Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5-Inch, 2021)

Sleek aluminum chassis (in various colors) ; Bright and vivid display ; Quick performance ; Long battery life ; Excellent keyboard and touchpad

Few ports (No Thunderbolt) ; Thick bezels ; Top configs get pricey

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 4 (13-inch) brings faster performance and longer battery life to an already excellent ultra-thin laptop.

Handsome and portable ; Great display ; Battery life fixes the shortcomings of the old model ; Great keyboard and trackpad

Port selection needs updating ; Performance can't match Apple's M1 chip ; Gets expensive for the higher-spec models

sturdy and high-quality metal chassis;decent input devices;good system performance;high picture quality;very good speakers

hardly any maintenance options;no LTE;comparatively short battery runtime;limited configuration options;still no Thunderbolt; limited connectivity;slow response times;bad price-performance ratio;only 1 year warranty

Dead silent during any kind of load ; Solid magnesium build ; Light (521 grams) ; PWM-free (BOE088B) ; 93% sRGB coverage + accurate colors with our “Design and Gaming” profile (BOE088B) ; 337 nits of max brightness (BOE088B) ; 3:2 aspect ratio + wide...

Pricey for what it is ; Expensive optional accessories such as Surface Go Type Cover and Docking stations ; Just 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM ; The UFS storage is slow ; Only 1x USB port ; Unimpressive CPU and iGPU performance ; 103°C CPU temperature is short loads

Tiger Lake UP3 CPUs;Decent iGPU;Good battery life;Covers 95% sRGB (Sharp LQ135P1JX51 (SHP 14B3));Average dE value of 0.6 with our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ135P1JX51 (SHP 14B3));Doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust screen brightness above...

No SD card reader;Soldered memory;Expensive;Basic I/O

The new Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5″) is a stylish-looking device that has a premium all-aluminum build, thin profile, and powerful hardware under the bonnet. The first thing that you’re going to notice is the design of this machine and yes, this...

Solid and premium build ; Excellent display ; Alcantara wrapped keyboard is excellent for typing ; Speakers are loud ; Impressive battery life

Limited connectivity options ; Thick bezels around display look dated ; 1080p webcam could have been better ; Misses fingerprint scanner

+ Alcantara palm rests are really nice in use ; + Well-controlled thermals ; + Great battery life ; + Display is very sharp with amazing color accuracy ; + Built-in speakers sound good ; + Comfortable keyboard and excellent trackpad ; + Clean Windows...

- Relatively thick bezels around the display ; - What? 256GB of storage? ; - Poor graphics performance ; - Very limited ports ; - Surface Connect charging arrangement isn't ideal ; - Customized CPU doesn't work with standard drivers

The Surface Laptop 4 is a laptop that's "good enough" in almost every way.

AMD Ryzen 4000 is a massive upgrade ; Excellent performance (on AC), decent battery life ; Still the best keyboard, trackpad, and audio in a Windows laptop ; Not much competition (15-inch model) ; Very quiet fan

AMD performance drops on battery ; Limited AMD color options ; No Thunderbolt 4, few ports ; Display is still glossy, with no HDR or WCG ; No option for 4G LTE or 5G

Bottom line: Surface Laptop 4 gets a massive boost in performance making it a much better upgrade than last year's model. AMD Ryzen 4000 lives up to its promises, but so does Intel 11th Gen. Only a few things hold this laptop from being the best...

Superb touchpad ; Lovely aluminium design (or optional Alcantara) ; Solid and fast-feel keyboard ; Excellent speakers

Upgrades are pricey ; Display contrast could be higher ; Screen surrounds are large by 2021 standards

It's a small upgrade over the third-gen, but this fourth-gen model is still a favourite. Only small irks - such as dated-looking screen surrounds - impact a laptop that's nigh-on perfect for day-to-day use in almost every other regard.