1. Preface
It has been almost ten years since I graduated. From the first novice in the workplace to the current business veteran, I have experienced many ups and downs. I have just been promoted to the marketing director of the department recently. Although my position has been improved, I still have to go to the market to meet customers for research. So I bought a newly released Microsoft Surface Laptop 4. The overall body is thin and portable, and the performance is good. After all, the Surface Laptop 4 is a high-end business bank. Thinking about the fact that when I first joined the job, I was running around with a heavy notebook in my backpack, I felt like I was a different life.
- Overall appearance and size
Surface Laptop 4 is available in two sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches. I bought it for 13.5 inches, which is entirely for my convenience when I travel on business. This size can be placed directly in my briefcase, and it is very convenient to not have to prepare an additional laptop bag. There are four colors to choose from in terms of color matching, namely ice crystal blue, sandstone gold, elegant black and bright platinum. My previous notebook was either black or silver, so this time I chose ice crystal blue.
This color is very special, fresh and elegant, both business and gentle, but it does not have the seriousness of traditional business, which is very suitable for me. The overall body is made of very light aluminum-magnesium alloy, and the matte process makes it look very textured. The Ice Crystal Blue keyboard uses a unique Ou Dilan material, which feels fluffy and comfortable. When typing, the fingers feel particularly good and the sound is much quieter. Sometimes I need to reply to emails when I am on a business trip. I am worried that it will affect other passengers when I use Surface Laptop 4. However, I don’t have to worry about it at all. The other color schemes are traditional metal keyboards. Although the material is special, the heat dissipation effect is not affected at all. The thickness of the Surface Laptop 4 is only 14.5mm, only two-thirds of the thickness of a one-yuan coin, and the lightness can be imagined. Its body adopts CNC cutting and forming process, making the overall body look very exquisite. Although it is light and thin, its design feels very clean and neat, with the right-angle frame cutting process and the four corners of the arc, which give a lot of visual effect. After all, it is a Microsoft laptop, and it has never disappointed in terms of details. And its overall weight is less than 1.3 kg, and it can be easily installed in my briefcase in both size and weight. It doesn’t have any burden to carry around with you at ordinary times, and it is really convenient for mobile office work. Sometimes when I take it out with my bare hands, it can become a small highlight of my overall matching. You can tell at a glance that my professional qualities must be not simple.
3. Configuration and performance
Although Surface Laptop 4 is mainly light and portable, its configuration is not vague at all. Even though the overall body is thin and compact, its internal configuration can be very impressive. Its core processor is equipped with Intel Core's 11th generation processor, with two options: i5-1135G7 quad-core processor and i7-1185G7 quad-core processor. I chose the i5 version, because my work usually handles emails, does market analysis data modeling, etc., so the i5 version is enough for me to use. The new generation of processors is more powerful and faster. When you are busy, you can handle emails, write files, and detect market data models, etc., and the Surface Laptop 4 can easily handle it. The running speed and response speed of handling multiple tasks at the same time are excellent, and the control is great. In terms of performance, in addition to the core processor, the core graphics card uses the Iris Xe processor graphics card. Although it is not a discrete graphics card, it is officially said that the performance is 70% higher than the previous generation. After all, it is a small-sized thin laptop, and it is already very hard to do this. Because my job actually has not high requirements for graphics cards, there is not much complaint for me in this regard. And I also use it to watch movies in my spare time or on my daily business trip. I believe I ignore the screen size of the Surface Laptop 4, and the effect of its screen and speakers is really shocking.For those who are engaged in self-media, using it for video editing is also very useful, and it also supports Dolby Vision's video editing, which is perfect.
This 2256x1504 high-resolution screen also supports touch, which makes it convenient for me to operate it in special environments. I must equip my laptop with a mouse, but the touch screen of the Surface Laptop 4 made me change this bad habit. In the non-office scenario of mobile office, you can only use your fingers to get it together without a mouse. For us who are used to using mobile phones and tablets, this function is really considerate. Moreover, its touch panel has a large area, making it more convenient to operate on a large area, and the material of frosted glass brings a comfortable touch to the fingers. The optimized keyboard has a very comfortable key stroke, which improves typing speed and work efficiency. When typing, paired with special Ou Dilan material makes work a pleasure.
- peripheral extension and super battery life
As a thin and light notebook Surface Laptop 4 interface, there are fewer interfaces. The left side of the body includes a USB-A interface, a USB-C interface that supports PD charging and a 3.5mm headphone interface. On the right is the traditional Surface Connect interface of this series, which supports magnetic suction, so that the wires can be carried on the computer more securely. Although there are fewer interfaces, don’t worry. As long as you are equipped with a generation of docking stations, the expansion performance of Surface Laptop 4 will be qualitatively improved immediately. There are four USB3.0 interfaces, two miniDP interfaces, 3.5mm audio interfaces, etc., so there is no need to worry about insufficient interfaces. Like all the lightweight laptops on the market, with the docking station, its functions are expanded by more than a hundred times.
Although the Surface Laptop 4 is small in size, its battery life is not small at all. The battery life can reach up to 17 hours, which saves me, who works outside most of the time, worry about insufficient power in the laptop. Especially when there is an emergency, it doesn’t matter if I don’t have time to charge, and it doesn’t matter if I don’t have a charger. The super battery life gives me enough time to persist until the moment I charge it. After all, it is a high-end business laptop, and it is done in all aspects so satisfactory.
- Summary
Use Surface Laptop 4 for a while, and now I cannot live without it in my life and work. Many people think its price is a bit overly exaggerated, but I would say that as a thin notebook, its performance and productivity are really worthy of its price. For us, time is money, its response speed and portability are its golden sign. For me, who has changed countless laptops, the Surface Laptop 4 is what a high-end, thin and light business should have.
