Skip to main content

The Surface Laptop 5 ditches AMD for a simpler lineup

This story is part of our complete Microsoft Events coverage

Microsoft has announced the Surface Laptop 5 at its annual fall Surface event. There aren’t many changes from the outside, but inside, Microsoft has made a drastic change to the hardware by pulling support for AMD Ryzen processors in this generation.

The Surface Laptop 4 was the first (and only) Surface device to provide an option for Ryzen processors. Notably, it was a highlight of the laptop, providing better multi-core performance and longer battery life than its Intel rival.

The front and back of the Surface Laptop 5 on a table.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

With the improvements made in Intel’s 12th-gen processors, the decision to stick with Team Blue doesn’t feel like as much of a gut punch. It should be noted, however, that Microsoft has chosen to use Intel’s U-series chips.

Recommended Videos

In particular, you get the choice of either the Core i5-1235U or Core i7-1255U on the 13.5-inch model and just the Core i7 for the 15-inch model. These are all 15-watt chips, but only include two Performance cores (and eight Efficiency cores).

Please enable Javascript to view this content
  Microsoft Surface Laptop 5
Dimensions

12.1 x 8.8 x 0.57 inches – Surface Laptop 5 13.5″

13.4 x 9.6 x 0.58 inches – Surface Laptop 5 15″

Weight Fabric 2.80 pounds or Metal 2.86 pounds – Surface Laptop 5 13.5″

3.44 pounds – Surface Laptop 5 15″

Processor Intel Core i5-1230U (only Surface Laptop 5 13.5″)

Intel Core i7-1250U

Graphics Intel Xe Graphics
RAM Up to 32GB LPDDR5X
Display 13.4-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS
Storage Up to 1TB PCIe SSD
Touch Yes
Ports

1 x USB-C with USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4

1 x USB-A 3.1
3.5mm headphone jack
1 x Surface Connect port

Wireless Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2
Webcam 720p + IR camera
Operating system Windows 11
Battery

Up to 18 hours of typical device usage – Surface Laptop 5 13.5-inch

Up to 17 hours of typical device usage – Surface Laptop 5 15-inch

Price TBA

The Surface Laptop line of laptops has never been workhorses for performance, and the Surface Laptop 5 doesn’t look like it’s changing that.

The available color options are the only other significant change to the Surface Laptop 5 this year. Like the Surface Laptop Go 2 from earlier this year, the Surface Laptop 5 now comes in Sage green. This is in addition to the Platinum Alcantara, Matte Black, and Sandstone, all of which are options for the 13.5-inch model only. The Surface Laptop 5 15-inch still only comes in Platinum or Matte Black.

The four color options of the Surface Laptop 5.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Surface Laptop 5 still only comes with a 720p webcam, unfortunately, despite many laptops moving to 1080p this year.

The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 5 starts at $1,000, for an entry-level configuration that comes with the Core i5-1230U, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The 15-inch model starts at $1,300 for the Core i7-1250U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

As part of the Surface hardware launch, Microsoft also announced the Surface Pro 9, Surface Studio 2+, some new accessories, and more.

Luke Larsen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Luke Larsen is the Senior Editor of Computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
The PS5 Pro is packing GPU tech that no AMD PC has
The PS5 disassembled on a table.

It's been easy to write off the PS5 Pro given its $700 price tag -- even if that price is worth it for the hardware inside -- but PC gamers have a new reason to pay attention to Sony's console. According to Sony's Mark Cerny, the chief architect behind the PS5 and PS5 Pro, the updated console features ray tracing tech that "no other AMD GPUs" use yet.

Cerny's comment comes from an interview with CNET, where the engineer hinted at the hardware at work inside the PS5 Pro. Although Cerny didn't make any commitments to a specific architecture, he says that the ray tracing features in the PS5 Pro were created as part of the next step in AMD's road map, and that even GPUs as powerful as the RX 7900 XTX don't have those features yet. It's hard to say what those features are -- Cerny didn't -- but it looks like Sony will have something of an exclusive on AMD's next-gen ray tracing tech.

Read more
AMD’s new GPU could bring PS5 Pro-like performance to laptops
Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

AMD has quietly launched the Radeon RX 7800M GPU built on the current RDNA 3 architecture for gaming laptops. This GPU is designed to bring desktop- and console-level gaming experiences to portable laptops. What’s particularly intriguing about the RX 7800M is its close resemblance to the newly revealed PlayStation 5 Pro, which is thanks to a similar spec sheet that allows it to deliver comparable performance in a portable form factor.

The latest laptop graphics card is based on the Navi 32 GPU architecture and comes with 12GB of 18Gbps GDDR6 VRAM, likely utilizing a 192-bit memory bus and offering a total memory bandwidth of 432GB/s. It includes 48MB of Infinity Cache and is equipped with 60 Compute Units (CUs), 90 Render Output Units (ROPs), and a thermal design power (TDP) of up to 180 watts. The card runs at a frequency of 2.145GHz and supports popular video rendering formats like H264, H265, and AV1.

Read more
AMD may have transformed this thin and light laptop into a gaming powerhouse
The Asus Zenbook S 16 sitting on a coffee table.

AMD has a new driver for its latest Ryzen AI 300 processors, and it introduces a feature that could provide a massive performance boost in games. It's called Variable Graphics Memory, or VGM, and it allows the integrated graphics to convert up to 75% of the memory in a system to dedicated graphics memory. This, according to AMD, can not only boost performance in games, but also make some otherwise unplayable titles boot.

The new Ryzen AI 300 processors are mostly found in thin and light laptops, including devices like the Zenbook S 16 that aren't targeted at gamers. In addition to VGM in the new driver, AMD also turned on its Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF 2) feature for Ryzen AI 300 processors. With both features working in tandem, you can see the performance boost on the Zenbook S 16 below.

Read more