Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Review: MacBook Pro Alternative?

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Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: At First Glance

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is Microsoft’s top-of-the-line Notebook. It is a continuation of the Microsoft Surface 2 product line from a few years ago.

Just by looking at this new Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, you will hardly detect that it is a new model. This is because there are hardly any physical changes between this laptop and the previous Microsoft Surface Laptop 2.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is the spitting image of its previous model. The hinge design and almost everything about both models is the same – except for very few design & build changes.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 comes in an all-aluminum chassis. It has a very neat and attractive design.

For someone who has seen the previous Microsoft Surface laptops, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 will be very familiar. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 has the same design with just increased dimensions.

Although, Microsoft did not maintain the fancy Alcantara coating that has been the Surface family trademark since its release. Nonetheless, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 comes with refined elegance in its build.

Moreover, Microsoft offers this laptop in black or silver colors.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is one of the most portable 15-inch laptops. It measures 339.5 x 244 x 14.69 mm, and it weighs 1542 g.

In comparison, this laptop is considerably lighter than the Dell XPS 15 (2005 g) and Apple MacBook Pro (2540 g). Although the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is not as portable as the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 carbon (1130 g).

However, it is quite disappointing that Microsoft did not take full advantage of the laptop’s 15-inch form factor. Features like top-firing speakers, increased ports, SD card reader, larger trackpads, and better keyboard travel could have been added.

Nevertheless, the keyboard and trackpad remain excellent. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s trackpad is very smooth to touch and sensitive, while the keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience.

Although we finally get a USB-C port on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, its still port selection is still limited. On this laptop’s left side, you only get a USB 3.1 Type-A port, a USB-C port, and a headphone jack.

Meanwhile, the only port you get on the right is a power connector.

Apart from the limited port selection and the improper utilization of its size, this laptop’s build is, otherwise, excellent.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 has a very attractive design and therefore scores an eight in this review.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Processor (CPU) Performance

Microsoft offers two processor configurations for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. You can buy the laptop with either AMD Ryzen 5 3580U or an AMD Ryzen 7 37800 processor.

These processors are both quad cores with 4 MB cache memory. Though they are both powerful processors, the Ryzen 7 can attain a higher maximum frequency than the Ryzen 5 3580U.

Additionally, there was a lot of anticipation about the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s performance because of its new AMD processors. Surprisingly, this laptop delivered a good performance even though it didn’t do very well in comparison with its competitors.

This laptop has enough power for daily tasks like web browsing, 4k content streaming, photo editing, or working on Spreadsheets. However, it is not powerful enough to breeze through high-res video editing or compiling large pieces of software.

On a Geekbench 4 test, this laptop scored 11,612, ranking below the MacBook Pro (31,012) and XPS 15 (28,882). Also, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 couldn’t surpass the Thinkpad X1 carbon (16,649) and the category average score of 16,069.

As a result, it scores a seven for its slightly below-average CPU performance in comparison with its competitors.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Memory (RAM) Performance

Microsoft equipped the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 with 8 GB DDR4 RAM. However, this laptop’s RAM size can be increased to 16 GB.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s 8 GB RAM hardly impressed in the RAM performance tests that were carried out. Therefore, I decided to test the laptop with an upgraded 16 GB RAM capacity.

With the 16 GB RAM, this laptop didn’t slow down when it was running 20 Chrome browser tabs (three were streaming 1080p YouTube videos). This laptop continued to run smoothly when I added 5 more browser tabs.

In conclusion, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s ability to multitask is good enough for your computing operations. Hence, it scores an eight in this review.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Storage Options and Performance

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 comes with a 1 TB Solid-state drive. This laptop doesn’t come with an SD card storage option.

Moreover, the 1 TB storage is a large capacity that will conveniently house most of your documents and multimedia files. More so, computing operations are quite fast because of the laptop’s SSD.

On a CrystalDiskMark test, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 recorded a read speed of 2049.3 MBps and a write speed of 800 MBps.

Moreover, Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 also performed well in a file copy test. It copied a 4.97 GB multimedia file at 510.6 MBps – slightly surpassing Dell XPS 15’s 508.8 MBps and the ThinkPad X1 carbon’s 424.1 MBps.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 also slightly exceeded the premium laptop file copy rate of 510.2 MBps. Therefore, it scores an eight in this review for its fast storage speed and large storage capacity.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Graphics Card Performance

Like its CPU, Microsoft offers two graphics configurations for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s GPU. You can buy the laptop with either an AMD Radeon Vega 9 GPU or an AMD Radeon RX Vega 11.

Both GPUs are integrated, but neither of them comes with a dedicated VRAM. Also, they both have just about the same base and boost frequencies.

This review focuses on the AMD Radeon Vega 9 GPU. Although you shouldn’t expect an over-the-top performance from this GPU, it performs considerably better than most laptops that are equipped with Intel’s integrated graphics.

On gaming tests, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 played Dirt 3 at a smooth 58 FPS rate surpassing the ThinkPad XI Carbon, which recorded a 31 FPS rate. However, for the same game, Apple MacBook Pro recorded a better rate of 120 FPS.

Also, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 nearly matched the 60 FPS category average rate. Therefore, it scores seven in this review because it offers playable frame rates during gaming sessions.

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Microsoft Surface Laptop 3: Battery Life and Performance

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 features a 45.8 Wh Lithium-ion battery. Microsoft claims that this battery can last up to 11.5 hours.

In an attempt to determine the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3’s battery life, I played a 1080p YouTube video over Wi-Fi at 50% screen brightness. This laptop lasted for 9 hours on the battery life test.

However, it lasted 8 hours and 30 minutes on a continuous web surfing test. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 surpassed Dell XPS 15, which lasted 8 hours and 7 minutes.

Moreover, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 slightly exceeded the average premium laptop runtime of 8 hours and 14 minutes. But the Apple MacBook Pro lasted longer, at 10 hours and 20 minutes.

Overall, Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 has good battery life. Therefore, it scores eight in this review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is an attractive laptop that offers a good price-per-performance ratio. However, the laptop tends to lag in some areas when compared with its competitors.

Moreover, Microsoft could have better utilized the increased size of the laptop to offer more lacking features.

Nonetheless, it is a great laptop for work and students.

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