Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 vs. Apple MacBook Air

Introduction

To best compare Microsoft's new Surface offerings with the ever-popular MacBooks, we purchased each version with our recommended configuration of 16GB memory and 512GB SSD. Here is the breakdown of their different specs and pricing.

Build Quality & Portability

Let’s start with their build quality and portability.

Both the MacBook Airs and Surface Laptops feel very premium, but the Surface laptops look more stylish especially in the refreshing blue color. This color also doesn't pick up many fingerprints compared to the silver one. And, although the MacBook Airs' darker color does have an improved coating over the previous model, those devices still pick up prints too. Finally, all their screens can be opened with 1 hand.

When it comes to portability, the MacBook Airs have a slight lead. They are both about 100 grams lighter than their equally-sized competition.

In this category we feel that the Surfaces win in looks and the Airs win in portability. So, we’re going to give all of these laptops a score of 9/10.

Display

Both of these laptops have bright, high resolution displays with a narrow win going the Surface screens at 600 nits. However, we prefer the 224 pixels per inch of the Airs to the 200 on the Surfaces as that allows for better clarity. For refresh rate, while the Air limits you to 60Hz, the Surface instead has an impressive 120Hz and supports variable refresh down to 24Hz to help with battery life. Additionally, the Surfaces have touch screens while the Airs do not.

We'd say we are missing that nice OLED contrast on all of these displays, but the Surface is our winner with a score of 9/10, while our Airs get a 7/10.

Keyboard

When it comes to the keyboards, all these laptops have good high-quality ones that are backlit. The MacBook Airs aren't the most comfortable to type on since they feel a bit low travel. The Surfaces are more satisfying but aren't top-tier.

When it comes to layout, the Airs are standard which means you won’t incorrectly press keys. The Surfaces almost are, but Microsoft has introduced a Copilot key to replace the right control key.

With that said, the Surface Laptops get a score of 7/10, and the Airs get a 6/10.

Trackpad

The trackpads are both fantastic. The Surface Laptop 7 is the first Windows laptop that we feel can compete with MacBook's fantastic trackpads. It uses an excellent haptic trackpad that does not have the palm-rejection issues of the other haptic ones we’ve tried in Windows laptops. Both the Surface and the Air get full marks of 10/10.

Performance

Alright, lets now talk performance. We do go into much more depth in our video comparing these laptops, but we'll give you the CliffsNotes version.

In overall CPU performance (multi-core), the new Surface Laptop 7's Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors outperform the MacBook Air's M3s. We see this during Geekbench and Cinebench both.

Common Performance Tasks - Geekbench 6 Test

Max CPU Performance - Cinebench

That being said, in single-core performance, the MacBook Airs do still hold a decent lead, so some applications and tasks will feel faster on the Airs.

In graphics, none of these laptops are powerful enough for intensive graphical tasks. For light projects and gaming, the MacBook Airs definitely have stronger performance.

Graphics compute score

When it comes to AI tasks, the NPU of the Snapdragon X processors destroys Apple’s M3s. We personally don't use AI tasks all that much right now, but these are the results.

NPU Performance

We are going to give a score of 8/10 for performance to the Surfaces and a score of 6/10 to the Airs.

Heat & Fan Noise

The Air is dead silent in performance tasks as it does not need a fan to cool its processor. The fan noise of the Surface Laptop was much better than Intel laptops but of course not as good as the Air. When it comes to the heat you feel in light tasks neither laptop got warm but when their performance is maxed out they both measured around the same in terms of warmth. We still noticed that the Airs would feel much cooler in light use.

So, for Heat and Fan Noise we are going to give the win to the Air with a score of 9/10 and a 7/10 for the Surface.

Battery Performance

When on battery the Surface laptops’ performance was around the same as when they were plugged in. That being said, we did see some variance. This is likely due to how sensitive these laptops are to heat in terms of their overall performance. And as I said before they get very warm. The Airs, on the other hand, were far more reliable.

When running high performance tasks these Surface Laptops last around the same as competing Intel laptops and are way behind the MacBook Airs. When doing light tasks like streaming a movie over Wi-Fi the Surface laptops do perform well but still not quite as good as the Airs. With all this in mind, we’re going to give a score of 9/10 to the Airs and 7/10 to the Surfaces.

Speakers

To test speakers, Ethan, Josh, and I listened to several tracks on each of these laptops. The Surfaces have a flatter sound, and are ever so slightly louder. Josh preferred them more. The Airs sound more dynamic, so Ethan and I preferred them more. That being said, none of us had a strong preference. Compared to the MacBook Pro 14, which has the best speakers of any 14 inch laptop, these are both nowhere near as good. So overall, a score of 6/10 for both of them.

Connectivity

For connectivity all of these laptops have two fast USB 4 Ports, a headphone mic combo jack, and a separate proprietary charging port. But the Surface also has a traditional USB A Port and the 15inch has a micro SD card slot. The port placement on the Surface laptops is also better. As they can be charged from either side of the laptop. This means that your charging cable won’t get in your way if your outlet is on the right side of the laptop.

For external displays, the Surfaces win there too. They support 3 external displays at 4K 30Hz or 1440 60Hz in addition to their internal one, rather than the 2 monitors supported by the Airs - that require the Airs internal display to be closed.

For Wi-Fi connectivity, the Surface supports Wi-Fi 7 whereas the Air only supports Wi-Fi 6E. With the clear win in connectivity to the Surfaces, we are going to give them a score of 8/10 and the Airs a score of 4/10.

Stability

When it comes to stability, the MacBook Air was perfect and the Surface Laptop 7 was not. It uses Windows on ARM and because of this, we noticed several instabilities. For example, during a web conference call via Slack our Surface Laptop completely crashed and switched off. And, while writing the script for this related video, the Surface Laptop 15's keyboard completely stopped working. Plus, both of our Surface Laptop 13s occasionally wouldn’t charge when they were plugged into the wall, but this was inconsistent. Software compatibility was also hit or miss, as is detailed further in this article on our website.

So, right now, we have to give the Surface a 5/10 for stability, and the Air a 10/10.

Value

As you can see in our table at the top of this article, the pricing of the Surfaces is quite competitive with the MacBook Airs with the same core specs. So value is a big win for the Surface. Additionally, the MacBook Air is completely unupgradable after you purchase it. The Surface Laptop’s storage can be upgraded. So, we’re going to give the Air a score of 4/10 for value and the Surface Laptops a score of 7/10.

Conclusion

Let's add up the scores and declare a winner:

While the Surface laptops come out on top in scoring, it's important to note a few things before making a buying decision. One annoyance throughout our usage of the Surface laptops was the constant advertisements from Microsoft considering the price point of these devices. In our video we subtracted a point for this and awarded the Surface Laptop 7 a total of 82 points. We also noted this in stability, but application compatibility is very important to research before deciding which of these devices are right for you.

All that being said, if you are sticking to light tasks like web browsing and you know your desired applications work, we recommend the Surface between the two. But, there are many buyers for whom the Air is stil a better buy.