• 2 min read
Surface Laptop’s 8GB RAM struggles at $950
The $950 Surface Laptop’s 8GB RAM configuration can freeze during everyday Windows 11 multitasking, testing by The Verge found.
Image: ITzine
Microsoft’s new 13-inch Surface Laptop comes with just 8GB of RAM in its base configuration, and testing by The Verge suggests that is no longer enough for comfortable Windows 11 use. The Snapdragon X Plus laptop regularly paused during ordinary tasks, despite not running demanding applications.
The problem is particularly noticeable at the $950 price point, where competing laptops more often include 16GB of memory. Immediately after startup, Windows used 4.2GB of RAM. Under a typical workload, usage reached roughly 6.7GB of the 7.6GB available, after which the interface could freeze for several seconds.
The slowdowns appeared while the testers were on a Teams call, editing documents in Google Docs, and running around 10 Chrome tabs alongside Slack and Signal. For a $950 laptop, that is more than a minor inconvenience.
Windows 11 is considerably heavier than older office-focused systems, while 16GB has become the standard expectation for mid-range devices. The 8GB configuration therefore looks more like an attempt to contain the price—especially as memory costs rise—than a well-balanced choice.
The Verge still praised the Surface Laptop’s build quality, keyboard, trackpad, and battery life. But for everyday work that involves switching between a browser, messaging apps, and video calls, memory capacity is now its clearest weakness. Apple and several Windows laptop makers already offer 16GB versions in the same price range, making smooth multitasking part of the comparison.
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Ilya Ignatov is a technical journalist and news writer. He graduated from MTUCI with a degree in information security and has covered hardware, software, and consumer electronics since 2018.
Computing Editor
Tomas lives in the terminal. He covers chips, laptops, and operating systems with a focus on performance and efficiency. He reads kernel changelogs the way other people read fiction, and he's always on the hunt for the perfect mechanical keyboard switch. If it processes data, Tomas has an opinion on it.
via ITzine
