Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 vs. 2022 Apple MacBook Air: Which 13-Inch Laptop Comes Out on Top?

pcmag.com:

While the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 may not sound as exciting as the updated Microsoft Surface Pro 9 or the long-awaited upgrade to the Surface Studio 2+ desktop, the new Surface Laptop is worth digging into a bit more for two reasons.

First, while dozens of laptops on the market are built around Microsoft Windows, this family is the only set of machines made 100% by Microsoft. The Surface Laptop line is essentially Microsoft's platonic ideal of a laptop, offering the functions and features that Microsoft believes to be most important, in a design crafted to bring out the best in the operating system.

It's similar, in many ways, to the Apple MacBook Air, which has become the flagship Apple laptop (and a benchmark for high-end Windows laptops), showcasing Apple's latest M2 processor and delivering superb capabilities and performance.

But which one is better? Comparing the fresh Surface Laptop 5 against the 2022 M2 version of the Apple MacBook Air on several key categories, we'll help you decide not only which might be better, but which is the right pick for you.

The Surface Laptop 5 comes in two different sizes, the 13.5-inch model considered here, and a larger 15-inch version with a bigger screen. Both have touch screens, and both use a standard laptop design (as opposed to a 2-in-1 convertible one).

The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 5 starts at $999, with an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. The laptop uses integrated Iris Xe Graphics, with no option for a discrete GPU.

Higher configurations are offered, with the choice of an Intel Core i7-1255U processor, up to 32GB of memory, and as much as 1TB of storage. Design options include both bare-metal and fabric-covered lid designs, and the