As a tech enthusiast, Alvin started a personal tech blog in 2018 and began his professional writing career a year later, in 2019, when he worked as a contributor for Kenyan-based TechTrendsKE and Tech Arena, writing news, features, how-to guides, and reviews in the consumer tech space.
If you're looking for a Windows laptop, Microsoft's Surface series has been around for over 10 years. Today, the company offersthree different-sized Surface Laptops, starting with the 13-inch model launched in 2025 and including the 13.
8-inch and 15-inch variants of 2024. Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series processors, Microsoft's current Surface lineup can be a great choice if you're looking for a laptop that's not only high-performance but also offers battery life as long-lasting as Apple's M-series MacBooks. The Surface Laptop is thin and light, perfect if you work on the go. Despite all its best features, the Surface Laptop is certainly not for everyone. One of its major downsides is the price. The entry-level 13-inch model launched with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $899 for the base 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. The 13.8-inch model with the same specs costs $999. If you want a similar device to get your work done but don't have at least the$749.99 Microsoft is asking today for a Surface Laptop, you should consider alternatives. To save you from the paradox of choice, we've scoured the web to find cheaper alternatives to the Surface Laptop that will give you good performance, great battery life, and, if possible, theif you want to jump on the AI bandwagon. We used the price of $749 as a guide, which is the current retail price of the cheapest Surface Laptop we could find. If you need more details about our selection, read our full methodology at the end of the article.Like the Microsoft Surface, Acer's Aspire 16 AI is a thin and lightweight laptop that weighs 3.4 pounds. That's a few pounds off the 3.67 pounds of the high-end 15-inch Surface Laptop. Another similarity is the AI smarts, with the Acer 16 AI also boasting the Copilot+ PC badge. That means it promises all-day battery life, a chip ready for complex AI tasks, and access to a variety of AI-related features on Windows. It's also powered by a Qualcomm chip, although it's the entry-level Snapdragon X instead of the slightly more powerful X Plus and X Elite on the Surface Laptop. The Aspire 16 AI Snapdragon chip is paired with 16GB of memory and a 512GB solid-state drive. The laptop has a leg up over the Surface on screen size, as it comes with a 16-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. Its touch screen comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling with less lag and motion blur. While the 16-inch display might be viewed as a drawback for those looking for a compact laptop, the Acer Aspire 16 AI is still highly portable despite having a large screen. The narrow bezel on the front houses a 1440p webcam, which offers better image quality than 720p cameras of most budget laptops and than the 1080p webcam on the Surface. The Acer Aspire 16 AI has four USB ports: two USB-C ports with USB4 capabilities and two standard USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. It also features an HDMI 2.1 port, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. For wireless connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. You can buy theThe Zenbook A14 is another cheap alternative to the Surface Laptop. Under the hood, the hardware is almost the same as the Surface. For example, an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor powers it, the same one on the 13-inch Surface, which means you won't compromise on performance. It also comes with 16GB of memory and a 512GB or 1TB SSD. Although the MSRP of the 1TB SSD model is similar to that of the entry-level Surface Laptop, it offers four times more storage. The Zenbook A14 features a 14-inch screen with a 60 Hz refresh rate and 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution. And what the A14 lacks in touch screen capability more than makes up for it with the use of a superior OLED panel. When it comes to portability, it weighs 2.4 pounds, less than the lightest Surface Laptop. If you want to take advantage of Windows 11 AI features to enhance productivity in your workflow, the Zenbook A14 is AI-ready like othertested the laptop and got nearly 28 hours of screen time, which is impressive. The laptop includes a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB-C ports with USB4 data transfer speeds, a single HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack. Asus also includes a 65 W power adapter out of the box, while Microsoft only offers a 39 W adapter on the 15-inch model. Unlike the Surface's starting price of $899, theApple's MacBook lineup of laptops typically costs more than its Windows counterparts, so you'd think your only options under $745 are Windows laptops. Well, the 13.3-inch MacBook Air proves otherwise. While this isn't the latest MacBook Air model, it's the cheapest path into Apple's ecosystem. It was unveiled over five years ago, so it's not part ofIt features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit IPS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. Apple's first-generation M1 chip with an 8-core CPU can be paired with either 8GB or 16GB of memory, while storage is configurable up to 2TB. Performance-wise, the MacBook Air has excellent battery life and impressed reviewers at launch. As expected of an Apple laptop, this model runs Apple's macOS software. Although many years have passed since it first hit the shelves, theThe MacBook Air is quite portable as well, weighing 2.8 pounds. Its 720p camera is one of its weak points, as it might not offer the best quality for your online meetings compared to the 1080p one on the Surface. The Air is also limited in ports offered, as it comes with two Thunderbolt ports with USB-C interface and one headphone jack. TheThere's a lot to be excited about with the HP OmniBook 5. While it comes in 14-inch or 16-inch traditional clamshell or 2-in-1 form factors, the small-sized clamshell model offers great value compared to the Surface Laptop, and HP still manages to sell it for cheaper. Like the Surface, it's also powered by the Snapdragon X Plus, although variants with Intel and AMD chips are available. It's paired with 32GB of memory, more than any other modern laptop we could find at its price, and a 1TB SSD. That combo alone makes the OmniBook 5 worth picking over the Surface. The 14-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels uses an OLED panel, which delivers vivid colors, high contrast, and deeper blacks, suitable for color-sensitive work like graphic design. As a Copilot+ PC, expect excellent battery life from the OmniBook 5 – HP promises up to 34 hours, 11 hours more than Microsoft's battery life estimates of its Surface lineup. It supports fast charging, and HP includes a 65 W power adapter out of the box. At 2.84 pounds, the OmniBook 5's weight falls between the 13-inch and 13.8-inch Surface models, so it's just as portable. For connecting external devices or charging the OmniBook 5, you get almost the same ports as on the Surface: two USB-C ports, a USB-A port, and a headphone jack. The webcam uses a 1080p lens, and HP includes a camera privacy shutter. Theis available on HP's website at a discounted price of $679.99. If you miss out on the HP deal, you can find theIf you prefer the 2-in-1 form factor over the traditional clamshell, the HP OmniBook X Flip is a great option. This model features a 16-inch, 1920 x 1200 pixels touch screen, larger than the high-end 15-inch Surface. This contributes to the OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 weighing 4.18 pounds, slightly more than the heaviest 3.67-pound 15-inch Surface. Under the hood, AMD's Ryzen AI 5 340 processor and a Radeon 840M GPU power the OmniBook X Flip. These chips work in tandem with 16GB of RAM, and you get a 512GB NVMe SSD you can replace with 1TB or 2TB options if you're willing to spend more. It comes with a 68 Wh battery, and HP promises up to 21 hours of battery life. Fast charging is supported via USB-C, and HP includes a 65 W power adapter with the device. This laptop has six ports: a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, a normal USB-C port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack. It includes a 5 MP webcam for online meetings and, like the aforementioned 14-inch HP OmniBook 5, has a privacy shutter for when you don't need the camera.and 16GB memory going for $679, which is still cheaper than the base Surface Laptop. Both options also include a 128GB external SSD, which further sweetens the deal.The guiding principle in our selection was pricing. To determine what's cheaper than the Surface Laptop, we first considered the current retail price of the base 13-inch model, which is $749 from Microsoft, down from its $899 MSRP. Once we had a price to work with, we searched online for models that are cheaper than $745 but offer almost the same value proposition in terms of battery life, performance, and portability. In our search, we only considered the lowest price we could find for laptops in online marketplaces like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The prices we found for most models on this list were less than the Surface MSRP. Since prices are dynamic, you might find a laptop selling for less or more than what we've indicated. Although we focused our search on Windows laptops, we made an exception for the 2020 MacBook Air since we found like-new models being sold at the time of writing.
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