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The Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 was unveiled during a company livestream held March 21, and it looks an awful lot like its predecessors.
Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop 6 as part of its "New Era of Work" event, a livestreamed presentation in which the company showcased new products (including the Surface Pro 10) and services aimed squarely at enterprise and business clients.
That's why the first Surface Laptop 6 we've met so far is actually the Surface Laptop 6 for Business, aka the commercial model that Microsoft hopes to sell in bulk to business and enterprise customers.
But I've been covering laptops for years and I don't expect we'll see a major difference between the Surface Laptop 6 for Business and the regular ol' Surface Laptop 6 for the rest of us. It's likely the only major differences will be in pricing and configurations, as these laptops will be priced for buying in bulk and made available to big businesses with more business-friendly features, like an optional NFC card reader for enterprise security.
With that in mind, here's a quick rundown of everything we know about the Microsoft Surface Laptop 6.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Price and release date
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 will be sold in two different sizes, just likes its predecessors: a 13.5-inch model and a 15-inch version. As with prior generations, they will once again start at $999 for the 13-inch Surface Laptop 6 and $1,299 for the 15-inch model.
While it's yet unclear when the Surface Laptop 6 will be available for purchase on store shelves, it seems very likely that they will be available by the end of May.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Design
The Surface Laptop 6 looks an awful lot like the Surface Laptop 5, which is a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you feel about the Surface Laptop design.
I've reviewed the past two (Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Laptop 5) in both 13-inch and 15-inch varieties, and I've always kind of liked the simple design of these Windows 11 laptops.
The Surface Laptop 6 will be about the same size and weight as its predecessors, with the 13.5-inch model coming in at 12.1 x 8.8 x 0.66 inches and weighing roughly 3.06 pounds while the 15-inch Laptop 6 is a heftier 3.7 pounds, as befits its larger 13.4 x 9.6 x 0.67 size.
These will also be some of the first Surface computers to ship with a Copilot key on the keyboard, though those keys will be optional since Copilot isn't available worldwide yet.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Display
The Surface Laptop 6 offers (at least in terms of size) the same display as its predecessors, which means either a 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen with 201 pixels per inch (PPI).
That translates to display resolutions of 2256 x 1504 on the 13-inch or 2496 x 1664 on the 15-inch, and in my experience that's plenty good enough for getting work done.
But after reviewing the last two generations of Surface laptops, I wish Microsoft had upped the brightness of these screens. When I used older Surfaces they were easy to use indoors, but outside in direct sunlight they can throw off a lot of glare and be awfully hard to see, even with brightness cranked to the max.
Microsoft claims the new Surface Laptop 6 models come with anti-reflective coatings that can reduce reflections by up to 50%, so perhaps this latest laptop will be easier to use outdoors. We'll have to wait until we review one to see!
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Ports
Surface Laptops have always been light on ports, like a lot of ultraportables. And they're actually a bit better than a MacBook Air, in my opinion, because with the Surface Laptop you get USB-C, USB-A and a headphone jack, whereas on an Air you just get USB-C and no headphone jack.
That trend continues unabated with the Surface Laptop 6, which comes with basically the same port array as its predecessors.
On the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 6 you once again get a Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 port (which supports fast charging via USB-C as well as support for up to 1 8K external monitor via DisplayPort 2.1), a USB-A 3.1 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a Surface Connect port for the charger or Surface accessories.
The 15-inch Surface Laptop 6 comes with all that plus an additional Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 port, which is nice to have. Business customers can also order the 15-inch Laptop 6 with an integrated smart card reader, for enhanced security.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Performance
The Surface Laptop 6 for Business will be available with your choice of two CPU options: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H or the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H.
These are some of the more powerful Intel Meteor Lake chips available, which is good news for folks who care about performance or AI. These are Intel's latest laptop CPUs, and they're built using a new (to Intel) "chiplet" design that includes a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) optimized for the kinds of tasks we increasingly ask "AI" to do.
Since Microsoft's Copilot "AI" chatbot is a big part of its ongoing business strategy, it's good to see these Surfaces come with NPUs onboard. Whether we see a lot of software that takes full advantage of these new chips in the year ahead remains to be seen.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Audio
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 6 offers Omnisonic speakers with support for Dolby Atmos and Bluetooth audio. The laptops will also include a pair of studio mics for video calls and voice commands.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Webcam
The Surface Laptop 6 will ship with a redesigned Surface Studio Camera embedded in the top bezel that's capable of capturing 1080 images and video. It will also be capable of logging you in via facial recognition if you enable Windows Hello.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6: Outlook
The Surface Laptops are respectable, serviceable Windows laptops that look good on a desk for not a lot of money. The Surface Laptop 6 for Business appears to follow in their footsteps, delivering a solid Windows laptop without a lot of frills for not too much cash. That may be good news for businesses that need to modernize their laptops, but for me it's a little disappointing.
I say that because I actually liked the first Surface Laptop I reviewed back in 2022, and I thought it could be a killer productivity laptop with just a bit of improvement.
But the Surface Laptop 5 was such a disappointing retread that I'm not sure Microsoft is interested in designing interesting or compelling laptops. With the exception of the unique sliding display of the Surface Laptop Studio 2, I haven't seen a lot of innovation from Microsoft's laptops over the last few years.
That's really too bad, because Microsoft is the company Windows built, and it's got a big enough hardware business that it ought to be capable of producing the best Windows laptops on the market. Sadly, that's generally not the case, and the Surface Laptop 6 for Business doesn't give me a lot of hope that'll change anytime soon.
