Good news, folks! Microsoft has released another ad It's a bright young man explaining the benefits of buying a Surface while pointing out what comparable Apple products lack

The commercial highlights several points where the Surface Laptop 4 is "better" than the MacBook Air M1

The first point is that the MacBook Air does not have a touchscreen Yes, Apple continues to not include touch functionality on its laptops because it wants to keep tablets like the new iPad Pro 2021 separate The only reason to have a laptop with a touchscreen is if it has a snazzy folding hinge that allows the screen to lay flat or the machine to be folded and used as a tablet

It is one thing to sit at a desk and press the occasional touchscreen button, but touchscreen laptops are not practical for long-term use However, touchscreens are the ingredient that has PC makers beating Apple to the punch If you like to rotate models with your heavy arm suspended in mid-air for hours on end, a PC is for you

The Surface Laptop 4 can also play games This is something of a bold claim in itself, given that it has no discrete graphics and relies heavily on Intel's integrated processor While gaming is certainly an option, it seems logically flawed to sell this machine on this premise It can play games, but if you're looking for a AAA-class experience, you'll be disappointed Our reviewer noted that 30 fps is likely, but it trails the M1 Air and Dell XPS 13 in general benchmarks

One thing Microsoft doesn't point out is the Macbook Air's long battery life: when tested in our review of the Surface Laptop 4 and MacBook Air, it lasted just under 11 hours on the Surface Laptop 4 and about 145 hours on the Air was

And, of course, there is the old dongle argument: the Surface certainly has USB-C and USB-A ports The Air, on the other hand, has two USB-C ports, indicating a future direction Also, the Air has Thunderbolt 4, while the Surface 4 does not This means that an external GPU cannot be used

Overall, the Surface Laptop 4 is a good laptop and is on our best laptops list, right behind the MacBook Air However, we are getting tired of the constant comparisons to the Mac Microsoft, could you tell us how your laptop compares to other Windows machines, or what makes your system stand out?