MacBook Air Crushes Surface Laptop in Performance Test
A recent test conducted by PhoneBuff found that Apple's MacBook Air can open Microsoft Word 2x faster than Microsoft's own Surface Laptop 8. The MacBook Air, equipped with a 16GB RAM and the latest-generation M5 system-on-a-chip, launched a 500-page Microsoft Word document in just 7 seconds, while the Surface Laptop 8 took 12 seconds to do the same.
These test results are particularly surprising given that the Surface Laptop 8 is more expensive than the MacBook Air, with a starting price of £1,449 compared to the MacBook Air's £1,299. However, it seems that Microsoft's own operating system, Windows 11, may be the culprit behind the slower performance.
PhoneBuff found that Windows 11 machines using WebView2, a component built into Windows since 2021, were consuming up to 70% of their RAM while idle. This inefficiency is not unique to Microsoft's laptops, as similar tests showed identical five-second penalties across different processors from rival brands and architectures.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and has announced plans to overhaul how Windows manages memory system-wide, shift components from WebView2 to the WinUI 3 framework, and improve Chromium's efficiency where possible. The company expects to roll out these improvements this autumn.