The Surface Laptop 5 ditches AMD for a simpler lineup

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.

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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).

	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.

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