Microsoft Surface Laptop 2: First impressions

The Surface Laptop 2 is
Microsoft’s most straightforward laptop.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business
Insider

• Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop 2 is available starting
  Tuesday for $999. 
• Microsoft didn’t re-invent the wheel with this year’s version
  — it’s quite similar to last year’s model. 
• But that’s a good thing: generally speaking, the Surface
  Laptop 2 is a wonderful little laptop that stands up to the best
  of Apple.
• The keyboard feels springier and more responsive, the
  trackpad has a better texture, and the device is light and
  thin. 
• The Surface Laptop 2 also gets about six hours of battery
  life. 

In mid-2017, Microsoft released the Surface Laptop, a break from
the norm for the Redmond tech titan’s growing hardware
business. 

Where Microsoft’s other PC hardware all came with some kind of
gimmick — the Surface Studio PC folds down to a drawing
desk; the Surface Book laptop’s screen detaches — the
Surface Laptop was (mostly) a straightforward touchscreen laptop,
with nothing but a solid design and a weird fabric-coated
keyboard to set it apart. 

And yet, the
Surface Laptop distinguished itself by being actually really
good; at least as good, if not better than, the Apple
MacBook, its closest competitor.

With the Surface Laptop 2, available Tuesday for a starting price
of $999, Microsoft really didn’t re-invent the wheel. I’ve been
using it for a few days now, not enough for a full review, but
enough to tell you that with this laptop, the good
news is the bad news. 

The bad news is that it means the Surface Laptop 2 isn’t wildly
different from last year’s model, including some of its quirks.
The good news is that, generally speaking, this thing is a
wonderful little laptop that stands up to the best of Apple.

A little bit of bad

First, let’s get the bad news out of the way real quick. It still
has the fabric-covered keyboard that some people didn’t like. In
my opinion, this makes the Surface Laptop weirdly cozy to type
on, but also, it takes extra care to keep it clean and
crumb-free. Microsoft recommends wiping the keyboard down with “a
damp, lint-free cloth.” 

Also annoying is the fact that the Surface Laptop 2 doesn’t ship
with a USB-C port, the latest and, honestly, greatest standard
for connecting accessories. 

Whereas Apple
dropped the ball by going all-in on USB-C too soon, making it
the only port on its recent-model MacBook and MacBook Pro
laptops,
Microsoft is weirdly running the other direction by not
including a USB-C port at all.

The Surface Laptop 2 comes in multiple colors, but it’s
all fabric-covered.
Microsoft

The Surface Laptop has one standard USB port, a mini-DVI port for
hooking up a monitor, Microsoft’s proprietary Surface Connect
port for charging, and a headphone jack. Your mileage may vary,
but I tend to believe that a USB-C jack, instead of that mini-DVI
port, would have been a better balance between old and new. 

It’s also decidedly not a gaming laptop. It’s more than
sufficient for everyday tasks like web browsing, Microsoft
Office, etc., but it doesn’t have the graphical hardware to play
big-ticket recent releases. I couldn’t get “Forza Horizon 4,” the
gorgeous new racing game, to run on the Surface Laptop 2 at all.
Just be advised.  

Anyway! These are quibbles. On to the good. 

A lot to love

Other than my port woes, I actually like the Surface Laptop 2
quite a bit. 

In terms of tangible upgrades from last year’s model, they’re few
and far between. Most notably, it now comes in an extremely slick
matte black color option, which is the model I’m using. Let me
tell you, it feels like sending Facebook messages from the
cockpit of the Batmobile. 

Otherwise, it’s a lot of little improvements. The keyboard,
already better than that on the most recent Apple MacBook Pro,
feels springier and more responsive. The trackpad seems to have a
slightly better texture, too. At 2.76 pounds, the Surface Laptop
2 is also light and thin enough to lug around. 

The original Surface
Laptop. Yep, it’s pretty much exactly the
same.
Melia Robinson/Business
Insider

Under the hood, it has refreshed internals, including the latest
Intel processors. Battery-wise, I’m getting about six hours with
lots of tabs open in the Microsoft Edge web browser (which, by
the way, is just fine. Still not as good as Google Chrome, but
fine, with some thoughtful little touches).

The nicest, and truest, thing I can say about the Surface Laptop
2 is that it’s just a joy to use. No gimmicks, no weird
drawbacks. It’s just a good laptop with a good keyboard and a
good trackpad with good battery life that’s a pleasure to
use. 

If you need more power, I recommend the Microsoft Surface Book 2.
For gaming, Dell, Razer, and others have laptops custom-built for
that purpose. For the true road warrior, there’s the Surface Go
and the Surface Pro. But if you just want a good laptop that will
help you do things, especially if you’re a student or a would-be
Apple switcher, the Surface Laptop 2 is a very strong option.