Surface Laptop 4 launch is imminent — what to expect

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By Phillip Tracy
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AMD and Intel CPUs could arrive on the next Surface Laptop

Surface Laptop 3
(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

Microsoft published a teaser video today, hinting at the imminent arrival of a Surface Laptop 4. Posted to Twitter, the video is captioned with "There’s more to come… stay tuned" and begins with a clip of a Surface Laptop. 

It is hard to tell if this is the Surface Laptop 3 or an upcoming Surface Laptop 4 (Microsoft rarely updates its design). If you look closely at the 1:09 mark, you'll see the Surface Laptop in a light-blue color, a hue not available on current models.

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The clip doesn't give us any information about upcoming products, other than implying they're arriving soon. If this is the Surface Laptop 4, as many have predicted, we expect it to be a refresh rather than a overhaul. 

Based on the most reliable rumors we've heard so far, the Surface Laptop 4 will have the same chassis, keyboard and trackpad layout, display resolution and, bezel size. So what is changing? If Microsoft sticks with AMD then expect either Ryzen 4000-series or 5000-series processors. We're hoping it's the latter although the previous chips delivered strong performance and excellent battery life.

If we take the latest rumors from WinFuture as truth, the Surface Laptop 4 will be available in 13.5-inch and 15-inch versions and use AMD Ryzen 4000 chips as well as (rather than instead of) 11th Gen Intel CPUs. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft markets these configurations if both CPUs options are made available to consumers instead of one being made only "For Business." 

The same source posted what are supposedly the specs for the Surface Laptop 4. Those include options for a Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, or AMD Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips. RAM is upgradable to 32GB on the 15-inch model and 8GB on the smaller version while the 13.5-inch laptop gets up to a 512GB SSD and the larger one doubles the storage. 

Again, this info is based on leaks, so do take it with a grain of salt. As for what else is coming down the pipeline, we don't expect Microsoft to release a Surface Pro 8 just yet, not after recently launching the Surface Pro 7+, a business version of the detachable tablet. 

Phillip Tracy
Phillip Tracy

Phillip Tracy is the assistant managing editor at Laptop Mag where he reviews laptops, phones and other gadgets while covering the latest industry news. After graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Phillip became a tech reporter at the Daily Dot. There, he wrote reviews for a range of gadgets and covered everything from social media trends to cybersecurity. Prior to that, he wrote for RCR Wireless News covering 5G and IoT. When he's not tinkering with devices, you can find Phillip playing video games, reading, traveling or watching soccer.