So, as an everyday laptop that would be of interest to typical college students, I think a good comparison would be the Surface Laptop 2 $999 (i5 8th gen, 8GB, 128GB SSD) and the 2018 MacBook Air $1,199 (i5 8th gen Y, 8GB, 128GB SSD). I picked the typical college student because they are a good demographic of folks that need a reliable everyday computer at a fair price. I used the retail prices because there are always special deals at big box stores, so trying to compare sale prices would be complicated. For example, B&H had the MBA on sale for $999 during the holidays, but I am sure the Surface laptop 2 was also on sale.....so, let's just look at MSRP to keep it simple.
Anyway, I can see the pros and cons of either device. Normally, I would go with the MBA because I am comfortable with MacOS and I am invested in the Apple ecosystem. If I was a Windows user, I would probably stick with the Surface Laptop 2. Frankly, $200 price difference over 5-6 years of ownership would not be a factor in my decision. What would be a factor is reliability. If I thought one of these devices had serious reliability issues, that would be a show stopper. Unfortunately, I am beginning to think that this butterfly keyboard failure issue is the achilles heel of Apple laptops......it might just do them in.
This fall our youngest is going to University and he needs a new computer. In the past, we bought MBA for our college kids because they are reliable as hell. But, I just can't see sending him with a keyboard that would likely fail at a critical time........papers, online testing, notes, whatever. Apple has to fix this or they can just forget about the laptop market.
Now, I don't know a damn think about Surface Laptops, so please enlighten me if there are serious reliability issues with these devices. I honestly want to know.
Advantages 2018 MBA: 1.) Battery Life, 2.) Track Pad, 3.) MacOS, 4.) USBC-T3 Ports
Advantages Surface Laptop2: 1.) Faster Processor, 2.) Keyboard, 3.) Touch Screen, 4.) Price
Did I missing anything?
Yes, college students are a fair usage case. Much the same needs as a small business owner or most other general users. My son and I are those people, respectively. Neither of us know too much about our devices, but we get along fine using them daily.
I had sent him off to college with my last MBP. I detailed this story a little further, a few months ago in the Alternatives to Mac subforum here. In the end, he ended up needing a Windows Machine as he got further in to his field of study, due some specific software needs (forestry degree). So I traded him my (fairly new) Surface Pro for the old 2015 MBP that we have both got quite a few miles out of. That was a few months ago. Neither of us care much about which OS we're using, and he has had no problems with the SP5 to date. (honor roll student, FWIW)
The older MBP was heavier and bulkier than I desired for my current uses, (though it ran like a top), which left me deciding between the two newer machines you accurately compared above. The prices were right for me, and I have had great experiences with the older MBAs. The new MBAs were right on time, along with the new SL2 too.
Reviews were mixed, everywhere I could find them. Lots of fearmongering over the keboards, T2chip crashes, and lack of brightness on the MBA2 display. And conversely, while there wasn't much negative being said about the MS SL2, there wasn't much of ANYTHING being said about the SL2 at all. It certainly hasn't won any popularity contests. Little good press, but almost zero bad press either.
The Best Buy SL2 sale at the time included a 256 SSD for the $999 price, rather than the current 128 SSD. That size wasn't important to me, but it was still an incentive for resale value if things didn't work out.
In the end, the idea of doing the guinea pig thing for Apple with regards to the keyboard and T2 chip, wasn't an inspiration. So I chose the SL2.
So far, I've been 100% satisfied with the choice, except for the trackpad. It works okay, but not nearly as well as Apple laptop trackpads do.
2 glitches in as many months; The Windows Hello feature has stopped working twice, requiring me to enter my 4 digit pin to log in. Twice in hundreds of logins isn't much, but it is still odd. Rebooting fixes the problem.
All else has been smooth and trouble free.
That said, the MBA2 pre-troubles also seem to be overly exaggerated today. In hindsight, I likely would have been just as happy with it, albeit with a slightly lighter wallet.
Overall, I'd still buy the SL2 again. Great portable personal computer. I find myself using it more often than any laptop I've owned, (rather than waiting to use a desktop, or using a smartphone for similar tasks). The last question for me is longevity, which is a long ways from being determined yet. So far, it has been a peach.
you could still do all these things
