The Surface Laptop 4 is Microsoft's most recent traditional laptop, without the fancy 2-in-1 abilities of the Surface Book or the tablet form factor of the Surface Pro. It's available in many different hardware configurations, but right now the Ryzen 7 version with 8GB RAM and 512GB RAM is on sale for as low as $1,289. That's a discount of $210 from the usual price.
The hardware configuration on sale is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 4980U processor (8 cores, 16 threads, clock speed up to 4.4GHz), a 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, integrated RX Vega 11 graphics, a backlit keyboard, a 15-inch 2496 x 1664 touchscreen, a 720p webcam. Even though the screen does recognize touch input, you can't fold this to turn it into a tablet — it's just a normal laptop.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4
Amazon has the Ryzen 7 version of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 4 on sale for $1,289, while Best Buy is selling it for a bit more at $1,299.99.
We reviewed the Intel Surface Laptop 4 last year with a Core i7-1185G7 CPU, and we came away impressed with its build quality and performance. However, the Surface Laptop 4 wasn't built to be upgraded at all, which might be an issue with this 8GB RAM version — that's increasingly becoming the minimum amount of memory for a comfortable PC experience. There's also only one USB Type-C port, while most other premium laptops have two or three at this point. You can charge the laptop with the proprietary Surface connector though, so the Type-C port can be reserved for accessories.
The original price of $1,499.99 for this configuration was definitely overpriced, unless you really liked Microsoft's hardware design, but this $211 discount (or $200 at Best Buy) makes the 15-inch Ryzen Surface Laptop 4 a much better deal. More memory would be nice, but everything else here is solid.
If this still isn't a good pick for you, check out our list of the best laptops. We've evaluated options fro Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, and other manufacturers to find the ones that offer the best bang for your buck.