Microsoft just announced a “special event” coming September 21 in NYC and while the invite didn’t mention anything Surface related, this isn’t our first rodeo, so we know to prepare ourselves for a September Surface spree. That includes a laundry list of potential laptop announcements, but one of the most notable could be the Surface Laptop 6.
This is no small part out of a desire to see if Microsoft can recover after last year’s Surface Laptop 5 didn’t just fall off a cliff, but seemed to hit every single branch and boulder on the way down. The Surface Laptop 4 earned an Editor’s Choice award from us and while we had a couple of complaints, it was overall an excellent laptop with 12 hours of battery life. The Surface Laptop 5 was worse in almost every regard with slower performance and it dropped to 9 hours of battery life!
But it’s a new year and hope springs eternal, Microsoft has produced some excellent laptops over the years, so there’s every reason to believe it can do so again. Here’s everything we know so far about the Surface Laptop 6.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 release date
I tipped my hand in the intro, but we expect to see the Surface Laptop 6 announced at the September 21 event in NYC with the shipping date likely within the first couple of weeks of October. Outside of 2020, Microsoft hasn’t missed an annual Surface Laptop release, so there’s no reason to expect it to now.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 price
It’s a safe bet that the Surface Laptop 6 will once again start at $999, the price point has held across every version of the Surface Laptop since the original in 2017. The real question is what the upgrade costs will look like.
The 15-inch base model started at $1,399 last year, but it could jump all the way up to $2,499 if you opted for 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Considering you were still stuck with the same Intel Core i7-1265U CPU and Intel Iris Xe graphics, that felt steep.
We have no credible rumors on pricing, so for now our expectation is that things remains the same, we just hope to see more compelling performance and battery life from the base configuration this time around.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 specs
We have a complete list of specs for both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Laptop 6 models courtesy of WCCF TECH, naturally these are leaks so the standard warning to take them with a grain of salt applies, but they do line up with our expectations.
There are no earth-shattering changes to be found in the specs breakdown for the Surface Laptop 6. We do expect that Intel’s 13th Gen chipset will give the Surface Laptop 6 a significant performance boost over last year, but battery life is much harder to project. If it gets half of what Microsoft is claiming in our tests that will be a victory for them.
We didn’t include it in this list, but the leak also indicated that Microsoft will be sticking to the same 720p webcam that we were already disappointed to see last year, so go ahead and budget for an external webcam if the Surface Laptop 6 ends up feeling like the right fit for you.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 design
We haven’t seen any leaked photos or renders of the Surface Laptop 6 yet, which doesn’t bode well for those wishing for a shakeup in the look for 2023. Overall Microsoft has taken a page from Apple’s playbook and created a classic look for the Surface Laptop that doesn’t really go out of style.
It’s a little basic, but for those that like a bit of extra flavor there are always the Alcantara fabric options. Our primary hope is that Microsoft finally banishes those gigantic bezels from the Surface Laptop 6 display, Apple finally got the memo and now it’s time for Microsoft to join the 2020s with its laptop displays, which are otherwise gorgeous.
Outlook
The Surface Laptop 5 was one of the most disappointing laptops of 2022, our reviewer even titled her review “I’m not Mad, Microsoft; I’m just disappointed.” As such there should be nowhere to go but up for the Surface Laptop 6 this year.
While I’m hoping to see some more leaks over the next month as we draw closer to the event, I am cautiously (if not enthusiastically) optimistic about this year’s Surface Laptop. It doesn’t seem like there are a lot of major changes, but it didn’t need a ground-up rethink, it just needed to execute better on the fundamentals.
If Microsoft just fixes those massive bezels and the Intel 13th Gen CPU brings the kind of performance and power efficiency benefits to the Surface Laptop 6 that we’ve seen in some other laptops this year, Microsoft can scale back up that cliff it toppled off of last year.
