The New MacBook Air is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Surface Laptop (Premium)

When Surface Laptop 2 debuted with the same legacy ports as its predecessor, I died a little inside. But things look better today. A lot better.

So thanks, Apple. On behalf of an anxious Microsoft user base, thanks.

Like so many stories that involve Apple, this one will require me to correct the history a bit. See, there’s this fable that Apple changed the world in 2008 when it introduced the MacBook Air. Everyone seems to remember the infamous moment when Steve Jobs pulled the thin and light wonder out of an interoffice envelope to gasps of delight and cheers.

Yeah. That’s didn’t happen.

Well, Jobs did pull the first MacBook Air out of an envelope 10 years ago. But the MacBook Air he pulled out did not change the world at all, and it was absolutely not a “wonder” of any kind.

See, the first MacBook Air was a dog.

Yes, it was very thin. But Apple made serious concessions to power and usability by making the MacBook Air so thin in 2008. That MacBook Air was “powered”—really, constricted—by its lackluster Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, 4200 RPM HDD (yes, really; a 64 GB SSD was an expensive build-time option only), and its low-res 1280 x 800 LED display. There was only a single USB port, and it popped out behind an inelegant door. This was at a time when the MacBook and MacBook Pro were bristling with expansion.

The first MacBook Air did bring us some innovations, like the MagSafe power connector. In fact, Jobs spent a bunch of time bragging about how Apple had solved power cable management since the MacBook Air’s power brick had little pop-out handles one could wind the cable around. Of course, both MagSafe and that cable management system are gone today, so that’s kind of beside the point.

For the most part, the MacBook Air of 2008 was an idea, a theory. A peek at what computing might be like in the future. It was a bit like the iPad Pro is right now, elegant but of dubious value and use. Or for the Microsoft fan, like Windows 10 S (S mode).

Oh, I forgot the best part. Pricing started at $1800.

Anyway, the MacBook Air didn’t sell well. And I’m sure there were some concerns that Apple had another Power Mac G4 Cube disaster on its hands.

But then something magical did happen. In 2010, Apple announced the second generation MacBook Air. This is the machine that everyone thinks of when they think MacBook Air. And unlike its predecessor, it was both innovative and usable.

Everything about the second MacBook Air was better. More power, more RAM, more storage (all of which was SSD), and more connectivity: It shipped with two USB ports plus SDXC card slot. It was even a tad lighter than the machine it replaced. More to the point, the second-generation MacBook Air kicked off a new product category that we called the “Ultrabook” in the PC market. (That’s an Intel marketing term that means “a PC that looks and works like the MacBook Air but runs Windows.”)

For the next several years, the MacBook Air defined what a thin and light PC was. And every Ultrabook released by every PC maker was inevitably compared to it. At first poorly. Over time, they became more evenly matched, with some PCs exceeding the capabilities of the MacBook Air in some ways. And then PCs pulled ahead for good as Apple, inexplicably, let the MacBook Air wallow with its years-old design.

During this time, Apple did, of course, push forward with thinner new MacBook Pros. And with thinner, lighter, and smaller new 12-inch MacBooks. But those latter machines have always been as constrained as that first-generation MacBook Air, with just a single USB port (USB-C, this time, and one that doubled as the power adapter) and with low-end Intel processors and relatively poor battery life.

OK, let’s discuss Surface Laptop now.

Still in full-blown Apple-envy mode, Microsoft in 2012 launched its terrible Surface tablet alongside its even more terrible Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems. The goal was to meld the touch-first interfaces popularized by the iPhone and iPad with the PC. But all Microsoft really created was a device lineup no one wanted and a set of operating systems that confused and bewildered its users. Time to hit reset.

Over time, Microsoft finally figured out the right recipe for Surface, and it launched Surface Pro 3 in 2014, confident that it had a product that could be the “tablet that replaces your laptop.” That was especially true, it hoped, if that laptop was a MacBook Air.

That Surface Pro is successful as a product and a form factor is undeniable. As with Apple and the MacBook Air, Microsoft has created a new form factor, a new product category. And as with the MacBook Air, the Surface Pro has been copied incessantly by all the established players in the PC market. They’ve proven to be as devoid of original ideas as Hollywood, when you think about it.

But I think it’s fair to say that we collectively suffer from the same kind of history rewriting on the Microsoft side of the fence as Apple fans do: Most believe today that Surface has always been very innovative and even successful. But it really wasn’t until 2014 that Microsoft cobbled together the right mix of features and forms to keep Surface in the market. As with the MacBook Air, it took two years to get it right.

Since then, Microsoft has had some ups and downs. But the primary point for the purposes of this conversation is that the firm’s subsequent efforts to catch lightning in a bottle again and establish yet another new type of product have all failed. PC makers—again, not exactly the most imaginative bunch—have not copied Surface Book. Nor have they copied Surface Studio.

Microsoft will keep trying, of course. But in the interim, it has needed to keep releasing new products to keep sales growth and momentum going. And in 2017, it dug deep into its bag of unreleased product ideas and came up with a classic. Surface Laptop.

To be clear, there is nothing innovative about Surface Laptop. It’s a product that was proposed early in the Surface team’s existence—way back when Julie Larson Green actually had a say in what happened—and was summarily rejected. Literally, because there was nothing innovative about a laptop, a product category that had been around for decades and, arguably, perfected. By the MacBook Air and its many PC-based copies. Microsoft, remember, was out to create new markets.

Well, those new markets never materialized. There was a years-long gap in the product release schedule. And it was time to dig deep. Suddenly, Surface Laptop started to make sense.

Surface being Surface, it tried to differentiate Surface Laptop by adding an Alcantara carpet on the keyboard deck. This was a polarizing decision: I happen to like it, but many hate it, and those people will never buy this device because of it.

That kind of design decision reeks more than a bit of the Apple envy that had led to Surface in the first place. What Microsoft should have done was let users choose whether they want this covering. But choice is for big PC makers, and Microsoft can be as parental as can Apple. So only the lowest-end and least desirable Surface Laptop can be had without Alcantara.

The other major design issue here, of course, is the connectivity. With Apple and all of the PC industry embracing USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, Microsoft inexplicably shipped Surface Laptop in 2017 with just a single USB-A port. And with a legacy miniDisplayPort for video-out. Remember, even the MacBook Air had had two USB-A ports since 2010.

Worse, Microsoft saddled Surface Laptop with Windows 10 S, its disastrous attempt to bring Windows into the mobile world and prematurely cut off the thousands of Windows desktop applications and drivers that literally all users need. The only good news there was that you could upgrade for free to Windows 10 Pro. And I’m sure that every Surface Laptop owner did just that.

The reaction to Surface Laptop was mixed. Many complained that it was curiously late-to-market MacBook Air clone, and … fair enough. But many love Surface Laptop, and for the same reasons that many Mac fans love MacBook Air. It’s just the right combination of power, portability, and usability.

And to be clear, I am among that audience. There is just something …special … about Surface Laptop. For all the complaints about it being late to market, Surface Laptop was literally the only Windows PC that captured the exact mix of things that made the second-generation MacBook Air so special.

And it improved on that design, too. Its 3:2 PixelSense display was a wonder for productivity. Its keyboard and touchpad were perfect and on-par with, or superior to, the Apple entries. It had more modern Intel processors than the MacBook Air, better battery life, and facial recognition for sign-in. It came in multiple colors. And it was no more expensive.

18 months after the initial release of Surface Laptop, Microsoft released Surface Laptop 2. And, sure enough, the initial reaction was muted. Microsoft offered Surface Laptop 2 in one additional color, a stunning black. It came, finally, with quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core CPUs. And … that was about it, really. Nothing else changed. The form factor, the legacy port selection was all the same.

More of the same shouldn’t be satisfying.

And it kind of wasn’t. I really like the new black color, for sure. And I’m not overly-harmed by the limits of the legacy ports. But … it’s the same laptop, right?

And then Apple announced the new MacBook Air, finally. Those of us who had been criticizing Microsoft for its slow pace of updated Surface PCs could perhaps learn something from the glacial way in which Apple let its second-generation MacBook Air design wallow in the market for several years. The model that the new MacBook Air replaced still utilized a 5th-generation Intel Core processor, for crying out loud. (Still does, actually, as you can still buy it.)

I want to be clear about this. The new MacBook Air is a wonderful laptop. The design is classic. The usability and functionality are as good as ever. Even the performance, despite its relatively low-end Y-series processor, is absolutely acceptable for the audience that will be buying this machine. It’s a great upgrade.

Well. It’s a great upgrade compared to its dated successor. But that’s kind of a low bar. The problem for Apple is that today’s MacBook Air is entering a market in which there are already dozens of copycat Ultrabooks in the market. This isn’t 2008 or 2010. This time, there’s a crowded field of worthy contenders. And many of them have much better specifications. And cost less. Much less.

And then there’s Surface Laptop 2. That lackluster upgrade suddenly doesn’t look so shabby anymore, does it?

Surface Laptop 2 starts at just $999, $200 less than the base MacBook Air. The previous MacBook Air started at $999 (still does), but with Apple raising prices across the board, it has handed Microsoft and bigger PC makers with a real gift. These computers, which absolutely do compete with each other, are in some ways not even comparable.

There’s the processor, sure, though I feel like this won’t be something that impacts most users. But Surface Laptop 2 struggles less under load and its fan isn’t as loud or as constant in those rare times.

Surface Laptop 2 has a superior display which is both 3:2 and of a higher pixel density. It’s also Surface Pen compatible, which won’t benefit most, and multi-touch compatible, which will.

Surface Laptop 2 features a superior typing experience to MacBook Air. It’s no contest. That said, the MacBook Air’s new Force Touch trackpad is excellent. That one might be a toss-up.

Surface Laptop 2 still features Windows Hello facial recognition, but the new MacBook Air adds a Touch ID sensor so you can sign-in with your finger. I happen to prefer the latter, but that, too, is a toss-up. Both methods are modern and efficient.

Ultimately, what this comes down to, I think, is that Surface Laptop 2 is both future-proof and affordable in ways that the MacBook Air is not. And that these qualities tip the scale quite obvious in Microsoft’s direction.

That Microsoft has shipped a thoroughly non-innovative Ultrabook that is still somehow superior to Apple’s expensive new MacBook Air is, of course, a paradox. And one with two fathers: Microsoft, which needed a product to fill a hole in the schedule. And Apple, which simply can’t get out of its own way.

So thanks again, Apple. I will almost certainly hold on to the MacBook Air that I just purchased barring any “crumb in the keyboard” episode. But when it comes time to actually travel and bring along a machine that I trust, want to carry, and want to use, it will be Surface Laptop 2 every time. Every single time.