The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Review: Surface Essentials
by Brett Howse on March 28, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Microsoft
- Surface
- Surface Laptop
- KBL-R
- Surface Laptop 2
Wireless
Everyone talks about the lack of USB-C on Surface, but the really strange question is why does Microsoft still rely so heavily on Marvell for their wireless solutions? Laptop wireless has very nearly become a one-horse game, with Intel being the only major player who continues to update their products annually. As such, the Marvell AVASTAR in the Surface Laptop 2 is just more and more out of date. It was never a great solution to start with, so it’s very odd that they continue to use it all these years later.
Intel’s latest 9260 card is really the wireless adapter to beat in the PC space, offering 160 Mhz channel support, MU-MIMO, and the industry’s best drivers. The good news for Microsoft is that the Marvell solutions have been getting more reliable with some driver updates, but they just don’t offer the level of performance or reliability.
Audio
Microsoft offers an interesting approach to audio in the laptop by placing the speakers underneath the keyboard deck. They refer to this as Omnisonic Speakers, and the result is a win for Surface. You can detect a change in pitch if you put your hands right over the keyboard, but under normal typing there isn’t any noticeable reduction in audio. As a thin and light laptop, don’t expect great things in terms of dynamic range, but at 100% volume the speakers are loud and crisp. Maximum SPL recorded was about 82.3 dB(A) measured one inch over the trackpad.
Thermals
The bane of any thin and light laptop is dissipating heat, so the Surface Laptop 2 was run at 100% CPU load for over an hour to see how it could cope. The Core i7-8650U has a nominal TDP of 15 Watts, although thanks to SpeedShift, on short workloads it can ramp up to over 30 Watts in some devices. In this case, Microsoft seems to have set the PL2 level to about 20 Watts.
We ran the Surface Laptop 2 on a stress test at 100% load for over an hour to see if the device would throttle over time. The answer there is no. Over the hour, the system was able to get rid of enough heat that the temperatures on the CPU never got very high at all. The average temperature over the hour was about 68°C for the duration, and CPU power was right around the 15 Watt level. Maximum power draw was 20.67 Watts right at the start of the test, until the PL2 limit was reached and the device moved into its long-term PL1 load.
The laptop fan never got very loud either, coming in right around 43-44 dB(A) measured one inch of the trackpad, and the Surface Laptop never got too warm to the touch. There’s enough cooling to get the job done without making too much noise.
Software
As a Surface device, Microsoft ships a clean image, or as clean as Windows is these days anyway. The real change here compared to the original Surface Laptop is that Microsoft no longer ships their laptop with Windows 10 S, since the S is now just a feature of Windows. That means you don’t have to unlock all the features anymore, which is good.
The idea behind Windows 10 S was noble. For those not sure what Windows 10 S was, it was a version of Windows 10 that only allowed applications to be installed from the Windows Store. The security benefits here are real, so you can see why they’d want to offer this, but the company has made the right decision in just allowing an S-Mode in Windows 10 itself.
The reality of Windows computing though is that the Windows Store doesn’t offer everything you need, so installing programs is a necessity, so this change is very much welcome. You can get the Surface Laptop with either Windows 10 Home or Pro.
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damianrobertjones - Saturday, March 30, 2019 - link
Buys a usb to usb c cable for a few pounds. Connects his phone and gopro. Carries on with life.Chrispy_ - Friday, March 29, 2019 - link
These are still utterly unserviceable, utterly impossible to upgrade, and have the terrible combination of very high price and one of the worst and shortest warranties legally permitted.Watch a video of someone trying to repair one and then ask yourself why you'd support idiocy like that, at your own cost - Ifixit teardown of the Surface Laptop 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShF-PFQfAk
mrboonmee - Friday, March 29, 2019 - link
how would you plug into 4K TV? DisplayPort isn't always perfect for this and not even DisplayPort? Lame. What are good alternatives?dickeywang - Friday, March 29, 2019 - link
So basically, when in comparing with the matebook x pro, the surface notebook has a weaker GPU, lacking of thunderbolt port (for eGPU)/type-c USB, a worse display but costs $700 more?LOL
PS, Huawei custom service is also better(at least in mainland China), e.g. you can buy a SSD with larger capacity and ask the custom service to replace it with the smaller one.
peconi - Saturday, March 30, 2019 - link
And still no thunderbolt. Why?VictorBd - Saturday, March 30, 2019 - link
Love my Surface Laptop 2. It’s elegant, light, snappy, and it just works. Love the keyboard and Surface Connect and dock. Easily drives 32” 4K 60hz external displays at home & office, while also perfect on the go. I also prefer USB-A and the fabric deck. Tried Asus, Samsung, Dell XPS, HP - nothing else provided me an all around balanced, light, reliable, package. And I get amazing first party service from the Microsoft store. Glad this is in my inventory.InvidiousIgnoramus - Sunday, March 31, 2019 - link
The only laptop that is literally impossible to repair.ballsystemlord - Sunday, March 31, 2019 - link
Only 1 typo, keep it up!"A few players, such as Huawei, have skirted the issue by adding a NVIDIA GeForce MX class GPU, but the added cost and complexity of that is not something that many manufacturers have gone."
Should be "done" not "gone" at the end of the sentence.
"A few players, such as Huawei, have skirted the issue by adding a NVIDIA GeForce MX class GPU, but the added cost and complexity of that is not something that many manufacturers have done."
amosbatto - Friday, April 5, 2019 - link
It is very irresponsible for Anandtech to do a long review of a product like this and not mention that it is literally impossible to repair without destroying the device. ifixit gave the previous version of this laptop a repairability rating of 0 out of 10.https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+...
A lot of people are going to buy this laptop and discover in a year or two that they are screwed when something fails. A key on the keyboard stops working, and you have to throw away the entire laptop because the keyboard can't be replaced. The motherboard dies and it is impossible to get your data off the machine, because the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. The battery will start to degrade after 500 full charge and discharge cycles, so you have to throw away the machine after a couple years of use or accept that you can only use it for an hour or two without being plugged in.
Every Anandtech review should mention the fixability of a device in its reviews, because that dramatically changes the longevity of a device. A laptop which costs $500 but lasts 2 years is more expensive per year than a laptop which costs $700 but lasts 4 years. Anandtech should be an advocate for consumers, not the advocate for the planned obsolescence being pushed by the hardware industry. At the very least Anandtech should forewarn consumers so that they know that they are getting planned obsolescence when they buy a Surface laptop.