MacBook Neo makes Microsoft's Surface Laptop 13-inch seem like a bad deal

A year ago, I wrote an editorial that outlined why I thought the Surface Laptop 7 at the time was the best laptop on the market, and that it was so good, it made Apple's MacBook Air look like a bad deal when compared side by side.

I still stand by that editorial. I think the Surface Laptop 7 was definitely the best laptop you could buy at $999 when both the Surface Laptop 7 and MacBook Air were that price. It had a better screen, more ports, IR face unlock, and much more over the Air. Of course, the Surface Laptop 7 is coming up on two years old now, and the MacBook Air has since been refreshed twice with better specs, though the Surface still has it beat when it comes to display and ports.

Anyway, I bring this up because a year later, it seems like the exact opposite has occurred with both Microsoft's and Apple's lowest end laptop offerings. The new MacBook Neo has sent shockwaves through the Windows laptop space, offering a combination of premium design, excellent display, and great performance for a price we've not really seen in the Windows space before.

For $599, the MacBook Neo is a great deal. What does Microsoft have to offer in this space? An $899 Surface Laptop that Microsoft built to be the company's budget offering, replacing the Surface Laptop Go 3 at $799.

Right out of the gate, you can see the problem. Surface Laptop 13-inch is $899 when not on sale, and that's just too much. I even said this in my original review of the device. $899 is only $100 less than the flagship Surface Laptop 7 was at the time, and that $100 cut out a lot from the product.

Unlike the Surface Laptop 7, the Surface Laptop 13-inch has a disappointing display. It's only 60Hz, and it's only 1080p as well, which is nowhere near as sharp as the one of the MacBook Neo. It also only has a fingerprint reader for login, unlike the Laptop 7 with its superior face unlock. Fingerprint makes sense for a cut down version of Surface Laptop however.

On the inside is an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus, which is perfectly fine, and in a lot of cases will outpace an A18 Pro. But in day to day tasks, these devices will be comparable. The Laptop 13-inch does have a premium external chassis which is all aluminum, but it does forgo the haptic trackpad that's found on the Laptop 7.

On paper, the Surface Laptop 13-inch and MacBook Neo should be competitors. They both feature downgraded specs to reach lower price points, but for whatever reason, Microsoft's is $300 more expensive. The MacBook Neo is almost 50% cheaper than the MacBook Air, whereas the Surface Laptop 13-inch is only $100 cheaper than the flagship Surface Laptop 7 was.

I say was, as Microsoft has since raised the price of the entry-level Surface Laptop so that it now starts at $1,099, which incidentally matches the price of the new MacBook Air. But this highlights the problem: Even with Laptop 7 being more expensive, the Laptop 13-inch is still a bad deal.

When the MacBook Neo is almost 50% cheaper, how can Microsoft expect to get away with a cut-down Surface Laptop that's only around 20% cheaper, for a product that I'd argue feels worse to use than the MacBook Neo?

If Surface Laptop 13-inch was $599, this would be a different conversation. I'd be complaining about the Laptop 13-inch's poor display, but the rest of the product is great and a worthy competitor. But at $899? The whole thing is a bad deal.

Microsoft needs to figure out how it can build a Surface Laptop with a great display, premium external chassis, and great performance for $599, without relying on sale prices to get there. A cheap Surface Laptop can no longer skimp out on the display. It has to be high resolution at the very least to be comparable.

My perfect $599 Surface Laptop looks like this:

• 12-inch or 13-inch LCD with PPI of 201.
• Snapdragon X (base) SoC
• 256GB UFS storage
• One USB-A, one USB-C
• All aluminum chassis
• Fingerprint unlock

These are the requirements for a successful $599 product. Microsoft can figure out how to cheap out on everything else, but this is the baseline for a $599 Surface that actually competes with MacBook Neo. Anything less than this and there's no point, in my opinion.

Hopefully, Microsoft is already working on how to bring a $600 Surface to market. It's done it before with the Surface Laptop Go and Surface Go, which launched at $549 and $399 respectively. Of course, the Laptop Go had a terrible low-end display and plastic base chassis to reach that price point, so alternative strategies will need to be explored.

Ultimately, I fear that for Windows OEMs, it won't just be about matching the MacBook Neo at $599. For a Windows laptop to be more desirable than a Mac laptop, it needs to be better than the Mac while being the same price. That's a tall order that I don't expect most OEMs will be able to meet.

💬 Which laptop offers better value to you?

My thoughts are clear. The Surface Laptop 13-inch, which was supposed to be Microsoft's new budget Surface Laptop offering, no longer looks like a deal when compared to a $599 MacBook Neo. But I want to know, what are your thoughts on this?

Do you think the $899 Surface Laptop has a place in the market, or should Microsoft strive to get that price down as low as possible? Let us know in the comments.

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