Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking As someone who writes for a living, the Surface Laptop 4 ticks all the right boxes. The screen is gorgeous, default brightness is just right, the keyboard is an easy transition from a full-sized alternative, and the touchpad is helpful in a way that so many others are not. Despite being somewhat hefty, this is a laptop you can comfortably plonk on your lap for work, browsing, video bingeing or even gaming. There are a few quirks – most notably the lack of ports – but none of the minor detractors are enough to hold back the Surface Laptop 4 from being a serious contender for your next laptop purchase. For my review, I was sent the 15-inch AMD Ryzen 7 4980U model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage, which has a $2,699RRP. The table below reflects the pricing for this Surface Laptop 4 model. Maybe the metal plays a role in this, but lifting the lid isn’t as easy as I’m used to from my faithful XPS 13 or the Asus TUF Dash F15 I recently reviewed. You really need two hands to crack the lid. Once opened, there’s a quiet and responsive keyboard with an appropriately sized touchpad beneath it which, mercifully, doesn’t actually suck. I usually reach for an external mouse to make laptop use less painful, but the Surface Laptop 4 touchpad doesn’t have the usual sporadically responsive quirks of competitors. My only gripe with the keyboard is there’s no dedicated Function-key shortcut to disable the touchpad, and it still weirds me out that you have to activate the Function key to use the typical top-row keyboard F-keys. The main issue is the obscene lack of ports, which means you’re effectively forced to buy a dock and/or use Bluetooth peripherals. All of the ports are located on the left, too, which is great for southpaws but less great for righties looking to use a wired mouse. Plus, there’s only one USB-A port alongside a USB-C port. The specs table below is reflective of the review model Microsoft sent me, which was a 15-inch Ryzen 7 Surface Laptop 4 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Thankfully, that facial recognition was robust enough to detect that other faces were different to mine and default to other login methods as required. While it’s quick to log you in, it’s a shame the webcam is limited to 720p, which is a noticeable quality drop compared to the gorgeous 2496x1664 PixelSense Display and the surprisingly crisp audio from the speakers. As a lifelong Intel devotee, I was particularly impressed with the AMD Ryzen 7 processor and integrated graphics combo. The Surface Laptop 4 keeps up with everyday tasks, multitasking effortlessly between the expected use cases. Even when I pushed it to make some noise with some gaming, the fan didn’t get close to anything distracting in volume, which meant it was easy to play on lower volumes without having to up the audio to drown out the fans. In fairness, gaming ups the heat on the Surface Laptop 4 noticeably, but while it was enough to warm my lap, it never got to uncomfortable stages and I couldn’t feel the heat through the keyboard. It helps that the vents sit on the back of the laptop beneath the screen so you don’t have to deal with hot exhaust air either. It’s refreshing to comfortably use a laptop on my lap again. Battery life and charging times are particularly impressive, too. I got just shy of eight hours out of a 4K video test and around 11.5 hours with a looping YouTube video test, both with the recommended battery setting. Had I lowered it to battery saver, the results would have been even better, but these tests are in line with what I expected for the 17.5-hour typical-usage claims for the 15-inch Ryzen model. Charging from 0% to 100% took under 90 minutes with the screen on, so expect even faster times if you’re charging with the Surface Laptop 4 switched off. To put it all into context, I’m due for a laptop upgrade, and while I’ve been saving for the latest version of the XPS 13, along comes the Surface Laptop 4 to make me reconsider my Dell allegiance.
