KEY POINTS

  • Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 is rumored to arrive in the Spring of 2021
  • A new leak reveals the specs of the Surface Laptop 4's AMD variant
  • Microsoft has not yet confirmed that the Surface Laptop 4 is in development

There is a chance that the long-awaited Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 would house an outdated AMD processor, according to the latest leak.

A leaked benchmark listing appears to confirm that the next-generation Microsoft Laptop will run on an older AMD Ryzen 7 4000-series processor instead of the previously rumored AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU. The UserBenchmark listing, spotted by Twitter user TUM_APISAK, shows a Surface machine powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8 cores 16 threads processor.

Microsoft says a state-sponsored hacking group operating out of China is exploiting  security flaws in its Exchange email services to steal data from business users
Microsoft says a state-sponsored hacking group operating out of China is exploiting security flaws in its Exchange email services to steal data from business users AFP / Jason Redmond

The new AMD Radeon 5000 series processors promise to deliver 3.4 to 4.9GHz clock speeds. And the listings very much suggest that the processor is an older generation one, which disappoints a lot of avid fans. However, previous rumors suggested that the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 would have a custom-made chip from AMD.

It was also earlier suggested that the Intel variant of the Surface Laptop 4 would feature the Tiger Lake-U CPU. If this is accurate, Microsoft had a strange choice of allowing the AMD variant of its new generation laptop to run on an older AMD processor while the Intel variant has a much newer chip. These recent benchmark listings seemingly align with another benchmark listing in 2020.

The leak suggested that the Surface Laptop 4 could offer a couple of variants—one housing the AMD Ryzen 4000 CPU while the other featuring the Intel Tiger Lake-U chip. The leak was later supported by another benchmark earlier this year. This time, it showed a custom AMD chip and an 11th generation Intel Core i5 CPU.

Other leaks suggesting that the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 would feature an older AMD Ryzen CPU surfaced this month, courtesy of WinFuture. According to the report, rumors point that the AMD variant of the laptop might house Ryzen 5 4680U and Ryzen 7 4980U CPUs. For the Intel variant, the report noted that the laptop could house Intel Core 11th Generation i5-1145G7 or i7-1185G7.

It is worth noting that these details are not official and like other leaked information, this one should be taken with a pinch of salt. As of press time, Microsoft has not acknowledged that the Surface Laptop 4 is in the works. However, according to rumors, the said device might be released sometime in the Spring of 2021.