The somewhat silent release of the new Surface Laptop 4 has pushed me to wonder if Microsoft has grown complacent in recent years. In the past, I really saw the Surface team as innovators; the Surface (Pro), Surface Book, and Surface Studio designs are all examples of some incredibly purpose-driven hardware. Now, if you look at the releases from the past few years, we haven’t had a major change to their computer hardware since the release of the Surface Studio.
The Surface Go and Surface Laptop Go are both welcome members to the Surface family, and fill a void in what was previously a pretty inaccessible product line for folks on a budget. But there is nothing truly outstanding about the two, other than they fit some impressive hardware into a more accessible price point.
There is the Surface Duo. I won’t openly critique the Surface Duo for fear of being chastised by “Microsoft fans” who are convinced that I never gave the Duo a real shot, or my opinions on it are truly uninformed. The Surface Duo was an absolute extreme for Microsoft choosing unique hardware over user experience. And despite what fans might say about it, I don’t think most would categorize it a “success”, gauging by reviews and its value on the resale market.
Then there’s also the Surface Pro X. Again, Microsoft shows that they can excel at hardware, but the Surface Pro X feels like it’s still several years ahead of a time where Windows 10 on ARM makes sense. 64-bit application support was first introduced to insider preview builds in December of last year, but we’re still waiting for a broader or more stable rollout. And even once we get to that point, the Surface Pro X still feels like a compromise relative to the Surface Pro 7, which will consistently perform better in most areas except for battery life.
With all of this in mind, another quiet spec bump release of the Surface Laptop 4 should have been expected; Microsoft usually saves larger releases for later in the year and the Surface Laptop has never been a revolutionary product. But last generation AMD processors, (expected) lack of modern features like Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4, and the same large bezels from 2017 make me wonder if we ever will get a true redesign, or if the Surface Laptop is just the Windows equivalent of the 2015 MacBook Air.
Originally published at https://innoiso.com.
