Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel) review
Our Verdict
The Surface Laptop 3 is a light and elegant laptop, and you lot want the Intel version, not the AMD models.
For
- Faster performance than AMD version
- Sleek minimalist aluminum design
- Comfortable keyboard
- Good battery life
Confronting
- No Thunderbolt 3
- Minimal security and privacy perks
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Surface Laptop iii is a calorie-free and elegant laptop, and you lot want the Intel version, not the AMD models.
Pros
- +
Faster performance than AMD version
- +
Sleek minimalist aluminum design
- +
Comfortable keyboard
- +
Expert bombardment life
Cons
- -
No Thunderbolt 3
- -
Minimal security and privacy perks
Microsoft Surface Laptop iii (fifteen-inch, Intel): Specs
CPU: 10th-Gen Intel Cadre i7-1065G7 ( or Core i5-1035G7)
RAM: 16GB
Display: xv-inch touch-screen display, 2496 x 1664
Storage: 1TB SSD (128GB, 256GB, 512GB also available)
Ports: 1x USB-C, 1x USB-A, Surface Connect port, headphone jack
Battery life: 9:32 (tested, spider web surfing) | 11:xxx (Microsoft'south claim)
Wireless: Wi-Fi six/Bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions: 13.4 x 9.6 x 0.vi inches
Weight: 3.iv pounds
The Microsoft Surface Laptop iii offers users a selection: AMD or Intel? Yes, every bit the particularly savvy may know, AMD has been catching up with (and sometimes beating) Intel. But which Surface Laptop is best, and how do they stack up against Dell and Apple'south best bigger-screen laptops? We've tested both the Intel version(starting at $999) and AMD version (from $799) of the fifteen-inch Surface Laptop 3 to notice out.
As this Surface Laptop 3 review volition explain, this round goes to Intel. While both laptops have proficient to very expert CPU performance, the Intel-based Surface Laptop three beats its AMD-based brother on bombardment life and a few other Tom's Guide tests, including our video editing and storage speed benchmarks. Add together in a comfortable keyboard and solid speakers and you have one of the all-time laptops yous can buy.
Microsoft Surface Laptop iii (15-inch, Intel): Pricing and availability
We tested the Intel version of the fifteen-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, which Microsoft brands as the "Surface Laptop iii For Concern," while the regular Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is an AMD-based laptop. Specifically, our model costs $i,799 (currently on auction at $1,599), and packs a 10th Gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The 15-inch Intel Surface Laptop iii starts at $1,299 ($999 on sale), in a Cadre i5, 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD config. The maxed out version costs $ii,199 and is our test unit, but with a 512GB SSD.
The AMD-based Surface Laptop 3 is more affordable, starting with the $899 model (ordinarily $1,199) that packs a Ryzen v 3580U CPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage. More affordable Intel-based options include the $1,099 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 (Core i5/8GB of RAM/128GB SSD). Multiple configurations are available at Microsoft.com, Best Purchase, Amazon and other retailers.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel): Design
The Surface Laptop iii is a sleek flake of minimalism that almost looks like nothing at all. The fifteen-inch Surface Laptop three is sold in two colors: black and aluminum. Ideally, Microsoft would also offer information technology in the Sandstone (kinda gold-ish) hue the xiii.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 comes in. Still, this wedge-shaped laptop delights without aping the MacBook Air (the near famous laptop that'due south tapered this way), by using harder angles for the corners.
And at three.4 pounds and 0.6 inches thick, the Surface Laptop 3 is low-cal for a big screen laptop, weighing less than the Dell XPS 2020 (four - 4.5 pounds depending on battery, 0.7 inches) and the 16-inch MacBook Pro (4.3 pounds, 0.6 inches).
The Surface Laptop 3 does not accept an IPX durability rating for how much it can endure. You lot might not be familiar with this code that explains how much damage and elemental chaos a laptop can survive, but information technology's table stakes for business organization PC laptops.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel): Ports and security
Microsoft touts the Intel Surface Laptop 3 every bit its 'business' laptop, and we respectfully think its ports situation doesn't friction match up. It's got a USB-A port, a USB-C port, a headphone jack and a Surface Connect port. The commencement notable absenteeism is the SD bill of fare reader, which the XPS 15 packs.
Nosotros'd prefer the Surface Laptop 3 to have Thunderbolt 3 ports, not but standard USB-C, and so your display expansion options wouldn't be limited out of the gate. A second USB Type-C port would as well help it match the MacBook Pro (which has iv) and the XPS fifteen (which has 3).
Also, a business-level laptop should take more security and privacy options, beyond Surface Laptop iii'due south IR webcam for Windows Hello. Lenovo and HP stock their laptops with webcam shutters and privacy modes for their screens, and practically every business PC has a vPro chip for remote management by IT departments.
The absenteeism of vPro is abrasive, but Microsoft likely had to cull between tenth Gen CPUs and vPro, every bit that generation of Intel chips didn't have vPro at that time.
Microsoft Surface Laptop iii (15-inch, Intel): Display
Watching the trailer for The Boys Flavour 2 on the Surface Laptop iii's 15-inch, 2496 x 1664-pixel touch display, I noticed the panel was OK at reproducing colour, but that its brightness maxes out at a slightly darker point than I wanted. So while the reds of The Homelander's greatcoat and the Blues of A-Railroad train's chest plate looked accurate, the bar these flawed heroes were sitting in looked fifty-fifty darker than information technology should.
To check out how sharp the screen is, I sampled a 4K video of the wildlife in Costa Rica, and the wisps of clouds and scales of a lizard were so crisp, I started to call back well-nigh booking airfare (until I realized that meant going on a plane).
Co-ordinate to our colorimeter, the Surface Laptop's screen produces 104.5% of the sRGB spectrum. That's merely a hair to a higher place the AMD Surface Laptop's 101% rating, merely below the 132.2% mark from the XPS 15 and the 113.9% from the MacBook Pro.
Our light gun clocks the Intel Surface Laptop 3 at producing up to 366 nits of brightness, which is simply a tad less than the 380-nit Surface Laptop 3 (AMD). The screens on the XPS 15 (434.ii nits) and the 16-inch MacBook Pro (429 nits) are considerably brighter. As I watched this panel from all angles, I noticed that its colors lost only a chip of their intensity when viewed from 45 degrees to the left or right.
The Surface Laptop 3'southward 15-inch touchscreen display accurately and chop-chop accustomed my taps equally I navigated Windows 10. It also smoothly processed my swipes and scrolling gestures as I moved through pages in Chrome.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (fifteen-inch, Intel): Keyboard and touchpad
The Surface Laptop 3's keyboard is a joy to type on, with keys that provide just enough (only not likewise much) feedback, letting you know y'all've clicked then your fingertips tin can bladder to the next keys. Taking information technology out for a ride on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I breezily clicked my way to 74 words per minute on my first attempt, which isn't also far from my 80wpm average.
The three x four.five-inch drinking glass touchpad has a nice soft blanket to it that felt groovy against my fingers as I swiped to navigate Windows 10. I also noticed no lag as I used pinch/pull gestures to magnify and shrink spider web pages in Edge.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel): Audio
I wrote this part of the Surface Laptop 3 review while Jay-Z and Linkin Park'southward "Numb/Encore" blasted from the notebook's speakers. The laptop produced Shawn Carter and Chester Bennington'southward vocals accurately, while providing a proper amount of kick in the runway's bass. Turned up to 100, the Surface Laptop three produced enough sound to fill up a big room, but I would turn to my UE Megaboom 3 — or any other of the best Bluetooth speakers — if I wanted to provide a lot of sound for a party.
If you poke around the Outset Carte, you'll find that the Surface Laptop 3 has the Realtek Sound Console app for audio adjustments. I recommend you ignore this app, though, equally the only important setting it has — Dolby Audio — is on by default and should stay that way. Turning it off took all the timbre out of Jay-Z's vocalism and fabricated the audio'south instruments audio muted.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel): Performance
Armed with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, the Intel Surface Laptop 3 has enough horsepower for a solid corporeality of multitasking. I saw no lag as I split my screen between a 1080p YouTube video and a dozen Chrome tabs, including my character profile at DNDBeyond.com and the Google Dr. for this review.
The Intel Surface Laptop 3 posted an okay result on the Geekbench 5 test, with a 4,883 score that trails the XPS xv 2020 (10th Gen Core i7-10750 processor, 32GB of RAM, 512GB SSD). Dell's laptop posted a score of vi,174. The 16-inch MacBook Pro (Core i9, 32GB RAM) too did well here, scoring vii,250.
Information technology's not surprising to see the XPS 15's Core i7 CPU win, as that chip is the Comet Lake hexa-cadre processor from this year and the Surface Laptop 3 has a quad-core Water ice Lake processor released the previous year. We expect the Surface Laptop 4 to bring the thunder with a more modern processor.
On the multi-cadre Geekbench four general performance test, the Intel Surface Laptop iii scored nineteen,298, high higher up the 11,612 from the AMD Surface laptop (Ryzen 5 3580U, 16GB of RAM). The XPS 15 2020 posted a much college score of 25,934.
That's not a win to brag about, as the Ryzen 5 and Core i7 chips are practically in different weight classes. If you need a Surface laptop now, yous should become the Intel model, merely if you can wait, we wait the 4000-series AMD processors will have the power to beat Intel, in more than similar face-offs.
Even so, the Intel Surface Laptop three beat its AMD-based brethren in the other categories as well. Its 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD duplicated 4.9GB of files in ten.ii seconds, for a speed of 508.9 MBps, while the AMD Surface Laptop 3's 256GB SSD posted a time of 282.7 MBps. The 512GB SSD in the XPS fifteen 2020 shell them both, with a time of 708.9 MBps.
The Intel Surface Laptop iii took dwelling another win over AMD on our moving picture file conversion examination, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in 17 minutes and xviii seconds, more than than 3 minutes less than the twenty:33 fourth dimension from the AMD Surface Laptop three. The XPS 15 2020 (10:06) and 16-inch MacBook Pro (8:00) cleaned both of their clocks.
The Intel Iris Plus graphics in the Intel Surface Laptop 3 enabled some decent scores, including a score of 112,670 on the 3D Mark Water ice Tempest Unlimited test. The AMD Surface Laptop iii (with an AMD Radeon Vega 9 Microsoft Surface Edition) fell slightly below, with an 100,522.
The Intel Surface Laptop iii ran the modestly demanding Clay iii racing game at 60 fps (at 1080p), and 37 fps at 4K, while the AMD Surface Laptop three hit 56 fps. The XPS 15 2020 thrived once again, with a 134 fps charge per unit at 1080p and 69 fps at 4K.
Microsoft Surface Laptop three (xv-inch, Intel): Battery life
If endurance on a single accuse helps dictate your ownership decisions, this is the Surface Laptop for you. The Intel Surface Laptop iii lasted ix hours and 32 minutes on our laptop battery test (web surfing at 150 nits), beating the 8:00 time from the AMD Surface Laptop 3. The xvi-inch MacBook Pro (10:55) lasted longer while the 4K XPS fifteen (viii:01) fell short.
Microsoft Surface Laptop iii (fifteen-inch, Intel): Heat
As I tested the Surface Laptop three in my ain lap, I noticed its underside go a picayune warm, but it stayed within comfortable limits. After we streamed 15 minutes of Hard disk video on the notebook, our heat gun agreed, capturing a temperature of 93 degrees on the underside, which slides nether our 95-degree threshold for comfort. The readings taken from the keyboard (85 degrees) and touchpad (79 degrees) were much lower.
Microsoft Surface Laptop three (15-inch, Intel): Verdict
It'due south not exactly surprising how much of a difference a different processor can make. AMD has gained basis on Intel, but the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3'due south Intel version is conspicuously the better model. Plus, its minimalist design brings information technology on par with the MacBook Pro. If just its screen were a little brighter and it packed a Thunderbolt 3 port.
You can salve $100 and become a lot more speed by getting a comparably spec'd 4K XPS fifteen, but its battery will conk out an hour and a half earlier. But as this Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 review has shown, this is the laptop you want if you're searching for a great big screen laptop that's light in your bag.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/surface-laptop-3-15-inch-intel
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