Compare Microsoft Laptops

Surface comes in two shapes. The Surface Laptop is a regular clamshell laptop in 13.8 and 15-inch sizes, and it’s the one to pick if you’ll mostly type. The Surface Pro is a tablet with a built-in kickstand that becomes a laptop when you add a keyboard cover, which suits note-taking and drawing on the sofa as much as working at a desk.

Every current Surface we list runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip rather than Intel or AMD. That gives them long battery life, and they’re all Copilot+ PCs with Windows’ newest AI features. The catch is compatibility: Snapdragon uses a different chip design called Arm, and while most everyday apps run fine, some older programs, printer drivers and games with anti-cheat software don’t. Our Snapdragon laptops page covers the other brands using these chips.

Look closely at the version, not only the model. On the newest Surface Pro 13, the X2 Elite version has an OLED screen while the X2 Plus version has a standard LCD, and the Elite is also the faster chip, worth it for coding or heavy multitasking. The keyboard cover and pen are usually extra on any Surface Pro, so budget for them.

The Surface Go 2 we list is a 2020 model with a 10.5-inch screen and an old Core m3 chip. At under 800 g it’s handy for notes and browsing, but it’s slow for anything more demanding.