The new Microsoft Surface laptop, 7th edition, is both the 7th of its kind and the first of its kind. It's, obviously, the 7th generation in the Microsoft Surface laptop line - an enduring range of hardware constructed directly by Microsoft, serving not only as a portable powerhouse in general, but a reference to other hardware manufacturers on how Windows devices can be.

And, it's the first of the brand-new Copilot+ PC series of devices, a new hardware spec set by Microsoft that mandates a neural processing unit - NPU - be included that handles a minimum of 40 trillion transactions per second, a minimum of 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and some other requirements. These specs ensure the device can perform on-board AI operations using built-in models without having to resort to the cloud - and associated cloud costs - for such processing.

As a laptop, it's stunning - a sleek, polished metal machine that's light and powerful, coming in sapphire, dune, platinum, and black colours. And it's yours for a starting price of $1,899 for the base specs with additional RAM and SSD options. It's also smart, with 40 AI models embedded right in the silicon of the NPU. This gives you features like real-time audio translation no matter the conferencing app you use, a co-creator built into Microsoft Paint, camera and microphone adjustments, and more.

First things first; the Surface laptop 7th edition isn't an Intel machine. It's powered with a Snapdragon(R) X 12-core X1E80100 @ 3.40 GHz CPU. This is an AMD device, and Windows is snappy and performant. Check out the Geekbench scores here from the very model I'm using.

Geekbench scores it at 2,312 for single-core performance and a very respectable 12,792 for multi-core performance. To give context and comparison, Geekbench places the Snapdragon X1E80100 below these:

• Intel Core i9-12900 2.4GHz 16 cores - 13,150
• AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX 3.8GHz 8 cores - 13,073
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5945WX 4.1GHz 12 cores - 12,913
• AMD EPYC 9354 3.2GHz 32 cores - 12,881
• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7GHz 6 cores - 12,825
• AMD EPYC 7413 2.6Ghz 24 cores - 12,804

and above these:

• AMD Ryzen 5 7500F 3.7GHz 6 cores - 12,586
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3955WX 3.9GHz 16 cores - 12,351
• Intel Core i5-13600 2.7GHz 14 cores - 12,335
• Intel Core i5-13500 2.5Ghz 14 cores - 12,294
• Intel Core i5-13600T 1.8Ghz 14 cores - 12,214

These are no slouches, so the Snapdragon is in good company. For clarity, Geekbench scores are calibrated against a baseline of 2,500 for the Intel Core i7 12700 CPU.

Geekbench also scores the GPU at 18,583.

Battery life is impressive, running at up to 20 hours of video playback, and the thin bezel means you get the most of your 13.8" or 15" screen. And, that screen is a bright, HDR, adaptive contrast screen, and a 10-point touchscreen too. Both the keyboard and touchpad are responsive and smooth. The touchpad has haptic feedback and offers a wide range of customisations for extra accessibility and inclusivitity.

The camera is a full HD Surface Studio Camera, which leverages the NPU to bring Windows Studio Effects that offer hardware-driven creative filters, portrait blur, and automatic framing as you move around, irrespective of the software you work with. The Omnisonic Dolby Atmos speakers are crisp and bold, and surprisingly impressive on such a small machine. Get lost in your music, or hear every word of your conversations. DUal studio microphones complete the A/V picture, with voice focus.

Connectivity-wise, Microsoft has you covered with Wi-Fi 7 802.11be and Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax compatibility, plus Bluetooth 5.4. There are 2x USB-C/USB4 ports, USB-A 3.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Surface connect port. The 15" model includes a MicroSDXC card reader.

Fast charging is available using a 65W power supply.

Microsoft has put a lot of work into making a more eco-friendly machine too, with the enclosure made out of a minimum of 67.2% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminium alloy and 100% recycled rare earth metals. This was not without challenges, the engineering team explained to iTWire, because by nature, recycled materials contain imperfections and variations, but the team is proud of the structural engineering achievements to bring a solid, robust, durable, light, and aesthetic unit, while having a positive environmental impact through recycling.

On the topic of hardware, the team has also made this the most repairable Surface laptop ever. The components are designed so they can be removed with a minimum of fuss. For instance, peel off the little foot bumps on the underside of the laptop to reveal screws; unscrew these and remove the back cover. Inside, the SSD is visible and swappable, the battery is accessible, along with other parts. Annotations are provided on the components to list the number and type of screws used, and so on.

Comparisons are sure to be made with Apple's MacBook range; there's no point shying away from it. To that, iTWire can say yes, there are visual simularities. And, happily, the things people love about their MacBooks - an intuitive, responsive trackpad; fast sleep when closing the lid and fast resume when opening; a bright, crisp screen ... these are all features of the Surface laptop 7th edition, also. Yet, with Windows, and at a lower pricepoint. With a touchscreen too.

Apple has always benefited from having its operating system and hardware so closely tied together. Meanwhile, Microsoft has had a less easy time by the need to ensure Windows can run on all kinds of brand-name hardware, epic custom builds, and the most Frankenstein-like of contraptions at the widest range of price points available. No doubt you, like iTWire, have experienced no end of disappointing laptop experiences. And, one of the bug bears is that aforementioned sleep mode. I've pulled laptops out of my travel bag and opened the lid only to find it's warm and the battery drained because it, well, just kept running when the lid closed, despite being set to go to sleep. In fact, that's the Windows default option for closing the lid - you have to change it to get a different effect, but it's been seemingly flaky across the range of Windows hardware. Yet, happily, and delightfully, the Surface laptop 7th edition performs. I don't think Microsoft would promote the tagline that this is the most MacBook-like Windows device ever, but I have to put it out there: yes, some people have extreme views of Apple both for and against, but it does have to be admitted a lot of passion for MacBooks comes from the design, the intuitive touchpad, and the synergy between the software and hardware. It's not something that generic Windows laptops reproduce well or often, but it's definitely the case here. This isn't to say, or even to imply, Microsoft has emulated or copied Apple - merely, the point is the good things people love about their MacBook are equally present and capable on this brand-new Surface. It's a seamless blend of hardware and software, it's a pleasure to use, the battery is excellent, the unit is quiet and light, and it all just works.

This said, the move from Intel to AMD means not all your software will work, at least not yet. Microsoft's own telemetry indicates this won't be a problem for the bulk of people - after all, Windows itself runs well - really well - on the Snapdragon CPU, as do Store apps, Microsoft Office, Teams, and all kinds of apps.

Plus, iTWire could get Visual Studio 2022 running fine, Azure Data Studio, and a raft of other professional, developer, systems administrator type apps. SQL Server 2022 Developer Edition, however, continually failed to install. While the logging and error messages were not clear, we imagine this comes down to the ARM processor. 7-Zip, FileZilla, Notepad++, VLC, and others installed and ran fine.

Now, it's not simply a laptop; the Microsoft Surface laptop 7th edition is also the first-ever of the Copilot+ PC range. iTWire previously described our challenge with using Paint co-creator right out of the box - turned out Paint needed an update from the Store before it offered co-creator, and we had a little rocky start when asking Windows Copilot chat how to turn this feature on, only to have it initially tell me the feature doesn't exist.

This co-creator is a smart feature in Paint where you describe, in natural language, what you wish to draw, then go ahead and draw it. Paint will offer up its own creation side-by-side with yours, following your prompt, and using your drawing as a guide. It's quite remarkable, and allows the most untalented of artists to whip up the concept in their head without professional aid.

And, what's more, this is built-in. There is no need to purchase credits with a cloud AI service, and no need to buy additional software. You can co-create in Paint to your heart's content all day, every day, and will still only pay the one-off price for the laptop, without any subscription. This comes down to the built-in NPU, and it's part of what makes the Surface laptop an AI PC, the Copilot+ PC.

The secret is the neural processing unit, and its 40 built-in AI models. Another is speech recognition and translation; out-of-the-box you can enable real-time transcription and translation and Windows will display captions to help you follow any spoken content - no matter the app, no matter the communications platform, because it's coming from the hardware itself. Also, as mentioned above, you can turn on visual effects to improve your camera presence, including tracking your head as you move about.

These are impressive features to see, and Microsoft has imbued its laptop with lots of smarts. Unfortunately, not all the models are as easily accessible. For example, one AI model is text generation, akin to ChatGPT, but again, built-into the silicon with no credits, no cloud service, no subscription required. Yet, there isn't an equivalent Windows app or setting that iTWire could find to leverage this. iTWire also searched for developer documentation and open-source code to use more of the Copilot+ in-built AI models, but disappointingly, information is seemingly scarce. iTWire has asked Microsoft for more information and will include it here when provided.

One controversial AI feature - Windows Recall - is being reworked by Microsoft. This feature promises to help people recall (hence the name) things they have worked on, or viewed, while using their computer. For instance, you may think "what was that cat video again?" and with a simple natural language search, Windows will show you screenshots of all kinds of cat-related activities. You may have watched something on YouTube, or perhaps saw a funny cat GIF on an email chain or in a Teams or Slack message. Whatever the case, Windows can help you find it in ways never before available. Previously, your best hope for finding past content was searching for files by filename or size or date, and then hoping beyond hope you can remember if a message was in email, Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, or whatever other messaging apps you have. With Windows Recall it doesn't matter what website you were on, what app you used, whether the content was photo, video, or text - simply ask Windows Recall, and it will deliver. This is a useful feature. Of course, some rightly have concerns over their privacy. To this end, Microsoft notes the Recall feature will be opt-in, and is device-only; nothing is uploaded to Microsoft or elsewhere. Even so, to ensure the greatest security and protection, Microsoft has removed Windows Recall from the Surface laptop initial feature set for a future release date.

It's time now for me to, sadly, erase the loan Surface laptop and reset it, box it up, and return it to Microsoft. However, the big question is can I really see this machine as my daily driver? The answer is a resounding yes; it's been a magnificent laptop to use - fast, light, quiet, powerful, fully-featured - that truly makes Windows 11 sing.

With a starting price of $1,899 for 16GB/512GB it's good value, and has a lot of longevity. Plus, with the NPU and AI models it will only become smarter and smarter as more apps take advantage of its on-board capabilities too.