A surface inspection apparatus and method increase wafer productivity, wherein to increase an efficiency of the surface inspection apparatus to detect defects during a scanning of the wafer surface, a scanning speed for a subsequent defect detection is varied according to an increase/decrease of defect density represented on a plurality of images acquired successively. When the density of defects is reduced, the scanning speed increases and a level of a skip rule increases, and when the density of defects increases, the scanning speed decreases and a level of the skip rule decreases to precisely detect defects, thereby increasing reliability, throughput, and productivity.