Surface Laptop 13 inch
2025 May
Expanding Surface Premium Design to a Wider Audience
Broadening access to Surface quality and craftsmanship while meeting aggressive cost and scale targets.
Integrating Copilot+ AI in a Refined, Portable Form Factor
Seamlessly incorporating AI experiences without compromising portability, performance, or style. Balancing weight, thinness, and battery life while integrating AI was challenging. Every millimeter and gram had to be justified to achieve all-day performance in a refined, compact form with carefully optimized layout and structure.
Balancing Performance, Repairability, and Sustainability
Achieving long-term product value through thoughtful engineering, improved serviceability, and responsible materials.
Precision You Can Feel
Every detail—down to the tightness of assembly tolerances—shapes how a product feels in the user's hands. I pay close attention to how parts come together: the crispness of a seam, the uniformity of a gap, the resistance of a hinge. These micro-interactions contribute to the overall perception of quality and care. By working closely with mechanical engineering, I ensure that the design intent carries through manufacturing, so what the user experiences—under their fingertips—is clean, intentional, and quietly premium. Precision isn't just a number; it’s a feeling.
Crafting the Touchpad Experience
I put meticulous care into designing the touchpad to deliver a premium, distraction-free experience. Every detail matters—from the satisfying click and clean release sound, to the smooth tactility of the glass surface, the structural rigidity of the mechanism, and the carefully tuned actuation force and force curve. These subtle qualities work together to create an interface that feels responsive, intentional, and quiet in the background—allowing the user to stay focused on their work.
Design Grounded in Manufacturing Reality
Understanding the process of manufacturing metal casings—such as CNC machining, stamping, forging, and anodizing—has been essential to my design approach. By collaborating closely with manufacturing partners, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for tolerances, material behaviors, and the subtle constraints of mass production. This insight allows me to design parts that not only meet aesthetic and functional goals but also optimize for tooling, yield, and assembly efficiency.
Designing for Stamping: Balancing Form, Precision, and Feasibility
Stamping is a highly efficient manufacturing process for producing metal parts at scale, but it comes with inherent design constraints. Deep draws, tight radii, and sharp transitions can lead to wrinkling, tearing, or inconsistent surface quality. Achieving precise form while maintaining visual quality requires close collaboration with tooling engineers to account for material flow, die clearance, and spring back. During development, I worked to balance the desired industrial design intent with the practical realities of stamping—iterating form details and radius to ensure both manufacturability and a premium final appearance.
This sequence illustrates the iterative refinement of aluminum stamping from the first tool trial (T0) through to production-quality parts (T4). Early samples revealed issues such as draw marks, surface distortion, and inconsistent edge definition.
The Subtle Art of Opening
The act of opening a laptop is deceptively simple, but achieving the right experience requires the precise balance of many factors. I carefully considered the overhang of the display for finger access, the weight distribution of the device, the friction profile of the hinge, and the magnet force securing the lid. These elements come together to create an intuitive, single-handed opening that feels effortless yet controlled. It’s a small moment—but one that sets the tone for the entire experience. Designing it well means the user never has to think about it.
Repairability with Design Integrity
I focused on achieving a clean, seamless aesthetic while making the device more serviceable. I worked closely with engineering to conceal the fasteners—placing screws under the rubber feet and allowing the keyboard cover to be removed without visible disruption. This approach preserves the iconic simplicity of the Surface design while enabling easier internal access for repair and recycling. It’s a quiet but meaningful shift toward sustainability—proving that repairability doesn’t have to compromise simplicity.
Simple, compact and light weight
Designed to bring the power of Copilot+ AI to more people, Surface Laptop 13-inch delivers a compact, approachable form without compromising performance.
Crafted a lifestyle-driven aesthetic with vibrant new colorways—Ocean, Violet, and Platinum—reflecting a fresh, personal expression.
Prioritized portability and simplicity while maintaining the premium feel expected of the Surface brand.
Project Team
Industrial Design: Shunjiro Eguchi (Lead, concept development, design refinement)
Industrial Design: Harry Teng (concept development)
CMF: Quan Jasinsky
Final CAD: Josh Minter
Human Factor: Gnyanesh Gandhe
Design Quality Lead: Jessi Tang, Chris Chung
Creative Direction: Jit Hirani