The Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch (2025) is about as close as a Windows laptop has ever come to the MacBook Air 13-inch experience Windows users have been longing for, but is it enough to dethrone Apple’s most popular laptop?
Pros
- Stunning design and colorway options
- Extremely portable
- Fantastic battery life
- Great keyboard and trackpad
Cons
- MacBook Air M4 offers far better performance
- Limited ports
- Display is just OK
- Limited configuration options
The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch is arguably the most popular laptop model in the world, and for a laptop this small, it’s surprisingly powerful. Can it fend off a Microsoft’s latest thin and light Surface Laptop 13-inch?
Pros
- M4 chip delivers top-notch performance
- Design is still the best
- All-day battery life
- Lower price
Cons
- Apple Intelligence is still a mixed bag
Now that the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch is on sale, there’s naturally going to be people looking at the Surface Laptop 13-inch versus the MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) when weighing their next laptop purchase.
Without a doubt, these are two of the best laptops going—especially for students who are looking for the best student laptop for the coming school year—and those who like to get work done on the go, whether that’s at a cafe, on a train, a plane, or sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for an appointment.
These two laptops are all about portability without compromising too much in other areas like design, battery life, or performance, so they really are two of the best 13-inch laptops you can buy.
That doesn’t mean they’re the same, though, as they use two entirely different operating systems, and there are other key differences that potential buyers will need to consider when choosing between the Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch.
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Price
Fortunately, both the Surface Laptop 13-inch and MacBook Air 13-inch are widely available through Microsoft’s and Apple’s websites, so just about every major market globally won’t have to wait for either laptop to make it to their shores.
Price here is going to be the biggest difference between the two laptops though, as the Surface Laptop 13-inch starts at $899.99 / £1,039 / AU$1,699, whereas the latest MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699.
From here, the Surface Laptop 13-inch only increases by $100 / £100 / AU$200 for the expanded storage option (as well as the additional colorways).
The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, however, can be configured up to $2,199 / £2,199 / AU$3,499 with additional memory and storage options, giving it a much wider range of price points than the Surface Laptop 13-inch.
That said, if price is your most pressing concern, there’s no ignoring the roughly 10% cheaper starting price of the Surface Laptop 13-inch, which saves you $100 / £100 / AU$200 right out the gate for almost identical specs. So let’s make the transition to talking about those specs, shall we?
- Price: Surface Laptop 13-inch
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Specs
The starting specs for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch vs Apple MacBook Air 13-inch are functionally identical, other than the system-on-a-chip (SoC) at the heart of the two systems and the quality of the displays.
Both Apple’s M-series processors and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips are fabricated using ARM architecture, which is renowned for its energy efficiency, but with the MacBook Air 13-inch, you do have the option of picking a slightly more powerful 10-core GPU.
|
Model: |
Surface Laptop 13-inch |
MacBook Air 13-inch |
|---|---|---|
|
Colorways: |
Platinum |
Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight |
|
CPU: |
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (8-core, X1P-46-100) |
Apple M4 (10-core) |
|
GPU: |
Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 |
Apple M4 8-Core |
|
NPU: |
45 TOPS Qualcomm Hexagon NPU |
38 TOPS Apple Neural Engine |
|
Memory: |
16GB LPDDR5X-4300 |
16GB LPDDR5X-7500 |
|
Storage: |
256GB SSD |
256GB SSD |
|
Screen: |
13-inch, 3:2, 1920x1280p PixelSense display (178 PPI, 60Hz, 400-nit, Touch) |
13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display (224 PPI, 60Hz, 500 nits, non-Touch) |
|
Ports: |
2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 w/ DP and Power Delivery, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x combo jack |
2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3 |
|
Battery (WHr): |
50WHr |
53.8WHr |
|
Wireless: |
Wi-Fi 7, BT 5.4 |
Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.3 |
|
Camera: |
1080p |
1080p |
|
Weight: |
2.7 lbs (1.22 kg) |
2.7 lbs (1.24kg) |
|
Dimensions: |
11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 ins | 285.65 x 214.14 x 15.6mm |
11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 ins | 304 x 215 x 11.3mm |
When it comes to the topline specs available for each system, the MacBook Air 13-inch has substantially more options on offer than the Surface Laptop 13-inch, so if you’re looking to better customize your system to your needs, Apple has you covered much more than Microsoft does.
|
Model: |
Surface Laptop 13-inch |
MacBook Air 13-inch |
|---|---|---|
|
Colorways: |
Platinum, Violet, Ocean |
Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight |
|
CPU: |
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (8-core, X1P-46-100) |
Apple M4 (10-core) |
|
GPU: |
Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 |
Apple M4 (10-Core) |
|
NPU: |
45 TOPS Qualcomm Hexagon NPU |
38 TOPS Apple Neural Engine |
|
Memory: |
16GB LPDDR5X-4300 |
32GB LPDDR5X-7500 |
|
Storage: |
512GB SSD |
2TB SSD |
|
Screen: |
13-inch, 3:2, 1920x1280p PixelSense display (178 PPI, 60Hz, 400-nit, Touch) |
13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display (224 PPI, 60Hz, 500 nits, non-Touch) |
|
Ports: |
2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 w/ DP and Power Delivery, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x combo jack |
2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3 |
|
Battery (WHr): |
50WHr |
53.8WHr |
|
Wireless: |
Wi-Fi 7, BT 5.4 |
Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.3 |
|
Camera: |
1080p |
1080p |
|
Weight: |
2.7 lbs (1.22 kg) |
2.7 lbs (1.24kg) |
|
Dimensions: |
11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 ins | 285.65 x 214.14 x 15.6mm |
11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 ins | 304 x 215 x 11.3mm |
- Specs: MacBook Air 13-inch
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Design
On the design front, there’s naturally going to be some subjectivity, but both laptops are exceptionally well-crafted with an aluminum chassis that makes them lightweight and very portable.
In terms of color options, Apple saved itself in this regard with its recent release of a sky blue MacBook Air 13-inch, breaking from the more conservative colorway choices of varying shades of silver and black that M2 and M3 models were stuck with.
I’d argue that Apple had no choice here, however, as colorful, personality-rich laptops like Surface Laptop 7 with its Sapphire colorway effectively shamed the MacBook maker into making a more colorful laptop (something I’ve been banging on about for years).
However, the Surface Laptop 13-inch comes in a pastel-purple Violet colorway, which I have been begging Apple to make ever since before the M2 MacBook launched. For me, that seals the deal in the Surface Laptop 13-inch’s favor, making it the best ultrabook running Windows right now, but I understand if you disagree.
- Design: Surface Laptop 13-inch
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Performance
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No matter how beautiful the Surface Laptop 13-inch might look, however, it can’t keep up with the MacBook Air 13-inch in terms of performance.
The 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus SoC in the Surface Laptop 13-inch is good enough for everyday performance and productivity tasks, but the M4 chip is simply better in just about every workload you can throw at it.
Even the MacBook Air 13-inch with an M3 chip is a better performer, and given how Apple’s app ecosystem has now moved over to supporting Apple’s M-series processors, you don’t run into the same kind of performance and compatibility issues with a MacBook Air 13-inch that you do with the Surface Laptop 13-inch.
Windows apps are overwhelmingly designed to run on the x86 architecture used in both Intel and AMD chips, which power over 90% of the best Windows laptops. In order to run these apps on an Arm-based chip like the Snapdragon X Plus, Windows needs to use a software layer called Prism to translate x86 apps into ARM apps in real time.
This adds resource overhead to many applications, so they won’t run as smoothly as they would on an Intel or AMD chip. In real-world use, this isn’t as big an issue as it sounds, since the Snapdragon X Plus is fast enough that you won’t really ‘feel’ that slight performance hit, but it is there, and it’s something that the MacBook Air 13-inch simply doesn’t have to worry about.
- Performance: MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Software
The biggest difference between the MacBook Air 13-inch vs Surface Laptop 13-inch is going to be the kind of software available. The Surface Laptop 13-inch runs an Arm-native version of Windows 11, while the MacBook Air 13-inch runs macOS Sequoia.
Most popular apps like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office 365 will have different versions that are compatible with both operating systems, so in most cases, you’re likely going to be able to run the apps you want on either laptop, but there will be instances where that is not the case. Most PC games, for instance, do not have macOS versions (especially older titles).
That said, many Windows-exclusive apps are designed for x86 chips like the Intel Core Ultra 200 series and AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, so those apps will need to be run using the Windows Prism emulation layer, and sometimes that doesn’t work very well.
What’s more, there will be times when a Windows app just won’t run at all on the Surface Laptop 13-inch’s Snapdragon X Plus SoC, even with Prism emulation, and you might have to wait until the software developer releases an ARM-native version of the app.
And while 99.9% of the time you won’t need to worry about compatibility issues, a 0.1% chance still exists that the app you want or possibly need to run won’t work, and that’s enough to tip things in Apple’s favor here.
- Software: MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Battery Life
The good news is that both offer fantastic battery life since both of these laptops are built using Arm-architected chips, which are renowned for their energy efficiency. That said, in my testing, the Surface Laptop 13-inch lasts over an hour longer than the most recent MacBook Air 13-inch.
Both will get you all-day battery life, but the Surface Laptop 13-inch just lasts longer, making it perfect for those who are on the road and away from a wall outlet. The Surface Laptop 13-inch is one of the best student laptops for this reason in particular, as spending a whole day on campus running from classroom to classroom might not give you a chance to recharge your device during the day.
- Winner: Surface Laptop 13-inch
Surface Laptop 13-inch vs MacBook Air 13-inch: Verdict
As much as I love the Surface Laptop 13-inch for giving me the purple laptop I’ve been begging for, I still have to side with Apple in the end, and I don’t even really like the MacBook Air 13-inch all that much.
It might have been different had the Surface Laptop 13-inch used an Intel Lunar Lake chip instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus, which would have eliminated the current growing pains Windows-on-Arm is having and delivered a much more performant device to compete with Apple’s most popular laptop.
It doesn’t though, and despite the significant strides Microsoft has made in delivering a true MacBook Air alternative for Windows users, Apple’s MacBook Air 13-inch is still the better overall product.
If you’re a dedicated Windows user, don’t despair, though. The Surface Laptop 13-inch is as close as anyone’s come to delivering the MacBook Air experience for Windows that we’ve been waiting for, and you’ll find a lot to love with the Surface Laptop 13-inch. I know I did.
If you’re choosing between the two, however, and want to know which one is the better overall purchase, the MacBook Air 13-inch continues its reign as the best laptop for most users.
- Winner: MacBook Air 13-inch
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John.Loeffler@futurenet.com (John Loeffler)
