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Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 (2nd Gen) review

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 (2nd Gen)

CHOICE Expert Rating

73%
What is the CHOICE Expert Rating?
Good points

Good Points

  • Excellent touchpad
  • Excellent keyboard
  • Screen has excellent viewing angles, colours, and luminance
  • Comfortable palm rest
  • Highly portable
Bad points

Bad Points

  • Lacks USB-C
  • Lacks SD card slot
  • Keyboard-mounted power button puts system to sleep immediately if accidentally pressed
  • Power port is located in an area that can be awkward to access
  • Glossy screen produces noticeable reflections

Type

Ultraportable
Ultrabook
Tablet mode
Operating system
Windows 10 Home

Recommended products

Recommended
Not recommended
Recommended for tablet use

Test results

CHOICE Expert Rating
73%
Performance score
59%
Tablet use score
N/A
Ease of use score
82%
Battery life score
63%
Display score
84%
Audio score
60%
Wi-Fi score
66%
Storage write-speed (MBps)
797
Storage read-speed (MBps)
1642
Wi-Fi speed (MBps)
27
Average battery life – heavy usage (hours)
5:37
Charging time to 80% full (h:min)
1:39
Expert tester comments
The Surface Laptop 2 is a sleek touchscreen-enabled unit with a high quality screen. However, it does feel a little dated when you look around its edges. For example, there are no USB-C ports to be found. And while we like the inclusion of a regular USB 3.0 port and the headset port, the Mini DisplayPort for video output can be seen as being inconvenient. Full HDMI or USB-C would be preferable here. That said, if you don't care about external physical connections, the Surface Laptop 2 will serve well for everyday office-type tasks, and multimedia and communications processing. The soft-finished palm rest, clean lines, and sturdy build quality all add up to give the Surface Laptop 2 a luxurious feel. Note: This laptop's performance is not directly comparable to current products due to it being tested with an older version of our benchmark.

Sustainability

Shop Ethical rating
C
Warranty (years)
1
Replaceable battery
Not collected
Replace/upgrade RAM
Not collected
Slots for additional RAM
Not collected
Replace/upgrade storage
Not collected
Slot for additional storage
Not collected
Replace/upgrade Wi-Fi
Not collected
Country of origin
Not collected

Related products

Availability
Discontinued model

Cost

Price
$1,998.00

Specifications

Screen size (inches)
13.5
Native screen resolution (pixels)
2256 x 1504
Processor (CPU) type
Intel Core i5-8250U
CPU frequency (GHz)
1.6
RAM (GB)
8
Video graphics type
Intel UHD Graphics 620
Storage capacity (GB)
256
Available user space (GB)
192
Storage type
SSD
Wi-Fi version
5
Weight of laptop (kg)
1.2
Weight of power supply (kg)
0.2
Size (mm, H x D x W)
17 x 223 x 328

Features

Screen finish
Glossy
Touchscreen
USB-C
USB 2.0 ports
0
USB 3.0 ports
1
USB 4 as USB-C port
0
USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1 or 2, not Thunderbolt 3 or 4) ports
0
Thunderbolt 3 or 4 (as USB-C) ports
0
SD card slot (full-size)
SD card slot (micro)
HDMI port
Gigabit ethernet port
Rear camera
Backlit keyboard levels of brightness
3

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