On June 23, 2024, a report was released that painted a grim picture of the long-anticipated surface laptop powered by an ARM-based, Snapdragon X chipset. The laptop fell short of pre-launch hype, especially regarding efficiency and AI capabilities.
A subsequent meeting was held on July 2, 2024, to discuss the negative feedback and subpar performance of the product. The company resolved to conduct thorough tests and improvements on the laptop.
By August 10, an intense product enhancement process had started, aiming to solve the product’s flaws. Experienced engineers set out to boost the laptop’s efficiency and adjust its AI capabilities.
On September 30, 2024, the company confirmed significant improvements in the laptop’s performance, including processing speed, power-efficiency, and AI responsiveness.
The revised version of the laptop was re-released on October 28, 2024, to positive reviews, marking a successful recovery from initial setbacks. By November 16, 2024, the device had not only regained its reputation but also recorded impressive sales.
The laptop excelled in office-related tasks and had impressive battery life, retaining 76% of its battery charge even after two hours and 36 minutes of screen usage. However, it had a limited storage capacity that filled up quickly for users needing to store large files.
Despite the exceptional battery life, performance, and user-friendly design, the laptop struggled with advanced gaming graphics, high-load programs, and certain widely used social media apps like Instagram and TikTok. These limitations raised doubts about its suitability for non-business purposes.
The laptop worked well with native ARM applications but struggled due to heavy reliance on Microsoft’s Prism emulator layer.
Overcoming setbacks: Surface laptop’s journey
Users experienced noticeable lags and glitches when running apps like Libre Office, Lightroom Classic, Discord, and Asana, and the battery drained significantly faster.
In response, the company has pledged updates to improve emulation performance and increase the number of natively supported apps. This will hopefully solve usability issues that can hamper productivity, despite longer battery life and a sleek design.
While it runs established apps like Photoshop, Slack, Spotify, and Zoom without severe problems, minor issues like black screens, unexpected slowdowns, app freezing, and system crashes highlight the need for software enhancements and optimization. The company’s software developers are currently working to rectify the persisting glitches.
Yet, despite the promising progress, there are concerns about the future of the new Surface laptop, especially for users who rely heavily on apps without native ARM versions. This points to areas in need of improvement. Industry professionals underline the urgent need to resolve these challenges to ensure ARM devices meet user expectations.
Despite the promising advantages of ARM technology, app compatibility issues need to be mitigated. Addressing these hardware-software discrepancies remains a critical priority to maintain and potentially increase the market share of ARM-based devices. The ongoing situation underscores the need for comprehensive testing, user experience-oriented design, and clear communication about device capabilities and limitations.
