• The list in brief ↴
1. Best overall
2. Best performance
3. Best portability
4. Best 2-in-1
5. Best for students
6. Best value
• How to choose
The best Microsoft Surface PCs encompass a rather wide range of hardware designed to accommodate plenty of users and workloads. Surface hardware has long been the standard for other laptop makers when it comes to design and functionality, and many people see no reason to shop outside of the Surface brand.
There are classic clamshell laptops for those who want a traditional PC, there are nimble and versatile 2-in-1 PCs with removable keyboards (and optional 5G connectivity), and there are more powerful laptops with ingenious designs made for creators and designers.
Just want something affordable that can be used for school or for casual productivity? Microsoft can also oblige with its budget Surface PCs, usually ranging from $400 to $1,000.
No matter how you use your PC, Microsoft has the hardware to match your needs. We're still waiting on the next-gen Snapdragon X Surface PCs, which are expected to launch in June, but until then, we have six of the best Surface PCs you can buy today, including the new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Business.
The quick list
Microsoft's lineup of Surface PCs includes options for all types of users, and you might be able to find what you need with this quick list of products. You can always click through each option for a deeper look at the pros, cons, and review highlights.
Best overall
The Surface Laptop 6 for Business can be purchased by anyone despite the name, and it should be a great pick for anyone who prefers a premium clamshell design. It's powered by Intel's Core Ultra CPUs and you can get the high-res touch display in 13.5- or 15-inch configurations.
Best performance
With a unique pull-forward display design, 13th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs, and NVIDIA RTX discrete laptop graphics (up to an RTX 4060 or RTX 2000 Ada), the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a versatile and powerful PC built for creators. Recent discounts make it more attractive than ever.
Best portability
Need to keep in touch wherever you go? The Surface Pro 9 with 5G is the answer. It's powered by a snappy SQ3 ARM64 CPU, and it features the same 13-inch touch display with 120Hz refresh rate and 2.8K resolution as the non-5G model. Grab a data plan and forget about Wi-Fi.
Best 2-in-1
The Surface Pro 10 for Business can be purchased by all users despite its name, and it's a great choice if you want Intel's Core Ultra U-series chips. The high-res 13-inch touch display now has extra brightness, the cameras have been improved, and the detachable keyboard features a Copilot key.
Best for students
The Surface Laptop Go 3 is a compact 12-inch laptop with the usual Surface design quality. It's powered by 12th Gen Intel Core U-series CPUs, it has a comfortable keyboard and touchpad, and it's more affordable than its siblings even without a discount.
Best value
The Surface Go 3 is a miniaturized version of the regular Pro lineup, with a 10.5-inch touch display and a sleek 2-in-1 design with a detachable keyboard. It's ultra-portable, and the best part is that it's almost always discounted due to its age. It should be a great pick for casual users.
The best Surface PCs in 2024
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If the quick list above doesn't have the info you need to make a final decision, we'll now get into a more detailed breakdown of each of the best Surface PCs available in 2024. We have years of experience with all of Microsoft's Surface PCs, and we've reviewed multiple generations of each option listed here. This helps us offer informed buying advice no matter how you plan on using your PC.
Best overall
The Surface Laptop 6 for Business is available to purchase by anyone despite its name, and anyone who doesn't want to wait for Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips — which are coming to the standard Laptop 6 and Pro 10 later this year — should find it to be a great all-around laptop.
Powered by Intel's Core Ultra H-series processors (CPU), you're also getting a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to help with local acceleration in AI tasks. For the Surface Laptop 6, that includes Windows Studio Effects for the new 1080p webcam. Available to support the CPU is up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that can be upgraded after purchase.
The Surface Laptop 6 for Business comes in two display sizes; both have a 3:2 aspect ratio, and both have touch and inking support. The 13.5-inch model has a 2256x1504 resolution, while the 15-inch model has a 2496x1664 resolution. That's the same 201 pixels-per-inch (PPI) in each laptop. Compared to the Surface Laptop 5, Microsoft has added a new anti-reflective layer to help reduce glare.
Typing is comfortable, audio with Dolby Atmos is impressive, and there's an IR camera for facial recognition through Windows Hello. We reviewed the Surface Laptop 5 (and all of its predecessors), and you can get a good idea of what to expect in the newer model, considering the design hasn't changed much.
Read our in-depth Surface Laptop 5 review
Best performance
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a mash-up between the Surface Studio and Surface Book, delivering a clamshell laptop with a pull-forward touch display and plenty of performance hardware inside.
As mentioned by Windows Central Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino in our Surface Laptop Studio 2 review, "The pull-it-forward functionality is elegantly straightforward. Initially, you can use Surface Laptop Studio 2 as a regular workstation laptop. But with a simple flick, the screen gracefully moves forward ("stage mode") while the keyboard is hidden, leaving only the touchpad accessible for navigation (in addition to the touch screen)."
The 14.4-inch screen has a 2400x1600 resolution, a boxy 3:2 aspect ratio, and its refresh rate hits 120Hz for a smooth picture. There's even HDR support and Dolby Vision IQ. The Surface Slim Pen 2 even supports haptic feedback for a more natural feel when inking. The only major drawback to the display is a glossy finish.
Combine the design and display with an outstanding keyboard, haptic touchpad, and lots of performance potential, and you have a versatile and mobile PC for creators and designers. The 13th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs provide plenty of power, and they can be paired with up to an NVIDIA RTX 4060 or RTX 2000 Ada Laptop GPU.
Read our in-depth Surface Laptop Studio 2 review
Best portability
The Surface Pro is the 2-in-1 PC that all other laptop makers attempt to emulate. It's a slim and sleek tablet with a built-in stand on the back, allowing it to transform into a notebook PC when a keyboard is attached.
The Surface Pro 9 5G includes Microsoft's own ARM-based SQ3 chip, which is plenty efficient while sacrificing some performance compared to the non-5G Intel model. It should get you through the workday with no problems, but you might find some apps (especially ones not natively compiled for ARM) to run a little slower than usual. Nevertheless, it's the only way to get 5G in a Surface Pro, at least until the Pro 10 with Snapdragon X platform launches.
The Pro 9 with 5G has a 13-inch touch display with 2880x1920 resolution, a 3:2 aspect ratio, and up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and it's compatible with the Slim Pen for inking. Above the screen is an FHD webcam, while on the back of the tablet, there's a 10MP camera with 4K video capabilities. Of course, you also get facial recognition through Windows Hello.
In our Surface Pro 9 review, Senior Editor Zac Bowden called it "excellent in almost every way," noting that you still need to buy the keyboard and pen separately. Do note that the Surface Pro 10 with ARM-based Snapdragon X chips is expected in June, so you might want to hold off if you want the newer model that should also include 5G connectivity.
Read our in-depth Surface Pro 9 review
Best 2-in-1
The Surface Pro 10 for Business was announced alongside the Surface Laptop 6 for Business, coming in as Intel-powered options that anyone can buy from the pro side of Microsoft's store. While the standard Pro 10 with Snapdragon X platform is expected to launch in June, those who need a modern 2-in-1 now can still get a great PC.
The Pro 10 for Business has inside Intel's Core Ultra U-series CPUs with NPU, and you can add up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. For this refresh, Microsoft upped the cameras to 1440p (front) and 10.5MP (rear), and it added extra brightness to the display.
You can now expect up to 600 nits of standard brightness without HDR enabled, whereas previous models topped out at 400 nits. You're still getting a 13-inch touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio, 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, Dolby Vision IQ support, and inking capabilities.
You'll still have to spend extra on a keyboard and pen, but the tablets alone start at a reasonable $1,200.
Best for students
In our Surface Laptop Go 3 review, Senior Editor Zac Bowden called it "an easy 'on the go' machine for when you need to travel because it's just so light and fits so well into any backpack." That's the focus point here. The Laptop Go 3 isn't the most powerful or most premium Surface PC, but it does make a strong case for students thanks to its portability, affordability, and premium design.
The keyboard is excellent if you're typing all day (though it does lack a backlight), there's a decent selection of ports, and the overall build quality is second to none. And while the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U is starting to show its age, it can certainly keep up with web browsing, email, word processing, and other productivity.
Battery life is excellent, and it comes in a variety of colors to better stand out at school. Prices usually start at around $800, but frequent discounts regularly drop it by hundreds to make it an even better deal for cash-strapped students.
Read our in-depth Surface Laptop Go 3 review
Best value
If you're on a budget, the Surface Go 3 is still your best choice even if it's no longer sold straight from Microsoft. Third-party retailers still have listings for the Go 3, and you can often find a model for somewhere around $400.
Even though it's showing its age in terms of performance, Surface Go 3 is a quintessential Surface experience. It's a 2-in-1 tablet that can also act as a laptop, just like the Surface Pro, but at a fraction of the cost. It's also the smallest Surface PC available today, featuring a 10.5-inch display.
It's not plastic, with cheap materials making the PC look and feel budget. Instead, Microsoft has essentially shrunk down the Surface Pro from a design perspective, meaning this thing looks and feels premium.
The Pentium Gold configuration is passable for those who do only light computing, which involves nothing more than browsing the web, checking email, and writing documents in Word or creating a simple PowerPoint presentation. Anything more than that, and you'll want to splash out for the 8GB RAM option or spend a little more than that for the Intel Core m3 variant.
Surface Go 3 features one USB-C port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack in addition to the Surface Connect port for charging. It's also the first Surface Go to be available in black!
Read our in-depth Surface Go 2 (previous model) review
How to choose the best Surface PC for you
Microsoft's Surface PCs "for Business" are a bit of a misnomer, as anyone can simply go to the business side of the Microsoft Store and pick one up. That makes the Surface Laptop 6 for Business the best overall Surface PC for most people.
It features the most straightforward (albeit premium) clamshell design, with a great keyboard and touchpad combo that promotes productivity. The new Surface Laptop 6 comes with Intel's Core Ultra H-series CPUs, up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and up to a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that can be upgraded after purchase.
Best part? You can choose from 13.5- or 15-inch display options, with up to a crisp 2496x1664 resolution and Dolby Vision IQ support. There's up to 400 nits brightness, and a new anti-reflective finish should help cut out glare.
If you'd rather go with the excellent Surface Pro 2-in-1, the Pro 10 for Business is another PC powered by Intel's new Core Ultra CPUs (this time from the U-series line). Like the Laptop 6 for Business, anyone can buy it from the other side of the Microsoft Store. Need mobile connectivity everywhere you go? The Surface Pro 9 with 5G is still available.
And if you need the most performance possible from a Surface PC, the Laptop Studio 2 comes with 13th Gen Intel Core H-series chips and up to an NVIDIA RTX 4060 or RTX 2000 Ada Laptop GPU. The Laptop Studio 2 features a rare pull-forward design that allows the 14.4-inch touch display to sit forward on the base, making it a dream for creators and designers.
What about Surface PCs with Snapdragon X?
In an exclusive report, Windows Central Senior Editor Zac Bowden revealed that Microsoft will unveil a Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 running on the Snapdragon X platform. These PCs will complement the "for Business" versions that have already launched and are included in this roundup.
With the Snapdragon X platform, we're looking at ARM-based PCs with outstanding performance and efficiency, as well as a powerful NPU with up to 45 TOPS of AI performance. This should coincide nicely with Windows 11's upcoming AI experiences also expected later this year. Bowden also revealed that we're expecting brighter OLED display options.
If you're considering buying a new premium Windows laptop, you might want to wait for these ARM-powered PCs to launch.
