“Surface Laptop 5G” for businesses shows Microsoft isn’t done with Intel yet

Microsoft has gone all-in on Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X-series chips for its Surface PCs, including the less-expensive-but-more-compromised 13-inch Surface Laptop and 12-inch Surface Pro from this spring. But the company still hasn’t quite given up on businesses and individuals who still want or require a traditional Intel or AMD-based x86 PC.

The latest addition to the lineup is the “Surface Laptop 5G,” an updated version of the Intel-based 13.8-inch Surface Laptop with built-in 5G cellular connectivity. The system looks largely identical to the non-5G version, but Microsoft says it has been redesigned internally with “a dynamic antenna system” and “a custom multi-layered laminate,” which improve signal strength.

The Surface Laptop 5G uses the same Core Ultra Series 2 chips (codenamed Lunar Lake) as the PCs Microsoft released in January. These chips include respectable Intel Arc integrated GPUs, as well as neural processing units (NPUs) fast enough to qualify for Windows 11’s extra Copilot+ PC features.

Like the Surface Laptop 5G, those models are aimed primarily at businesses running software that requires a traditional x86 PC—many x86 apps work just fine under Prism, Windows 11’s x86-to-Arm app translation layer, but device drivers and custom apps may still have compatibility issues that make Arm PCs impossible to use.