To achieve this feat, Microsoft switched from the magnesium material it uses with other portable Surface products to aluminum, which can be more easily anodized to create a colored seal. The review unit is an elegant Graphite Gold color Surface Laptop, like every Ultrabook that’s shipped in the wake of Apple’s MacBook Air, is your basic traditional laptop in how it looks and how you’ll use it. The general design is, of course, familiar. And this is somewhat unique: Surface Laptop should find eager customers among both men and women, with professionals and students, and with the young and the old. Thin and light, Surface Laptop cuts a dashing and professional figure that I feel has cross-generational and cross-market appeal. Surface Laptop is gorgeous to look at, pleasant to the touch, and a joy to use. The innovation here, which I feel will be very compelling for many users, is the design. It’s just a traditional laptop, after all, and doesn’t offer any 2-in-1 capabilities, as with all other Surface products.īut Surface Laptop is a paradox. Viewed within the context of Microsoft’s stated goals for its Surface lineup-which is to create new product categories-the Surface Laptop seems to come up short. Released mid-year, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is one of the most attractive and desirable portable PCs of 2017 despite its dated and minimal expansion and lack of 2-in-1 or even lay-flat capabilities.