MicrosoftSurface 13.5" Touchscreen LCD Notebook - Intel Core i5 (7th Gen) Dual-core (2 Core) - 4 GB - 128 GB SSD - Windows 10 S - 2256 x 1504 - PixelSense - Platinum - Intel HD Graphics 620 - Bl

After a couple of bad experiences with a competitive laptop, I decided to go for the new Microsoft Surface Laptop. I basically work over the Internet, work with Office 365 and keep absolutely nothing on my laptop.... everything is kept off the machine on an external drive. Because of that I decided to go for the i5, 4 GB, 128 Gig model. I felt it would be more than adequate for what I do... and I was right. I am by no means a "power user" that has multiple apps or programs open at the same time. If that is you, then I would recommend getting the i5, 8GB, 256 Gig SSD model. But that is just not me, so the base model works great for me.First of all, lets get out of the way the design, quality of build and the rather unique alcantara fabric keyboard and deck covering.... it's all top drawer. This is built like a tank, yet its in a form factor that is very thin and compact. Simply put, its a beautiful laptop. The keyboard is excellent with a good amount of key travel and they are comfortable to use. The track pad is as good as any I have used on a Windows machine. No, its not the glass type that you find on an Apple MacBook Pro... but that's ok. I personally don't use the track pad anyway... so not a big deal for me. The keyboard is back-lit and easy to work with in low light conditions.I do a lot of live streaming of content over Xfinity and this screen is as good as my MacBook Pro with Retina screen. I actually like this a bit better. The picture quality is crisp and colors are sharp and precise. It is covered in Gorilla Glass 3 so will be highly reflective if you have a light in front of it or outside in the open daylight. None -the-less, it's a beautiful screen and certainly at the top of it's class.The only drawback for some might be the lack of connectors and SD Card slot. The machine comes with a USB 3.0, 3.5mm Headset jack, mini DisplayPort and Surface Connect. I like the Surface Connect Power plug as it is somewhat similar to the old Apple magnetic connector... if you happen to hit it, it pops out without doing damage to the connector. Sadly, Apple did away with that on the latest version of the MacBook products. That said, I can see where I am going to have to buy a couple of dongles for connecting to various peripherals.The Surface Laptop comes loaded with Windows S... which is useless if you want to download any apps that aren't on the Microsoft Store site... like iTunes. You have the ability to upgrade to a 1 year free subscription of Windows Pro. It's $49 annually after the first year. I have no clue why Microsoft would sell their newest, higher end, laptop with Windows S. Maybe they will simply give in and allow everyone to upgrade and forget the annual fee. One can only hope. I upgraded of course and will continue to use Windows Pro.I guess the long and short of it is that I am just a regular guy (a Consultant) that uses his laptop everyday for everyday types of tasks. I don't do complex design, art or mathematical work on the machine with numerous applications open at the same time. As I stated earlier, that is just not me. This laptop is simply put, the best laptop I have ever had. It is a beautiful, well built, technologically strong machine that will serve me well for a number of years. I can't recommend this enough. It is a real winner and Microsoft has hit a home run without question.

I contemplated this for quite awhile considering Dells, Asus, Airbooks and Surface. Really happy with the purchase. I travel on business and was very tired of company issued laptops. Once we changed to gmail from exchange I no longer needed to be on a corporate domain so went the bring your own device route and everything has worked great. I did have to change to windows 10 from the 10s as have many others but this is a one way change that microsoft provides. The quality is great and so far no issues though less than a half of a year of use.Noteworthy is the vast improvement in microsoft support. I needed help moving an office suite license to work on this surface and had great support in that. It's fast, light, vivid and runs the things I need (office, gmail, google docs, netflix, prime video). I am not a developer or gamer so didn't need anything other than the base model.The value at around 700 on sale is fair. Get a wireless mouse and a high capacity flash for storage and you're good to go.** update after about 8 months. I had a temporary issue with "phantom touch". The touch screen detects a false touch. While this occurs it is difficult to control the surface. You have to disable the touch screen device while the phantom touch keeps moving the cursor. Not sure what started it or why it ended . Not enough of a problem to change the 5 star as it was a issue that off and on plagued me for a couple of days. It may have been a driver issue but it's a real mystery problem. Microsoft should release a diagnostic tool to address this.UPDATE OCTOBER 13 2023Still working and performing reasonably well. Obviously the 4 gb cpu and 128 gb ssd are now undersized but it's usable. The keyboard fabric is the only thing that hasn't held up. Still 5 star for the original purchase.

Recently received 2 of the SL1 for personal use. I was amazed at how quickly they arrived. They are sleek and just beautiful. Very professional looking. I've set them both up and quickly change OS form Win-S to Win-PRO. It was eazzzy peazy...I'm a bit concerned on battery life. After completely charged the battery only lasted 7 hours with just regular use. Screen at 65% brightness, no videos, just regular productivity work. Excel, word, PowerPoint, web surfing ect etc. I'm giving it a 4 star for now but I will revise again in 90 days after daily use of unit.

I bought this product to help my 10 year old with his school work. It is a slow laptop, but functioned for simple web tasks. It saw a *very* light workload over the past two years and still looks new. However, the internal hard drive failed and will not boot. The computer simply loops the boot and shows a bad hard drive despite attempts to breathe any lift into it.The drive cannot be replaced so this means that the entire laptop must be trashed and bought anew. It is conveniently out of warranty so there is no credit toward a newer device. I get the fact that this is a low end device, but complete failure of the internal drive killing the device warrants a higher quality drive or better customer support.This purchase was a costly mistake.