Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 Starts at £1,449 as ARM Upgrade Adds 14-Hour Battery Life
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 14
Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 Starts at £1,449 as ARM Upgrade Adds 14-Hour Battery Life
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 14
Summary
Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop 8 is positioned as a premium ARM Windows notebook, with reviewers praising its speed, battery life and haptic trackpad but flagging a steep £1,449 starting price.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite delivered 16% to 20% faster single-core performance and about 10% better graphics than the prior model, while the tested machine lasted just under 14 hours in mixed work use.
The 13.8in and 15in laptops keep the earlier design, adding one of the first Windows 11 haptic-signal trackpads; the 120Hz LCD, keyboard and speakers were also highlighted as strengths.
Windows 11 on ARM now runs most apps either natively or through Prism emulation, though some emulated apps still slow down and certain anti-cheat multiplayer games may not work.
The biggest drawback is value: the new model costs about £400 more than the previous edition, and UK and EU buyers do not get a charger unless they pay £80 for Microsoft’s power supply.