Microsoft Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay kicked off today's Surface Event 2022 in a typically engaging fashion. He talked up the history of Windows as a transformative platform. However, any notion of Microsoft embarking on a new era with innovative hardware was quickly dashed. First up, the company introduced the Surface Laptop 5 with barely any changes from the last generation.
Surface – like Apple – has become one of the go-to brands for incremental updates that will only appeal to the tech-focused who want the latest and greatest. With the Surface Laptop 5, the usual sumptuous design is still there but remains just about equal compared to last year.
In terms of specs, there is an evident bump. Microsoft has ditched the AMD variant this year and is going exclusively on Intel Evo. That means the 12th-gen CPU alongside integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics.
Elsewhere, the Surface Laptop 5 has a brand new PixelSense display with Dolby Vision IQ on board. Available in either 13.5-inch (2256 x 1504) and 15-inch (2496 x 1664) variants with 3:2 resolutions.
Details
Other specs include up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, with Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4 support. Colors remain unchanged aside from the addition of a new sage green option. An IR camera with Windows Hello support is available alongside the standard 720p webcam. Audio should see an improvement with Dolby Atmos through the Omnisonic speakers.
Lastly, Microsoft is promising 18 hours of charge for the 13-inch model and 17 hours for the 15-inch.
So, this is basically a slightly better Surface Laptop. If you don't have this device it is a worthy purchase but is probably not worth upgrading from last year's model. The Surface Laptop 5 will cost from $1,000 for the smaller variant and from $1,200 for the larger model.
Tip of the day: To prevent attackers from capturing your password, Secure Sign-in asks the user to perform a physical action that activates the sign-in screen. In some cases, this is a dedicated “Windows Security” button, but the most common case in Windows is the Ctrl+Alt Del hotkey. In our tutorial, we show you how to activate this feature.
