[Comparison] Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5) and (15.0) vs Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (13.5) and (15.0) – what are the differences?

The Surface Laptop has been the pinnacle from Microsoft’s engineering department. It is one of the most premium laptops that you could ever buy, featuring materials like metal, and Alcantara. This makes for not only a great laptop, but for a sweet statement device, which draws attention to itself. The newest Surface Laptop 4 comes with some good upgrades for the 2021 model year. Today we will compare the new Surface Laptop 4 against the previous year’s Surface Laptop 3. Since the device is offered in both 13.5-inch and a 15-inch form factor, we will talk about both of them, since they are identical under the hood.

Starting from the design, the laptops reuse the same design as the Surface Laptop 3, which is perfectly fine, as that was one well-built machine. It came with a metal unibody, which provided superb rigidity and sturdiness. To give the consumer some more options, Microsoft has you choose between two materials for the base and palm rest area. One is aluminum, and the other is made from Alcantara, which is a soft textile that resembles suede. (By the way, Alcantara is the name of the company which produces the material and not the material itself). Design-wise, you get rounded corners with sharp edges, which look modern and minimal branding, with the Microsoft logo only being visible on the back of the lid.

The display choices are really simplified, as there is only one panel to go for on every device. All panels have a 3:2 aspect ratio and a 2K resolution. The 3:2 aspect ratio is perfect for the multitaskers in us, as it can fit many apps and menus all at once, thanks to the high resolution. They utilize Pixelsense technology, which allows for multi-touch input, content-sharing as well as providing a platform for developers to create apps that directly take advantage of that.

Lastly, the specs, are very impressive and fit these devices like a glove. This is because on the Surface Laptop 4 you get dedicated Surface-edition processors both from AMD and Intel. Microsoft specifies that the Surface-edition chips are created to target specific problems, with the AMD CPUs being better suited towards multi-threaded tasks and battery life issues, which is ideal for multitasking and people who work with large amounts of information.

The Intel chips have a better single-threaded performance which developers and data scientists will find very useful. Depending on which side you pick, you get increased iGPU performance from both the Radeon RX Vega 6 and 8 units as well as the Iris Xe Graphics G4 and G7. This is quite the upgrade from the 3000 U-series Ryzen+ and the Ice Lake chips.

All Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5) configurations:


All Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15.0) configurations:


All Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (13.5) configurations:


All Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15.0) configurations:

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