HomeJewelry → Microsoft Surface laptop 4, analysis and opinion

Microsoft Surface laptop 4, analysis and opinion

Analysis

See gallery

15 images

Surface laptop 4 - Design

(15 images)

R. Andrés R. Andrés R. AndrésR. Andrés R. Andrés R. AndrésR. Andrés R. Andrés R. AndrésR. Andrés R. Andrés R. AndrésR. Andrés R. Andrés R. Andrés

Analysis del Microsoft Surface laptop 4 por apartados:

Keep its solidity but clearly needs more connectors

One of the objectives of any manufacturer is that the design of its products is clearly differentiable from those of its rivals.There are very few who get it and Microsoft has managed to place between that select club with the design of its laptop surface.

,

Surface laptop 4 maintains that perfectly recognizable aesthetic of previous generations with very minimalist aesthetic lines and a selection of first quality materials in which aluminum continues to be the main protagonist.

Really the design of the Surface LapTop 4 will not be a novelty with respect to the previous model because it keeps point by point the same aesthetics and the same finishes that transmit on its four sides the quality and solidity that is expected of a high -end laptop.

Microsoft has sent us the 15 -inch 4 -inch laptop surface with matt black finish for this analysis.This matte black finish, in addition to considerably catching the footprints, does not have sewage coating in the keyboard area and the rest that the silver finish is mounted, which, being honest, has disappointed me a lot.

The tact of the laptop is cold and solid in a finish that leads black to the last corner of the device, and only concessions with the brand logo on the lid where the matte finish changes for the bright.This black finish is reserved for very specific configurations.

However, with dimensions of 33.95 x 24.4 cm and almost 14.7 mm in its thickest part we cannot say that we are precisely before a Microsoft compaction exercise.

With regard to weight, 1.54 kg do remain in the strip of their rivals, taking into account that other laptops are using aluminum alloys to lighten the weight, the laptop 4 surface 4 does not occur as a especially laptoplight.

The generous frames that surround the screen and the space that is free to the sides of the keyboard are good indicators that Microsoft have a lot of improvement margin to create a 15 -inch laptop surface really competitive in the field of mobility productivity.

We liked that all cooling is located in the hinge area, leaving the entire lower part, so it can be used on the knees or other surfaces without fear of blocking cooling.

The shortage of physical connectors is something that has been dragging the laptop surface from their first models and Microsoft does not seem to make amendment with them.

In this new version we only find a USB type C connector without Thunderbolt 4 support due to the Ryzen 7 processor that mounts this unit.It is accompanied by a USB 3.1 connector and 3.5 mm headphones.All of them are located on the right side and at a height so low that it is difficult to connect the devices without lifting the tall of the table.

On the opposite side we have the Surface Connect Port that owns Microsoft that allows you to connect the magnetic charger included and very specific Microsoft accessories.A shame not to have taken advantage of the entire space available to integrate a second USB port be the type.

The wireless connection is perfectly covered by a Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity that allow more solid and stable wireless connections between devices and networks.

PixelSense continues to give productivity size, but not on teleworking

That Pixelsense is one of the best IPS screens leaves no doubt.By sharpness, brightness and touch precision Microsoft's screens remain one of the best with this technology.

We talk about a 15 -inch touch screen with a resolution of 2,496 × 1,664 pixels that leaves a density of 201 PPP.As tradition in the laptop surface, the screen has an appearance ratio 3: 2 that leaves more space in vertical and is more appropriate to edit documents and navigate, although it leaves black bars at the bottom and higher when seeingvideos and movies.

In spiteEasily expand the contents of the screen with the pinch gesture.

The screen offers an average shine of about 450 luxes and does not have HDR support, which leaves it at a disadvantage for content creation with a 97% SRGB space, 72% for adobergb and 75% of DCI-P3.Even so, we consider that the color is well calibrated from the factory.

Microsoft Surface laptop 4, análisis y opinión

The screen has a brightness sensor that adjusts the brightness of the screen as a function of ambient light.The sensor reacts almost immediately, which is not especially good because it is not pleasant that the screen is changing the constant brightness even when you have not moved from a table in a well -lit room with natural light and supported with artificial light.

In addition, this brightness adjustment is not soft and progressive as in mobile phones, but is made based on intensity jumps that, as I say, is not comfortable for sight.Another problem that accompanies the laptop surface since its inception is that of the reflexes on its screen.

As we have already said, it offers a good level of brightThey surround it, which hinders the vision of the content in certain situations such as working outdoors.

The screen has more than demonstrated its worth in productivity tasks with a correct format and excellent sharpness in texts but, how does the laptop 4 surface defend in a teleworking atmosphere?

In this sense, the lack of connectors that we highlighted in the previous section becomes almost a problem and complicates connectivity with other devices accusing a lack that the pandemic has been in charge of putting on the table.

The webcam with 720p Reolution, despite being better than in other laptops, is far from offering the quality we saw in models such as the Surface Pro X - which we analyzed here.In its defense to say that, at least, the camera is located in the correct position and offers a good frame in video calls.

Surface laptop 4 has improved in other multimedia aspects such as the sound section, where it integrates a matrix of microphones flanking the webcam that are responsible for collecting the sound of the voice and transmitting it with quality on the other side of the connection.

Something striking is that the laptop surface does not show grooves for speakers.These are located under the keyboard.To this focused position is added the addition of being enhanced by Dolby Atmos natively, which creates an atmosphere of sound between the screen and the user creating a certain very suitable directionality when seeing multimedia content.

Windows 10 has found the last of his shoe with the Ryzen

Microsoft has taken an important step to part of its laptops deployment to AMD Ryzen processors with a special edition refined for this model.On paper, it is striking that the last laptop surface no longer arrives with the Ryzen 5000 that are disembarking in the market.

Microsoft has sent us as a test unit for this analysis an laptop 4 surface that mounts the Ryzen 7 Surface Edition, which is actually an Ryzen 4980U with the adjusted controllers to offer its best version in the hardware of this laptop 4.

We have tried other Ryzen of the 4000 series and the truth is that Microsoft and AMD have done an excellent job with this 8 -core processor and 16 processing threads that has delivered the power we have needed at the right time in which we have needed it, maintaining a fairly adjusted consumption in more relaxed tasks.

The unit we are testing riding 16 GB of RAM, providing a good mattress for fluid operation by using almost any application.

Benchmarks show that there is no substantial difference in terms of day -to -day performance with little demanding applications.However, we have noticed that the Ryzen 7 takes advantage when it comes to squeezing graphic functions such as editing photoshop or lighttroom, or editing videos with Davinci Resolve.

Microsoft Surface laptop 4Huawei MateBook D15 2021Asus ZenBook Flip SMateBook 14 (2020) AMD
Procesador | RAMAMD Ryzen 7 Surface Edition (4980U) | 16 GBIntel Core i5-1135G7Intel Core i7-115G7 | 16 GBAMD Ryzen 5 4600H | 16 GB
Geekbench 4 Single (Batería | Conectado)3.732 puntos | 4.537 puntos5.988 puntos5.765 puntos5.244 puntos
Geekbench 4 Multi (Batería | Conectado)20.110 puntos | 23.495 puntos18.322 puntos13.710 puntos17.553 puntos
Geekbench 5 Single (Batería | Conectado)956 puntos | 1053 puntos1.386 puntos1.230 puntos-
Geekbench 5 Multi (Batería | Conectado)5.651 puntos | 6.543 puntos4.512 puntos4.189 puntos-
PC Mark 10 (Batería | Conectado)3.997 puntos | 4.676 puntos4.551 puntos3.070 puntos-
CineBench R15 CPU - OpenGL (Batería | Conectado)897 puntos - 54,40 fps | 1696 puntos - 65,26 fps853 puntos | 83,81 fps763 puntos | 80,811.123 puntos | 58,44 fps
CineBench R203.551 puntos1.746 puntos1.366 puntos-

See gallery

15 images

Microsoft Surface LapTop 4 - Benchmarks

(15 images)

Although it is not a laptop designed for games, it has allowed us to enjoy some games such as Valorant or Assassin's Creed Black Flag without commitments.

What has caught our attention is the difference in the performance that this laptop experiences when working with drums or connected to the outlet.

This difference is especially notable in the reading speeds of the storage unit, which reaches transfer rates of 2,273 Mb/s when it is connected to the current and lowers to 1,806 MB/s with battery.In both cases by selecting the performance profile in Windows 10.

In any case, Microsoft has not chosen the most optimized storage unit for the laptop 4 surface that we have in hand remaining far from the transfer speeds offered by many of the laptops launched in 2021.

CrystalDiskMarkMicrosoft Surface laptop 4MateBook D15 2021Asus ZenBook Flip SMateBook X Pro 2020
Lectura secuencial1.806,34 MB/s3.392,52 MB/s3.340,4 MB/s3.520 MB/s
Escritura secuencial1.039 MB/s2.978,09 MB/s2.147,76 MB/s2.904 MB/s

The Microsoft laptop that we have in hand behaves silently during most of the day, and only betrays the presence of fans when the processor is squeezed to the maximum, but in no case becomes annoying.

Temperature management is good, although on the laptop's obverse, the temperature increase is noticeable, it does not bother the keyboard part.

As a reference laptop, Surface LapTop 4 does not include third -party applications in the installation of Windows 10 Home, but we do find the typical pre -installations of Microsoft services and games.

Comfort and precision to write for hours

One of the direct inheritance of the first laptop surface that Microsoft designed and that is maintained to this day is the arrangement of the keyboard and its touch.

We can assure without fear of being wrong that the Surface LapTop 4 has one of the best keyboards on the market due to the dimension of its keys and the necessary pressure to act them.

I have been using the Microsoft laptop backlighting keyboard for hours and, from the first minute, you feel comfortable using it.The keys have a generous size that makes it more unlikely to err in the pulsation and the pulsation is soft but firm.

The touch pad or tactile panel is located in a centered position and responds precisely to Windows gestures, as well as pulsations offering a soft and quite silent click.

With so much space around it, we would have liked a larger touch pad to make the pointer control easier in tasks that, for example, involve dragging elements.

In short, the Surface LapTop 4 keyboard is one of the elements that, alone, justifies the purchase of this laptop compared to other alternatives, especially when many hours sitting in front of it are going to spend.

Platform change also affects its autonomy

As we have already seen in the previous section, Microsoft and AMD have established different performance levels depending on whether the laptop is connected to the electricity grid or running with drums.Naturally, this performance cut has an impact on energy consumption by stretching the autonomy of the battery.

In our use tests we have combined light tasks, such as the edition of documents with Office, navigate connected to a wifi or see some YouTube videos, with more demanding other such as the punctual edition of some photos.

The result has been a total autonomy of about 9 and a half hours of use.Obviously this autonomy has been reduced halfway by editing video and photographs more intensively.

To recover the battery charge, Microsoft re -trusts a 65 W charger with connector surface.One of the peculiarities of this charger is that, in addition to having a compact size, it integrates a USB cargo port that allows you to load another device (the mobile, for example) without occupying one of the few USB ports of the Surface LapTop 4.

The load process has taken 95 minutes to reach 100% of its capacity, but in 31 minutes it had recovered 50% of its autonomy.This same load time is repeated step by step when the load is carried out using a 65 W charger with USB C.

As surface as always but, Microsoft, you have to evolve

Microsoft has achieved a certain differentiation with the design of its laptops.Uniting very good quality materials with a minimalist style has served him for years to mark distances with his rivals.

However, this model is ceasing to be effective and the Surface laptop 4 inherits serious deficiencies of their predecessors that are no longer assumed by users.

An example is found in the shortage of ports on their flanks, the bad use of the screen and its thick frames or a touch pad that could also be something more generous to better make the space available better.

Or that, or bet on a compaction strategy that reduces the general size of the laptop, something that most manufacturers with smaller models and a somewhat more tight price are carrying out.

Models with similar benefits such as the 15 -inch LG Gram offers similar benefits, better connectivity and a lower weight for 1,299 euros, although in its download it is also necessary that the prices of the Surface LapTop 4 have moderated in this latest version and the unitThat we have tried, one of the most powerful that can be purchased, is on sale for a price of 1,664.10 euros.

Surface laptop 4

New laptop of the Surface range with continuous design and hardware improvements.It arrives with a 13.5 and 15 -inch screen, Intel Core processors of 11th generation and AMD Ryzen and up to 19 hours of autonomy.

Cómpralo al mejor precio

In spite of how many without paying off this surface laptop 4, it also inherits some jewels that must be maintained over time, such as the comfort offered by its keyboard and good response from the touch pad.

The improvements in the hardware that Microsoft applies year by year, although welcome, do not justify the change of name since, in fact, we could easily find ourselves with a laptop 3 surface to which the hardware has simply updated and nobody would notice the difference.

Tags: