Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 apparently contains AMD and Intel models

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 was for a while one of the best laptops you could buy. Microsoft is now planning its successor, the Surface Laptop 4, and it turns out WinFuture obtained details about this upcoming device. According to this report, the laptop will arrive sometime in April.

The biggest news is that the new Surface Laptop will have both Intel and AMD options. The AMD models feature chips from the Ryzen 4000 mobile series, including the Ryzen 5 4680U and the Ryzen 7 4980U. These are not AMD’s best guns; the current Ryzen 5000 mobile range was announced earlier this year. The Intel models feature Intel’s latest 11th generation CPUs, including the Core 15-1145G7 and the Core i7-1185G7.

Aside from the slides, there seems to be very little change between the Laptop 3 and the Laptop 4. Here are some other things we learned WinFuturereport:

• There will be 13.5 and 15 inch models available. These are also the models that the Surface Laptop 3 offered.
• All models have a ratio of 3: 2. The resolution of the 13.5-inch device is 2256 x 1504, and the 15-inch is 2496 x 1664. These are the same resolutions that the Surface Laptop 3 offered. The 3: 2 aspect ratio has been an important part of Microsoft’s Surface products for several years.
• RAM becomes a maximum of 32 GB. But it seems like you need to get an Intel model if you want that much memory. The AMD configurations only increase to 16 GB.
• The storage is a maximum of 1 TB. Similarly, it seems that only the Intel models offer so much storage space. AMD laptops will be a maximum of 512 GB.

If these leaks are true, I expect Microsoft to take a similar approach to the Surface Laptop 4 as it did last year with the Surface Book 3 – that is, the chips bump with minimal changes to the chassis.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

This of course means that there is nothing to be excited about. Upgrading chips is still a big issue. One of our main complaints about the 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Book 3 models was that their battery life was not good compared to the competition. The 15-inch model also had some performance issues during testing. It has experienced significant issues with the export of 4K 60fps videos and the export of media. It would be great if the new chips could address some of these disadvantages.

I would not blame Microsoft for not overhauling the design; people like it, and why fix it that is not broken? But as I noted in my review of the Surface Book 3, the look of the Surface line has been relevant for just as long. Across the market, laptops are shrinking, the chassis is getting lighter and customers are expecting a sleeker and more modern look of both high-quality and mid-range products. The design of the Surface Laptop was never ugly, but as the Dell XPS and the HP Specter continue to evolve, I’m worried it would not take too long before the appearance of the Surface line lagged behind.

It is said: it is still rumors, then treat it with a grain of salt. I will definitely keep you informed of hopefully sooner rather than later more concrete information about this upcoming device.