Surface Laptop 7: One Year Later (Premium)

One year ago, I purchased a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 and it remains my favorite overall laptop. The battery life was stellar but it's actually improved since last year. Its performance, compatibility, reliability, and efficiency are unmatched by other Windows laptops, especially those based on x64 chips. And while there are a few small changes I'd like to see in a future revision, it's just about perfect for my needs. If I had to give up all but one PC, this would be my choice.
First steps
As soon as Microsoft announced Surface Laptop 7th Generation at the Copilot+ PC launch last May, I opened a new browser tab, navigated to Surface.com, and preordered a 15-inch model in platinum with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

I immediately suffered buyer's regret. Not because I didn't want one, but because I realized belatedly that I should get a version with more storage so I could more adequately test Recall, the non-controversial marquee new feature that, for reasons I will never understand, was controversial at the time. And so I canceled that order and preordered a different Surface Laptop, this one a black 15-inch model with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage.

Microsoft promised to deliver the first Surface Laptop 7 units to customers on June 18, or one year ago today. Which it did, though I was in Mexico City at the time. So I had a niece who was watching our cats accept the delivery and it sat there in our condo until we returned home on June 29. The laptop was exactly as expected: A premium Windows-based laptop modeled on the Apple MacBook Air with a large display, but with a slightly thicker and heavier body.

As I began using Surface Laptop, I immediately noticed that everything worked great. I had almost no compatibility issues across the hardware devices and software I use. And the few I did experience--the Focusrite USB audio interface and Google Drive client--were both resolved quickly. The only thing that was problematic was videogames. Despite Qualcomm's bizarre claims to the contrary, this is not the right platform if PC gaming is important to you.

By the time I reviewed it, the conclusion was obvious: Surface Laptop delivers on the design, usability, performance, efficiency, battery life, and compatibility we've always wanted from Windows 11 on Arm, and it is a viable alternative to the MacBook Air, with a similar design (and price point) and a consistent 10.5 hours of uptime on battery. I have more experience with previous-generation WOA-based laptops than most, so you may have to take my word on this one. But this platform is a miracle. And Surface Laptop 7 was at the time, and still is, my favorite of the bunch.
Time flies when you're not constantly looking for the power cord
In the intervening year, I've struggled to not use Surface Laptop continually: I usually have several review laptops in-house that need my attention, but they always fall short in some area, like screen...