Microsoft is launching the Surface Laptop 4 in April this year. And when it does, the company is planning on offering the laptop with both Intel and AMD configurations.
The Surface Laptop 4 Is Due in April 2021
A report from WinFuture details that Microsoft is preparing to refresh both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Laptop models. The upcoming Surface Laptop 4 will be similar to the existing model, with no major design changes planned.
Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop 3 in late 2019, so it is due for a refresh. The company recently announced the new Surface Pro 7+ with 11th gen. Intel CPUs.
The highlight of the Surface Laptop 4 series will be Microsoft offering them with both Intel and AMD CPUs. Microsoft currently offers the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 with Intel CPUs and the 15-inch model with AMD Ryzen 3 CPUs.
All Intel and AMD CPUs that Microsoft plans on using inside the Surface Laptop 4 will be “Surface Edition” chips. This means Intel and AMD will slightly customize these CPUs to meet Microsoft’s requirements.
Surface Laptop 4: Microsoft setzt auf neue AMD “Surface Edition”-CPUs – das sind die Modelle #Ryzen #AMD #Surface #SurfaceLaptop4 #Zen2 #Ryzen4000U https://t.co/vLy8rDAgMm
— WinFuture.de (@WinFuture) March 8, 2021
Disappointingly, Microsoft is planning on using AMD’s older Zen 2 CPUs on the Surface Laptop 4 series. On the lower-end configurations, Microsoft will use the Ryzen 5 4680U CPU, which will feature a base clock of 2GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.4GHz.
The higher-end models will use the more powerful Ryzen 7 4980U, presumably an eight-core CPU. All Ryzen CPUs will feature an integrated Radeon Vega GPU.
Microsoft does plan on offering the latest 11th gen. Intel CPUs on the Surface Laptop 4, including the Core i5-1145G7 and the Core i7-1185G7. These models will feature Intel’s Iris Xe integrated GPU with up to 96 Execution Units (EUs).
The Ability to Add More RAM and Storage
AMD-based Surface Laptop 4 models can be configured with up to 16GB RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, while the Intel-based models can be configured with up to 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage.
The display size, resolution, and aspect ratio of the Surface Laptop 4 will be similar to the outgoing model. The battery capacity will reportedly see a small bump from 46Wh to 49Wh on both models. Coupled with the efficient CPUs, this should lead to a slight bump in battery life.
Other trademark Surface Laptop features that are expected to remain unchanged include Windows Hello, Surface Connect, and Surface Pen/Dial compatibility.
The Surface Laptop lineup has been criticized for its lack of USB ports. The report does not mention any improvement in this regard. This means the Surface Laptop 4 will likely continue to feature 1 x USB-C and USB-A ports. For additional connectivity, you will have to make use of the Surface Connect port.
The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 launched in late 2019 with a starting price tag of $999. The Surface Laptop 4 should come with a similar price tag.