Microsoft Surface Laptop 15" Schwarz 2021

The Surface Laptop 4's integrated GPU is a real letdown, scoring in the 12th percentile and making it a non-starter for gaming or creative work. Its CPU also falls behind, sitting in the 32nd percentile. The one bright spot is reliability, which ranks in the 80th percentile, so it should at least be a dependable daily driver for basic tasks.

The custom AMD Ryzen 7 chip here is fine for everyday work, but it's not setting any records. It sits in the 32nd percentile for CPU performance, which means roughly two-thirds of the laptops we've tested outrun it. You'll breeze through Office apps and a dozen browser tabs, but don't expect snappy compile times or smooth 4K video editing. The integrated graphics are a real weak spot, landing in the 12th percentile. This thing scored an 8 out of 100 for gaming, so you can forget about anything beyond casual 2D titles or cloud streaming. The 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD are solidly average, giving you enough headroom for multitasking but nothing that stands out in this price range.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, the Surface gets absolutely demolished in performance. Apple's chip is in a different universe for both CPU and GPU tasks. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and Lenovo Legion 5i will run circles around it in gaming and creative workloads thanks to their dedicated GPUs. Even the MSI Prestige, a productivity-focused machine, offers a more modern CPU and better port selection. The Surface's only real win here is its premium, minimalist build and that excellent 3:2 touchscreen, which none of those gaming-focused competitors can match.

Value is a tough sell here. At $1076, you're paying a premium for the Surface design and build quality, not raw horsepower. The CPU and GPU scores are closer to what we see in $700 laptops. You can find machines with dedicated graphics and faster processors for less money, but they won't feel as nice on your desk. If you value aesthetics and a great keyboard over sheer performance, the price might make sense. For everyone else, it's a hard pill to swallow.

The Surface Laptop 4 lands in a weird spot in our database. Its reliability score sits in the 80th percentile, which is genuinely good, but almost every other metric tells a different story. The AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD put it in the 32nd, 38th, and 38th percentiles respectively. That's a lot of 'meh' for a laptop that still commands over a thousand bucks. It's a machine that feels premium in the hand but struggles to justify its specs on paper against newer, more powerful competitors.

Anyone who needs serious performance should skip this. The CPU is in the 32nd percentile and the GPU is in the 12th, so video editors, 3D modelers, and programmers working with large codebases will find it frustratingly slow. Gamers should also stay far away, our testing gave it an 8 out of 100 for gaming. If you need more than one USB port, the 13th percentile port selection will drive you nuts.

The Surface Laptop 4 is a beautifully built machine for people who prioritize reliability and design over everything else. The 80th percentile reliability score means it's less likely to give you headaches than most laptops, which counts for something. But with CPU and GPU scores this low, we can only recommend it for students or office workers with very light workloads. If you need to do any heavy lifting, look elsewhere.