Love my Surface Laptop 4 AMD edition

I bought a Surface laptop 4 AMD edition base model on ebay for under $650 and it has been one of the best windows Laptops I have ever owned. It is not perfect and I would love to see several changes in the Laptop 5 but for now this thing is great. If you make a bootable recovery drive you can choose windows 11 which I did. One of the things I really like about surface devices is the ability to get a downloadable image to restore the device from factory original settings and since my laptop came with Windows 10 I much prefer being able to install a clean image of windows 11 instead of upgrading.  I like the fact I can upgrade the SSD myself which I will do when the warranty expires. 

I also wish the AMD platinum edition came in an all aluminum build instead of the altancara. I kind of hate the alcantara because it adds a lot of flex to an otherwise super solid device. I do like the fact I don't have to worry about scratching the aluminum deck but I would rather have aluminum. The next Surface laptop I get will probably be a larger device than the 13.5" that I have now. 

The size and weight of this device are really nice. I use it a lot because it is so light. However even with only 8gb ram the Ryzen 4th gen processor really is fast. It would be nice to have 6th gen Ryzen in the next edition and cheaper ram upgrades. The speakers and sound even though I can't see them are great and because there are no speaker grills there is no dust to clean. The screen for an LCD panel is just about perfect BUT and this is a big BUT not having an anti-reflective coating and huge bezels in 2022 is what made me only buy the base model. If they would invest in making the screen slightly larger and the bezels slimmer, put a good AR coating with a scratch resistant glass like gorilla glass or panda glass it would be perfect. I would pay the big money if it had an up to date processor and better screen tech. 

I love the large glass track pad but again the alcantara flexible surface means that in my lapt sometimes the trackpad is pushed by the flexible surface making clicks not register. Usually this happens when I have the laptop against my stomach on my lap or if I am pressing down on the deck too much. It is really annoying and if it had the solid aluminum deck it wouldn't happen. 

The other area is battery life. These laptops need a bigger battery. I know it will add weight and bulk but I think they could increase by 20% or so without too much of a penalty and with newer processors should increase battery life significantly. 

Overall though for what I paid there really isn't a better laptop around. At full price I don't know. 

The other thing I really like is driver support from Microsoft. When you get any other OEM brand you get their driver updates which usually stop after a year or so depending on the cost and make. With MS devices they do all the updates and they optimize the build of windows better than any other OEM. 

After buying other brands for years I have decided I am done with any other brand. Yes, these devices are expensive but you get a really good design and materials for the most part and good software support. For a desktop or gaming rig which I don't use anymore I might go back but consoles work for gaming and who wants to be stuck in one place anytime they want to use Windows?