The Developer's Laptop Dilemma - MacBook or Windows with Snapdragon Elite X

I was about to buy a new laptop and had a difficult decision to make. What the hell should I buy? I am a long-time Windows user, both privately and at work. I did all my management work and development with WSL2 on Windows. Two months ago, I switched to a MacBook for work to try it out. Now I had to make a decision for a new laptop.

Juggling Between Macs and Windows Laptops

I love the MacBook Pro M1. It has great build quality, a nice display and sound, amazing battery life, and everything works smoothly. During the two months on the M1, I found a lot of little annoyances that would make me go back to Windows. But the battery life is so great on a MacBook. Imagine working all day on your machine, having online meetings in Teams, and even having some battery left for the next morning.

As a frontend and backend developer using VSCode and Docker, I do not need a very fast machine. Enough memory is more important. I do have a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which is fast, but the battery sucks and if you do anything other than reading a page in a browser, the fans start. Doing something that requires a lot of CPU and you can’t type anymore because the laptop turns into a heater.

For my work, I used a Dell XPS 13 Plus, which has the same issues as the X1. It gets hot and loud if you start a Teams meeting. Besides that, the function keys are weird. They feel just wrong without haptic feedback. You have no idea if you pressed one. The top right power button feels like it is broken when you press it. And then there is the glass touchpad, which is announced as a highlight. I can tell you it is the opposite. After over one year of use, I still cannot get used to it, let alone find it. It is big, but there is no indication of where it is located. Without knowing it you are touching it with two hands and you are using a gesture you did not planned.

So what if I could get the advantages of a Windows machine and a MacBook together in one? I guess the first solution would be to install Windows on a MacBook. I read it is possible, but I am not convinced it will give me the experience I am looking for.

Embracing ARM: The Big Decision

Fortunately, the internet is blowing up with announcements of the Snapdragon X Elite CPU. It is ARM-based, should be reasonably fast, and has the battery life of a MacBook. It sounds too good to be true and while Windows ARM exists for years already, it never really took off to the masses because of the lack of good hardware.

I have seen quite some reviews, both written and on YouTube. They did look promising. But taking that step was huge. What if it does not live up to it? It could be a disaster. And then there are the warnings around the internet that software is not running on ARM, or best case it is emulated which is less efficient and consumes more power. On Reddit people are skeptical because so far the ARM Windows experience has not been a good one.

Looking at the site windowsonarm.org, I found out that all apps I use are already running on ARM natively. The list is pretty long actually. Reviews and some benchmarks show that the performance is pretty good, somewhere between a MacBook M3 and M4. Gaming is expected to be an issue, but I don’t play much anyway, and if I do it is mostly Factorio. Besides the battery life, another advantage should be that it is silent, as in no fans running when you do something serious. Most Intel laptops will be throttled down in performance to keep the heat under control. I know that on my X1 and XPS I need to set performance to “Best Power Efficiency” to keep it silent and cool.

I was not 100% convinced it would be the right decision, but I took it anyway. A Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 with the Snapdragon Elite X 12 Core and 32 GB it is.

Other ones I looked at were the Dell XPS 13 and a Lenovo ThinkPad with the same Snapdragon processor, but given my experience with the XPS it was a no-go. Same build, but with a Snapdragon inside. The Lenovo was disqualified because I think the quality overall feels cheaper. The Surface should have a similar build quality as a MacBook.

Hands-On with the Surface Laptop 7

Two days later the doorbell rang and I received my new laptop. My first impression after unpacking it was light, good build quality, sturdy, and nice looking.

Installing the software I need was easy. I used winget from within PowerShell, and it automatically installed all my apps in an ARM version if available. Obsidian, VSCode, Spotify, ARC browser, Docker, Teams, Outlook. WSL… all there in ARM.

After setting up the machine, configuring it, and charging it, I started playing with it. The sound is nice. Not as good as a MacBook, but better than the X1 and XPS for sure. The speakers are located behind the keyboard somewhere. Also, the microphone and camera are good, which I tested in a Teams meeting. Surprisingly the laptop kept quiet and did not heat up.

Everything feels smooth and fast enough for me. What surprised me was the really good build quality. Microsoft did a good job there. Also starting up the machine when opening the lid and logging in via facial recognition is amazingly fast. Like almost instantly. I have not seen that on any Intel-based Windows machine.

How about the architecture the apps are running on? Looking at the Task Manager details tab, it shows what is running on ARM and what is emulated on x64 and x86. There are two processes not running as ARM. MicrosoftSecurityApp.exe is running as x64, and once in a while a dllhost process is popping up on the list as an x86 architecture process. Not bad I would say.

So how about that battery life, is it really as promised? It is soon to tell, but I did charge it two days ago and I am still using it right now. The battery percentage is down to 26%. I can see that it is slowly draining, I would estimate around 7% per hour. That would give me about 14 hours of usage. During that time I did some coding in VSCode, was running Docker, surfed the web, had chats and a meeting in Teams, listened to music on Spotify, and was writing this article in Obsidian. I can live with this if the laptop lasts for at least a day. It seems to be more, but time will tell.

UPDATE: The Gaming Experience

I could not resist and tried Factorio. I have to admit it is running better than on my X1. The X1 is a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 with a 12th gen Intel i7. While I can run the game on the X1, I need to set it to the normal or best performance. The fans are kicking in on full mode and the laptop is getting hot. So hot that it is uncomfortable to touch keys on the keyboard. Nice in the winter when you have cold hands though. The CPU is around 5% and the GPU is around 90% all the time. I guess it is throttled down because of the heat.

The Surface Laptop 7 is running Factorio smoother. On the recommended power settings, the laptop stays cool and quiet with the CPU running less than 10% and the GPU around 50%. The game is running smoothly and I can play it without any issues. It does not have an ARM version yet, so it is emulated on the x64 architecture.

UPDATE: The battery life

With basic usage like browsing the web, the battery drain is about 7% per hour. Starting up Teams, the drain is about 15% per hour. The same for playing Factorio, about 15%. I have seen battery drain of 20%, but I had a lot of stuff going on at the same time.

With minimal usage like browsing the web, it will probably last around 14 hours. With a full development environment running (browser, VSCode, WSL2, Docker, DBeaver, Postman, Teams to keep an eye on messages), I’m guessing you can do about 5-6 hours of work. That is still good, I think.

TL;DR

Overall, good build quality, nice sound, good performance, and the good battery life I was hoping for. All the software I need to be productive is natively running on the ARM architecture. I’m happy so far with my new machine.

Microsoft and Qualcomm developed a good product with the Surface Laptop 7. For me, there is no need to think about a MacBook anymore. I have the best of both worlds in one machine. I can recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new laptop and is not a gamer.