The keyboard can be remapped with Microsoft’s PowerToys.

Caption color and size can be customized and appear close to the bottom of the screen.

Standard Dark Mode and custom colors are also available under Personalization. Contrast themes are toggled with Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen.

Color Filters, including inverted, grayscale, red-green, and blue-yellow can be toggled with Windows + Ctrl + C.

Windows 11 supports voice typing (accessed by Windows + H) and speech recognition (toggled with Windows + Ctrl + S).

A full list of compatible software can be found on Microsoft’s website. It supports third-party screen readers, including NVDA from NV Access and Jaws from Freedom Scientific.

Windows 11 includes a built-in screen reader (Narrator).

Windows 11 includes a dedicated accessibility menu.

But I could feel my fingers thunking on the Laptop 5 in a way they don’t on the Surface Book, and I wish there were more travel here. That’s one of my favorite things about the Surface Book keyboard, which remains one of my favorite keyboards on the market to this day. Surface keys have a very identifiable snap. I wish there were more - at least an SD slot. That, for the record, is not very many ports. The Laptop 5 finally brings that standard to the sole USB-C port it has, along with a USB-A and a headphone jack on the left side. One of the Laptop 4’s pain points was the lack of Thunderbolt, even on Intel models. But, you know, epistemic humility and all that. I was sent the sage option to review, and I will say that calling it green is a… stretch. The sage model, limited to the 13.5-inch size, is new this year, and it’s supposed to be green. Shrinking the bezels seemed like a no-brainer tweak to refresh the design in a modern way and bring the laptop closer to premium competitors. I wouldn’t say that this interferes hugely with the user experience, but I will concede that, as with last year’s model, they are… blocky. It’s quite light at 2.86 pounds, and holding it feels very much like holding a MacBook Air.

The familiar Windows logo adorns the lid, and the finish is professional. I did catch some glare when there was direct light on the glossy display, but it wasn’t stark enough to be a problem. The 13-inch display is quite sharp and more than bright enough for home use. Both panels support Dolby Vision IQ (which is supposed to help optimize HDR content). Screen size is the main difference processors and other internal components are mostly the same. As in past years, Microsoft is selling a 13.5-inch 2256 x 1504 model and a 15-inch 2496 x 1664 model.

Surface laptop 4 13.5