Is the MacBook Air in Trouble?

I’ve been playing with the new Microsoft Surface Laptop

Image courtesy of author

In June, I travelled to Taipei to see the brand-new Snapdragon X Elite chip in action.

This was a big deal. The X Elite has been billed as the chip that will finally see Windows-based laptops from Samsung, Microsoft, and many other manufacturers finally give the MacBook lineup a run for its money.

Image courtesy of author

That means two things. These laptops need to feel as smooth as butter and have battery life that will sail through a day of use and be epic when the laptop is closed. It’s a tall order — particularly when the operating system is Windows and the amalgamation of hardware is totally out of Snapdragon’s control beyond their own ingredient.

Well, finally, I have a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition sitting in front of me and — you guessed it — I have many thoughts.

Specs and pricing

The Surface Laptop 7 spec I’m testing is the 13.8" version with the Snapdragon X Elite chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. They opted to send me the Dune colour, which is best described as a rather attractive and not at…