero regrets.
It seems like a solid deal for an entry-level laptop segment. For the price of $530 you get 15.6-inch FHD screen, Intel i3-1115G4, 8GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe SSD, and plenty of ports. To replace preinstalled Windows 10 S, you just need to install Linux, or buy and install Windows 11 Pro licence, and you are good to go.
I'm a bit surprised the RoG Flow X13 wasn't included on this list. It, along with the Surface Pro 8, are the only 360-degree-design laptops with touchscreens and 120hz screens.
I've been waiting for 120hz screens to come to small form-factor, touchscreen convertibles for a long time. I'm currently rocking an HP Spectre-like laptop that has a bastardized 120hz screen, but I have to suffer the bad privacy screen feature of it to get that high refresh.
So yeah, hopefully the Surface Pro 8 will get the other manufacturers like Dell and HP to release similar displays in 2022
You have a great list of the best laptops. I'm currently looking for a laptop under 50,000 rupees. I have checked a few options at https://highshop.in/best-laptops-under-50000/ and think that one of those laptops will satisfy my needs. What are your suggestions? Do you think a laptop within this budget will help me with my office work?
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techjunkie123 - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
The surface laptop studio looks like a beautiful piece of hardware, but the CPU performance is simply lacking. I wish Microsoft had gone with Ryzen or with Intel H45 series instead of the silly H35 series. The entry 14 Macbook Pro is miles ahead in CPU performance while being competitive or similar overall across the board. As a long time PC/android user who doesn't want to switch to the apple ecosystem, I'm hoping Android and PC manufacturers/AMD/Intel step up their game (e.g. alder lake efficiency is a joke on desktop, hope it's better on laptop). Raw performance or perf-per-watt isn't everything, but it's hard to continue to ignore especially when emulation is pretty decent.timecop1818 - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
typical AMD apologist post. people buying surface studio just want to get work done. have you actually *used* adl on desktop? and i don't mean lunix desktop, an actual win 11 desktop? no? ah, go back to your AMD space heater running twm under x11.techjunkie123 - Thursday, December 2, 2021 - link
Did you even read my comment? Funny thing is you don't get the irony of calling my post a fanboy post...My main contention with the laptop studio is that a 8 core CPU (eg. Intel H45) would be a better fit (esp. for the price). Not necessarily AMD, just not a boosted quad core.
And my whole point about desktop alder lake is that efficiency doesn't seem good on "Intel 7", even compared to TSMC N7. Curious to see how the mobile chips perform with limited TDPs, given that the node is the same as desktop. No doubt performance is good, but for laptops efficiency matters a lot too. If you've followed recent tech news, you'll know that amd 5xxx chips are noticeably more efficient than Intel 11xxx chips on laptops right now.
Drumsticks - Thursday, December 2, 2021 - link
The high end alder lake chips are inefficient by design. Whether or not it’s a good design is up for debate, but they were deliberately given unlimited power limits to eke out the final few % of performance. Mostly so that the 12900k could have more consistent wins over the 5950X. Setting these power limits to be more sane still leaves you with quite good performance, especially when the 12900k is compared with the similar-in-price 5900X. The i7 and i5 parts also do quite well efficiency wise. But Intel evidently decided people would be happier to have the last 5% of perf rather than 30-40% less power.You can see that especially with the 12600k, which posts some pretty good efficiency IMO against its competition despite the power limit fiddling.
techjunkie123 - Thursday, December 2, 2021 - link
That's a good point. I agree that for the Desktop efficiency is not as big of a concern, and maximizing performance on the flagship i9 is probably the better option. At least we're getting some innovation with all the competition. The trend of overall increasing TDPs for CPUs and GPUs for laptops to eke out that last bit of performance at a significant power cost is not the right move IMO.I suspect efficiency on the laptop ADL chips will be worse than non-chiplet TSMC N7 (and worse than TSMC N5), but I look forward to seeing reviews of the laptop chips when they launch. I hope the performance is tuned considering perf-per-watt to some extent, at least on battery. Also excited to see what the E cores can bring to the table in this regard.
StevoLincolnite - Saturday, December 11, 2021 - link
That moment when you go on a fanboy rant, without realizing you are being a fanboy... Because you failed to read the Ops comment in the appropriate context.He doesn't care if it is AMD or Intel, he cares about core counts.
Santoval - Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - link
Typical Intel fanboy post.DirkNWest - Thursday, March 24, 2022 - link
It seems to me that this is a very good laptop for students who work with a wide variety of software. It is very important to choose a device based on its internal characteristics in order to have access to full-fledged work. I often use https://writix.co.uk/do-my-coursework and do my homework right on the computer, so I bought myself a very powerful laptop that never lags. I often have to write various texts, write my coursework and generally work with a large amount of data. Therefore, I have never regretted this purchase, because my laptop copes with all this 100%.mrtouchytouchy - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
I've been using a surface laptop 4 for work (programming) and it is very underwhelming. Considering the $1600 price tag, it would fall under the "premium" category, but in almost everything I do it performs slower than my 2013 MBP.The build quality is good, and on paper the specs sound good, but somehow the final product just doesn't perform as expected. Battery life is also much less than advertised.
I also have a Dell XPS15 from 4 years ago that still performs like a champ. So if I had to pick again I would definitely go with another Dell over a surface.
techjunkie123 - Thursday, December 2, 2021 - link
Interesting actually. Did you get an Intel model?I bought the base AMD surface laptop 4 (pre ordered) for $900. I genuinely enjoy using the laptop. Battery life is excellent. Performance while plugged in is very good. Unplugged performance is acceptable but noticeably slower compared to plugged in (this is my main caveat).
I also have a $2000 4 year old XPS 15 that I had a lot more issues with (gets way too hot, gpu throttles hard while casual gaming, wifi is shit, webcam / mics have issues). I don't notice a performance difference, except for the lack of hardware acceleration in one application I use. I haven't touched the XPS since I got the SL4.
pjcamp - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
I have an XPS 13 2 in 1. I like it pretty well except for one thing. A couple of weeks ago, I left my charger at home. I figured I could just use whatever USB power source, it might charge slowly but at least it would charge. Nope. Dell has pulled an Apple. If you are not using a Genuine Dell Charger, it will refuse to charge at all.meacupla - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
That's the first I've heard of that.Did you use, at least, a USB-C PD 60W charger?
Dell laptops have this weird feature where they won't charge, if the charger is below a certain wattage, depending on the max battery capacity.
For a thin and light, you should be safe with a USB-C PD 60W charger, and those are readily available.
t.s - Sunday, December 5, 2021 - link
All dell barell-type charger have a chipset embedded on it. So it's high possibility that their usb charger have this chip too.meacupla - Tuesday, December 7, 2021 - link
uh, no?My Dell inspiron 7000 2in1 charges just fine from a my ravpower 61W, 60W, and 90W USB-C PD chargers.
Skeptical123 - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
Sound like you either used a off spec/cheap type-c charger and or cable. Any USB PD charger should work. I did a quick google search to confirm. The same is true for apple. In Apple's and Dell's case that has been the reality for a number of years now.Desierz - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - link
I wish there was a x86 laptop that is silent while still having decent performance..anandcx - Thursday, December 2, 2021 - link
You can try the LG Gram series, nearly silent laptop and available in 14, 16 and 17 inches screen.brontes - Saturday, December 4, 2021 - link
The M1 MBA is $800/850 at a couple US retailers. Sure most people have an os preference, but if that preference is not a hard requirement, it's an insane piece of hardware for that price. The M1 is just comically fast and power efficient. The build quality. No fan or any moving parts.I'm still acclimating to macos but even so, I have zero regrets.
t.s - Sunday, December 5, 2021 - link
all M1 MB{A|Pro} have 1 major defect: soldered storage. When the storage (SSD) break, kiss goodbye to your Mac. And then it became e-junk.lencc - Sunday, December 12, 2021 - link
How about Acer Aspire 5 (2021 variants)?https://www.amazon.com/Newest-Acer-Aspire-i3-1115G...
It seems like a solid deal for an entry-level laptop segment. For the price of $530 you get 15.6-inch FHD screen, Intel i3-1115G4, 8GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe SSD, and plenty of ports. To replace preinstalled Windows 10 S, you just need to install Linux, or buy and install Windows 11 Pro licence, and you are good to go.
Farfolomew - Friday, December 31, 2021 - link
I'm a bit surprised the RoG Flow X13 wasn't included on this list. It, along with the Surface Pro 8, are the only 360-degree-design laptops with touchscreens and 120hz screens.I've been waiting for 120hz screens to come to small form-factor, touchscreen convertibles for a long time. I'm currently rocking an HP Spectre-like laptop that has a bastardized 120hz screen, but I have to suffer the bad privacy screen feature of it to get that high refresh.
So yeah, hopefully the Surface Pro 8 will get the other manufacturers like Dell and HP to release similar displays in 2022
Hotworks01 - Monday, March 14, 2022 - link
Such an informative blog, No Doubt, I was looking for this kind of information for my HOT Workstations : https://hotworkstations.ae/kath1mack - Thursday, April 14, 2022 - link
thanks for the information!malikvivek - Thursday, June 30, 2022 - link
You have a great list of the best laptops. I'm currently looking for a laptop under 50,000 rupees. I have checked a few options at https://highshop.in/best-laptops-under-50000/ and think that one of those laptops will satisfy my needs. What are your suggestions? Do you think a laptop within this budget will help me with my office work?