The new Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 is great — but it's hard to recommend to most people

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 (starting at $1,949), or Microsoft Surface Laptop for Business, as it is officially called, updates the company’s eponymous notebook with the latest Intel CPU, an updated haptic touchpad, and an optional built-in anti-glare privacy screen. Though designed as a business laptop, it’s a solid device overall for anyone willing to pay its steep price.

Like the Surface Laptop 7, the new Surface Laptop is a sleek ultraportable you can easily carry. It’s just slightly larger and heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air M5, which is very impressive. Despite its slim profile, it packs at least one USB-A port for legacy devices and a pair of USB-C ports.

One major upgrade is the optional built-in anti-glare privacy screen. The former is especially useful if you don’t want wandering eyes to see what you’re working on in a public spot. The anti-glare coating does a fantastic job of ensuring the display is visible even in direct sunlight. These are highlights of what is an otherwise average laptop panel.

Latest Videos From

Thanks to the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” chip inside, the Surface Laptop 8 delivers stunning performance and solid battery life. Not only do you get enough power for everyday work, but you can even run some modern games for when you’re off the clock. And while battery life might not be as impressive as on a MacBook, you’re getting well over a full day of use.

Given its status as a business laptop and its high starting price, you might want to consider a regular consumer laptop with similar specs. However, if you’re a longtime Surface Laptop fan and are willing to spend big for the best iteration of that device yet, this is a machine worth considering. Find out in my full review.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 is a business laptop packing the latest Intel Panther Lake chip.
• Who is it for? For workers who need a reliable notebook for everyday work.
• What does it cost? The Surface Laptop 8 starts at $1,949.
• What do we like? We like the slim design, strong performance, anti-glare display option, and strong battery life.
• What don’t we like? We don’t like that it costs nearly $1,000 more than the previous model.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Specs

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: The ups

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 has a lot going for it, thanks to its strong Panther Lake performance, ultraportable design, and long battery life.

Elegant design

The Surface Laptop 8 hasn’t received a major design overhaul since the last model, which is fine, considering we still get a slim yet sturdy machine. The dark aluminum alloy chassis not only looks great but also has a soft surface that feels nice in the hand.

As before, it has a slightly tapered design, which can be seen as a throwback compared to the flatter laptops we currently see, but I like it.

You get an enjoyable typing experience thanks to the relatively roomy keyboard deck. The thick keycaps and their short travel distance allow you to type with little resistance. I’m also fond of the touchpad, which delivers satisfying haptic feedback when pressed. With some apps, you will even feel haptics when hovering over the X button on a window, which is quite fun and intuitive.

There are a decent number of ports for such a slim laptop. This includes a pair of USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full SD card slot. I especially appreciate the lone USB-A port, which lets me connect legacy wired devices.

Vivid display

The Surface Laptop 8 might not have the most impressive display, but it’s plenty bright and colorful for everyday work and even recreation.

When watching a YouTube video, I had no problem seeing even the smallest details of a colorful, sun-drenched beach. Naturally, websites also look and run well thanks to the sharp 2304x1536 resolution and smooth 120Hz refresh rate.

Our lab tests corroborate what my eyes experienced. As you can see in the table above, Microsoft’s notebook delivers a good level of SDR and HDR brightness, though both fall short of 500 nits. That’s not terrible, considering how the MacBook Air couldn’t hit that mark either. The MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ also fell behind the Surface Laptop’s intensity.

Color representation (sRGB and DCI-P3) is roughly on par with the MacBook Air, which is reflected in how good the colors can look. Color accuracy (Delta-E) isn’t what it should be (closer to 0 is best), but it’s also not terrible. The Prestige 14 Flip delivers slightly oversaturated colors in comparison.

The anti-glare and privacy screens on the model I reviewed are equally impressive. Even under direct sunlight, the anti-glare technology allowed me to view the display reasonably well. I also liked how effective the privacy screen is, since you can’t see much unless the display is directly in front of you. If you’re working with sensitive documents, this privacy screen will be extremely beneficial.

Fast performance

The Surface Laptop 8 I reviewed packs an Intel Core Ultra x7 368H “Panther Lake” CPU and 32GB of RAM. Thanks to that, the laptop easily handled my average workflow, which usually consists of dozens of open Chrome tabs and the occasional YouTube video. This is just another example of Panther Lake’s stunning performance.

As you can see above, the Surface Laptop 8 keeps pace with the M5-driven MacBook Air in multi-threaded performance, though Apple’s notebook is more adept with single-core tasks. The Prestige 14 Flip, which has similar specs to the Surface Laptop 8, fell just slightly behind.

In the Handbrake test, the Surface Laptop 8 took 5 minutes and 8 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That’s the equivalent of the MacBook Air’s time, which is nearly one minute faster than the Prestige 14 Flip.

Long battery life

In our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits of brightness, the Surface Pro 8 lasted for 12 hours and 26 minutes.

Of course, the two laptops I compared lasted much longer. The big winner here is the Prestige 14 Flip, which is one of the longest-lasting laptops we’ve tested. However, it’s important to note that this laptop has a slightly less powerful, less energy-intensive Panther Lake chip, which accounts for its impressive endurance.

I should note that we were only able to run one battery test on the Surface Laptop. We may see better numbers after we run three tests as usual, but not by much. I’ll update this review with the fresh numbers once we have them.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: The downs

There’s a lot to like about the Surface Laptop, but it has one glaring flaw that can make it unattractive to regular users.

Steep asking price

With a starting price of $1,949, the Surface Laptop 8 costs nearly $1,000 more than its predecessor. While it’s perhaps unrealistic to expect a comparable price thanks to RAMageddon, that’s still a serious amount of cash to plunk down.

In fairness, the former and current Surface Laptops are for different users. The older model was marketed toward average consumers, so it needed to be priced competitively. However, as a business laptop, it’s understandable that the new model costs more, even if its updates are mostly iterative.

If you’re lucky enough to have your company spring for a new Surface Laptop 8, then you’ll be sitting pretty. But if you decide to buy one of these for yourself, be prepared to pay a premium.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: Verdict

I don’t often review business laptops, but I jumped at the chance to test the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 since I’ve always admired this series. It’s arguably the best one yet, even though this notebook is meant for enterprise.

Though I’m impressed by what it offers, it’s hard to recommend this notebook to the average reader I normally write for. You’re better off with something like the 13-inch MacBook Air or MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+, which cost $1,099 and $1,299 (respectively). You’ll get a comparable or better experience for hundreds less.

Price aside, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 delivers where it matters. If you’re looking for a dependable business notebook and have the cash for it, you won’t go wrong.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok. Finally, you can visit our dedicated Tom's Guide Savings Squad hub for expert help on getting the best products for less.