We’ve been hearing a lot about Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs in recent days, and now we finally have some hard data to back up the company’s bold claims. Signal65, a benchmarking and analysis firm, put the shiny new Surface Laptop through its paces, and it absolutely smashes the MacBook Air M3.

The laptop, equipped with a snazzy Snapdragon X Elite processor, delivered some impressive results across the board. But it’s the battery life that really stands out. According to the report, the Surface Laptop lasted an astonishing over 21 hours in a local video playback test. For comparison’s sake, that’s almost twice as long as the Surface Pro 9 and more than 15% longer than the MacBook Air M3.

Signal65 also shared some cool graphics to illustrate these findings. There’s an image showing the Surface Laptop’s performance in different aspects. It’s like a visual showcase of how this laptop is outperforming its competitors.

In raw performance tests, the MacBook Air M3 held its own in single-core tasks, coming out a bit ahead in Cinebench and Geekbench by around 15%. However, when it came to multi-core performance, the Surface Laptop was a clear winner, being upwards of 30% faster than the M3. It’s like a turbocharged engine taking on a more sedate competitor.

Even more impressive, the Snapdragon X Elite was more than twice as fast as a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 chip and around 5% faster than Intel’s latest Core Ultra 7 155H. It’s like a technological powerhouse that just keeps on delivering.

You can head over to Signal65 to get the full report and dive deep into all the numbers. There are plenty of interesting comparisons to be explored. For instance, in a video encode test using Handbrake, the Snapdragon X Elite managed to beat the Apple M3 by close to 25%. It’s like a race where one machine just pulls ahead with ease.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a comprehensive review of a Copilot+ PC. The report was compiled by Ryan Shrout, a former Intel employee now with Signal65, and it was commissioned by Microsoft. Companies like Microsoft often hire third-party analysis labs to validate their performance claims. That doesn’t mean the report is inaccurate, but it does suggest that more independent reviews would give a more well-rounded perspective.

Ryan Shrout tweeted about this, saying, “In the first 24 hours since the new Surface device launch using the X Elite, and the release of our @Signal_65 report analyzing performance and battery life (you can find it here: https://t.co/Y2wlo6a3lZ), I’ve answered a lot of questions around competition with the Mac and the…” He seems excited about the findings and the potential impact on the market.

One interesting section of the report concerns emulated performance. Here, Shrout tested apps running through Microsoft’s new Prism emulation layer against laptops running the same apps natively. And guess what? The Surface Laptop didn’t always come out on top. In Blender, for example, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H was around 46% faster, while the Apple M3 was 17% faster. But on the flip side, the Snapdragon X Elite was able to match the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in Lightroom Classic, even though the Intel chip was running a native version of the app.

Prism is a crucial aspect of Copilot+ PCs, as it will be the foundation for apps like Lightroom and Blender that don’t natively run on the Snapdragon X Elite at the moment. While it’s not getting native performance, this report at least shows that Prism is doing a lot of work and that it will hopefully improve over time.

We don’t have to wait long to see more independent reviews of Copilot+ PCs. The first batch is already available for preorder, and they’ll be released on June 18. By then, we’ll know for sure if these PCs are truly as powerful as this report suggests. It’s like a countdown to a big showdown in the tech world.

Overall, this report from Signal65 provides a fascinating look at the capabilities of the Surface Laptop and its competition. It’s a glimpse into the future of computing and how these new devices are shaping up. We can’t wait to see what other reviews have to say and how the market reacts to these exciting advancements.