A top-tier Microsoft Surface Laptop from the 2024 roster just received a significant price reduction ahead of Black Friday, bringing the premium Windows machine with Copilot down to an especially cheap $749. That’s a $450 discount from its $1,199 list price, an inexpensive option compared to many midrange configurations and with the kind of features power users actually notice.
Why this Surface Laptop Black Friday deal stands out
Big laptop deals are easy to come by this week, but a 38% discount on a current-generation Surface is not. Computers are a bit like cars, meaning they go on some of their best discounts of the holiday season at around 30% off — so this is pretty aggressive for a premium ultralight with modern AI capabilities.
Value is broader than a headline percentage. And that memory: This is the 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD configuration — a number of specs that will keep creators, students and professionals breathing easy without a worry about needing to upgrade storage yet.
Specs that matter for real-world use and everyday work
There’s a 13.8-inch touchscreen which seems to me like a good size for when you want some portability and still want the screen space to get work done. At approximately 3 pounds it’s light enough to throw in a backpack without feeling flimsy, due to a solid aluminum chassis that comes with four different finishes: black, sapphire, dune and silver.
Battery life is a standout. Microsoft’s own testing puts it at up to 20 hours under ideal conditions, which in practice means a day of office work or lectures plus some evening streaming. Mileage varies with screen brightness and workloads, but stamina is one additional area where this system shines against many of the Intel-based thin-and-lights that have rolled through in recent years.
The touchscreen is wonderful for unobtrusive annotation of PDFs, whiteboarding in OneNote and getting around cramped-up documents. With 16GB of RAM, you can have dozens of tabs open in your browser and jump between apps without experiencing the molasses that dogs 8GB machines.
AI smarts with Copilot on Windows: what to expect now
Copilot is a part of Windows itself, providing quick assistance in brainstorming outlines and drafting email messages or summarizing documents. For content creators and students, that translates into less time going back and forth between apps or scouring notes for points.
On its existing Surface models, Microsoft also enables on-device improvements such as Studio Effects for video calls and live translation of captions that can produce English translations from dozens of languages. The practical upside: clearer meetings, easier-to-hear videos and productivity boosts without additional subscriptions.
It’s important to note that Microsoft is still building AI features. Some marquee tools only trickle out, and policies around privacy-forward features are a work in progress — a typical pace for platform-level AI, as industry analysts at IDC and Gartner have noted while tracking the ascent of so-called “AI PCs.”
Who this Surface Laptop is best for and why
If you have a 4- to 5-year-old laptop, which is the average replacement cycle that Gartner cited in my interview, battery life will be noticeably improved, and everything else will run more smoothly.
This Surface spec is perfect for students, hybrid workers and travelers seeking longevity more than raw gaming muscle or a premium build.
Light creative work is well-suited: photo edits, short video clips and design mockups are all comfortable here. For heavy video projects or 3D rendering, you are going to want a machine with discrete graphics, but for the vast majority of productivity-first workflows this Surface feels snappy and smooth.
Buying checklist to review before you click purchase
Check the product listing for model year and storage to ascertain that you are indeed getting a 2024 configuration with 16GB/512GB. (See the retailer’s return windows and consider whether extended coverage makes sense for you; Consumer Reports tends to advise self-insuring unless you anticipate heavy wear.)
If you intend to run local AI workloads or perhaps a large creative library, 512GB would be the sane minimum. For cloud-first users, it’s plenty. And coming from an 8GB, 256GB laptop, the headroom upgrade will be immediately discernible.
Bottom line: If you’re in the market for a shiny new Surface with a 13.8-inch touchscreen, an aluminum build that can weather being thrown around and up to 16GB of RAM as well as all-day battery life, this new one is right up there among my early Black Friday standouts. If that’s your workflow, waiting longer isn’t going to get you a much better price-to-spec ratio, likely.