Microsoft Says New Surface Pro is Faster Than 15" M3 MacBook Air

[MacRumors]

Microsoft is going all in on AI, today introducing a series of Copilot+ PCs that have AI-focused hardware. The new Surface Pro is one of the first Copilot+ PCs, equipped with Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite processor.

Microsoft is already pitting the Surface Pro against Apple's M3 MacBook Air, and in marketing materials, claims that the Surface Pro has superior processing power and battery life. Compared to the 15-inch MacBook Air with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, the Surface Pro and other Copilot+ PCs with 12-core and 10-core processors offer 58 percent better sustained multithreaded performance (based on Cinebench benchmarks).

As for battery life, Copilot+ PCs support up to 15 hours of web browsing or 22 hours of local video playback. The MacBook Air models offer the same 15 hours of wireless web browsing, but only 18 hours of local video playback.

According to The Verge, Microsoft's demonstrations for media included several comparisons of the Surface Pro compared to the MacBook Air, and the Surface Pro came out on top in many of them. Windows PCs have struggled to keep up with Apple silicon in recent years, but it appears that Qualcomm's technology is catching up.

The Surface Pro is a 2-in-1 laptop that runs Windows, and it has an OLED display, much like Apple's newly launched iPad Pro models. It weighs under two pounds, supports Wi-Fi 7, and has advanced AI capabilities enabled by the neural processing unit.

Pricing on the Surface Pro starts at $1,000, but the version with OLED display and Snapdragon X Elite chip, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD is priced starting at $1,500. Microsoft today also introduced the Surface Laptop with the same Snapdragon X Elite chip, with pricing that starts at $1,299.

The Surface devices will arrive to customers starting on June 18.

Article Link: Microsoft Says New Surface Pro is Faster Than 15" M3 MacBook Air

 

[brofkand]

Just like in the 90's, Apple was 5 years ahead and then spent the next 5 years chasing failed projects like Apple TV+, Apple Vision Pro, etc., and let the competition catch up. History repeats itself.

 

[AAPLbuyback]

*Faster at heating up.

 

[icanhazmac]

LOL at the "AI" part but I am happy for the ARM competition. Might even get us closer to getting bootcamp back, or something similar.

 

[rafark]

Always copying Apple

 

[jz0309]

well, competition is a good thing, but the "average" customer doesn't care about cinebencz benchmarks.
More interesting, they either sell online, or like at Best Buy right next to any x86 Windows computer, so that will be their main "competition"... and it's running WinARM, so no x86 compatibility, which might not matter to non-enterprise users

 

[User 6502]

Sadly Apple wasted their opportunity by releasing the same processor four times in a row and spent their research budget on failed projects.

 

[Smittywerben]

Trust me bro.

 

[ZipZilla]

That's exactly what happened. Nonsense like the Apple Car and new emojis

 

[jclardy]

Honestly I hope it is true to finally light a fire under Apple and the stagnant iPad platform. Hardware is incredible, but software is just so limiting.

 

[C-Dubs]

lol that Microsoft really thinks I’m buying Mac because the hardware.

 

[bg4uei2]

Snapdragon X Elite is slower than M3 in both single-core CPU and GPU. It also has worse thermal performance according to this PDF.

https://signal65.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/NewSurfaceLaptop2024_Signal65LabInsights.pdf

 

[Justin Cymbal]

This is why competition is the best thing for consumers

 

[munpip214]

Wow. A 12 core processor is 50% higher multithreaded performance than 8 core. Who would have thought. Bet that’s not iso power though

 

[Loi84]

Sadly Apple wasted their opportunity by releasing the same processor four times in a row and spent their research budget on failed projects.

Yeah, Apple should only put its money in exactly one area (like its Macs) and not pursue any other research targets. Because that's what turned the 90s Apple into a trillion dollar company.

 

[jdoyle]

It's silly of Apple to restart the whole speed comparison marketing approach. They should be pushing the experience of Mac OS not who has the best benchmarks. These new computers are so fast now for most needs that it becomes meaningless. Even Apples M1 is still good enough for most people. IF you are a gamer or a 3D artist then maybe benchmarks are important to you. I have an M2 MacBook Air 15inch and came from a 2015 iMac. Everything launches instantly. I feel no lag doing all the tasks I do day in day out ( O365, Adobe Creative Suite ) and I cannot make a dent in my battery life. If I had an M3, M4 etc I don't know if I would notice the difference.

 

[Zc456]

Hardware certainly looks great. But the software? Hard pass.

 

[pdoherty]

Always copying Apple

Funny because Jobs and Wozniak stole their original Mac ideas and the concept of a mouse from Xerox...

 

[iAppleOrchard]

If this turns out to be true, it is time for Apple to stop sleeping on the couch and compete.

Apple Silicon's heyday is over, Apple needs to start innovating again instead of doing minor spec bumps.

Yes, I will still buy a Mac and many others will too because of the software, but for those who need hardware, it might be a good buy for them.

 

[pdoherty]

Honestly I hope it is true to finally light a fire under Apple and the stagnant iPad platform. Hardware is incredible, but software is just so limiting.

The hardware may not even be all that incredible if the processor in these Sureface Pros are already faster.

 

[bg4uei2]

The Oryon CPU core in unimpressive, it doesn't beat the M3 in single-core so they had to stack together 12 cores to claim "faster than M3" in multi-core. It also doesn't do well in thermals, worse performance with more heat. The GPU is also outdated, no ray-tracing support.

 

[bradman83]

LOL at the "AI" part but I am happy for the ARM competition. Might even get us closer to getting bootcamp back, or something similar.

I don't know that BootCamp will ever return given how Apple has locked down the M-series bootloader but better support for Windows on ARM to run in Parallels or similar is definitely appreciated.

 

[DribbleCastle]

If this turns out to be true, it is time for Apple to stop sleeping on the couch and compete.

Apple Silicon's heyday is over, Apple needs to start innovating again instead of doing minor spec bumps.

Yes, I will still buy a Mac and many others will too because of the software, but for those who need hardware, it might be a good buy for them.

Well, good thing they have a couch in Taiwan at TSMC headquarters.

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[Rogifan]

A 15” HDR2 touch screen Surface laptop with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 22 hours battery life is $1299. A 13” OLED iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 10 hours battery life is $1,648. I think Apple may be seriously challenged here. Especially iPad.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1792618386330898866

 

[chrono1081]

Funny because Jobs and Wozniak stole their original Mac ideas and the concept of a mouse from Xerox...

This isn't true. The mouse existed before Xerox, it was created at SRI. Also as far as Apple and Xerox go Apple was allowed to "take what they wanted" in exchange for massive mounts of shares which they did.