Surface Laptop vs MacBook Air: Which Should You Buy? | Just Josh YouTube Video Summary

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 vs. Apple Macbook Air

Just Josh conducts a head to head comparison of the new Surface Laptop 7 to Apple’s Macbook Air.

Build Quality and Portability

Both the Macbook Air and the Surface Laptop 7 feel premium. The Surface chassis is more rigid. However, the Surface laptop doesn’t sit quite as well. One model had a gap and didn’t sit flush, but this wasn’t observed in other models. Josh feels the Surface looks more stylish, especially in the color blue. The Macbook Air has improved coating with the M3 so they don’t pick up as many fingerprints. Josh notes the blue Surface Laptop doesn’t pick up fingerprints at all.

All screens on both computers can be opened with one hand. In terms of portability, the Macbook Air has a slight lead. The Macbook Air is lighter by approximately one banana. Ultimately it is a tie in this category, with the Surface winning in looks and the Air winning in portability. Both laptops get a score of 9 out of 10 in this category.

Display Quality

The Air comes with either a 13.6 or 15.3 inch panel. Both have resolutions hitting 224 PPI. Josh measured over 500 nits of brightness making the Air suitable for brighter environments. They also cover the full P3 color gamut. The downsides are that the Air only refreshes at 60 Hz, aren’t touchscreens, and they don’t deliver increased contrast like an OLED. The Surface Laptops display measure either 13.8 or 15 inches. They have a lower pixel density around 200 PPI. Brightness was measured around 600 nits. The Surface laptops also have a refresh rate of 120 Hz and also support a variable refresh rate down to 24 Hz, which will help battery life. The Surface laptops are also touchscreen. One disadvantage is that they are not using OLED panels. For displays, Just Josh awards a 9 to the Surface laptops and a 7 to the Air.

Keyboards

All the laptops have good high-quality backlit keyboards. Josh states that the Macbook Air isn’t the most comfortable to type on, as it feels low travel. The Surface keyboard feels more satisfying, but not in the upper echelon of keyboards. The Airs have a standard layout, whereas Microsoft has introduced a Copilot key on the Surface. For keyboards, the Surface gets a score of 7 out of 10, and the Air a score of 6.

Trackpads

Both the trackpads are fantastic. Macbooks have always had the best trackpads in the industry. The Surface 7 is the first Windows laptop that the reviewer feels can compete. The Surface trackpad does not have the palm rejection issues of the other haptic windows laptops. Both get full marks, 10 out of 10, for the trackpads.

Performance

The Surface Laptop 13 can be configured with either an X Plus or X Elite processor. Compared to the plus, the Elite has two extra CPU cores. Josh shows performance scores from Geekbench and Cinebench. On CPU performance the Surface laptops beat the Airs, specifically in multicore performance. However, some applications on the Macbook still felt snappier. Regarding graphics performance, the integrated graphics in the M3 of the Macbook is more powerful. It will make the Macbook Air better for video editing or gaming. A Surface Laptop test had to be omitted as the reviewer’s laptop had crashed during that task. Lastly Josh says the NPU of the Snapdragon X beats the M3. The Surface Laptops get a score of 8 and the Air a score of 6 for performance. Josh adds that with the results, the processors seem to perform better in the larger versions of the laptops, likely due to their better cooling.

Heat and Fan Noise

The Air is dead silent as it doesn’t need a fan to cool its processor. The fan noise on the Surface laptop was better than other Intel laptops, but not as good as the Air. Josh awards a 9 to the Air and 7 to the Surface.

Battery

On battery performance, the Surface laptops don’t last that long. Both our surface laptop 13s occasionally wouldn't charge.

Ultimately, an 8 goes to the Air and a 7 for the Surface for battery life.

Connectivity

All the laptops have two USB-4 ports, a headphone mic combo jack and separate proprietary charging port. The surface also has a USB-A port and the 15 inch has a micro SD card slot. The surfaces all charge from either side of the laptop. For connectivity, the surface gets an 8, while the Air gets a 4.

Stability

The Macbook Air was perfect. The Surface laptop was not and has a lot of software compatibility problems. In one instance the Surface laptop crashed during a web conference. Josh awards a 5 to the Surface and a 10 to the Air.

Value

For a configuration with 16 gigs memory and 512 gigs storage, here are the prices: the Surface Laptop 13 with X Plus is $1200 and the X Elite is $1400, the surface laptop 15 is $1500. The Macbooks are more expensive, the 13 inch Macbook air is $1500 and the 15 inch is $1700. Josh notes that the Macbook is completely non-upgradable after purchase, and this brings the Surface back as a more valuable proposition. For value, the Air gets a score of 4 and the Surface laptop gets a score of 7.

Final Winner

With the addition of scores, the Surface Laptop 7 wins with a score of 82, with the Macbook Air falling a close second with 80. Josh notes as a final note that he is deducting a point from the Surface laptops because of Microsofts constant advertising.