The Microsoft Surface Book 3 (15-Inch) Review: A Refreshing Dip Into Ice Lake
by Brett Howse on June 3, 2020 9:00 AM ESTFinal Words
The Surface Book 3 delivers a solid refresh to Microsoft's detachable laptop family, offering more of almost everything. There is more performance thanks to the new Core i7-1065G7 and GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. There is more RAM thanks to the switch to LPDDR4X. The new 10 nm processor provides better battery life. The Wi-Fi is much improved thanks to the new Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 adapter. Even the USB ports got an upgrade to USB 3.2 Gen 2, while the Surface Connect port now offers the same 3.2 Gen 2 speeds along with DisplayPort 1.4 for dual-UHD external monitor support. If you loved the idea of the Surface Book 2 but thought it was a bit long in the tooth or otherwise underpowered, the new Surface Book 3 delivers all of the upgrades needed to keep it a proper current generation notebook.
Surface devices have always offered a great build quality, and the Surface Book 3 continues that legacy with its magnesium alloy chassis. Microsoft has improved the undocking mechanism to make it faster, and improvements to DirectX 12 mean that the system is finally able to automatically migrate active workloads from the discrete GPU to the integrated one when detaching, at least as long as the active application supports this.
The Surface Book 3, like the Surface Book 2, offers one of the best typing experiences on any notebook, and couples it with one of the best trackpads around. The display is still identical to the outgoing model, but that display is also one of the best available on a notebook, so it is hard to fault them for keeping it.
Microsoft still includes 1080p video recording support, with a 5 MP front facing camera and 8 MP rear facing camera, and coupled with the dual far-field microphones makes the Surface Book 3 an ideal, if somewhat overpowered, video conferencing device.
There is no denying that the upgrades have worked well. If there was a complaint, it would be that this is now the third generation of more or less the same design, and while a design that is still impressive, it also is showing its age. The large display bezels, while partially required due to the convertible nature of the Surface Book, stand out in a premium device in 2020. The lack of Thunderbolt 3 support is also an increasingly glaring omission when all of their competitors offer it. It took Microsoft a long time to adopt USB Type-C for reasons only they seem to understand, and while it is nice to finally have that, a universal docking solution over Thunderbolt 3 would serve them well.
The Surface Book 3 still does fulfill its role though as a very powerful laptop, built with premium materials, and offering some unique features. The upgrades for 2020 were necessary to keep the design relevant, even if is relatively unchanged on the outside. The new configuration options, especially the ability to purchase it with 32 GB of RAM, opens up the device to those who need a lot of RAM for their workflows, and being able to purchase it with Quadro RTX also opens the door to some new mobile workstation use cases. Surface Book is never going to be the sales leader in the Surface lineup, mostly due to the price, but there is no denying that it is still one of the best notebooks on the market.
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zepi - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
How was batterylife in tablet mode without the base?Brett Howse - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
Sorry I had tested that but forgot to add it to the graphs. It's there now.Wrong_again - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
It seems like an unpopular opinion but tablet devices should not have tiny bezels. For reasons that seem obvious to me.Retycint - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
The iPad Pro manages to have smaller bezels while not significantly affecting the usability. Smaller bezels does not necessarily mean tiny bezelss.yu - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
There's clearly a gap between this and "tiny". Also, again, the XPS 13 2N1 has a perfectly functional screen with arguably "tiny" bezels.PeachNCream - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Tablets aren't really even a thing anymore. Hardly any company makes a credible attempt at producing one outside of the usual iFruits and Microsoft (I guess Google has Chrome-based hardware too if you like giving your personal information to the creepiest company on the planet). There are still a few 2-in-1 systems around and ultra low budget Android devices, plus a couple of laptops with questionably glossy touchscreens for reasons only the OEM can fully understand, but in general terms, tablets - Windows ones moreso than others - have been taken out back and shot, then tossed into a shallow grave with a bunch of other tech fads that failed to take enduring root.It is unexpected to watch Microsoft continue to release new models in a form factor that is laying in the desert, gasping its last parched air before failing to pull a Clint Eastwood-style survival montage. They already transitioned partly to clamshell designs to hedge the Surface brand name. It really is odd to see them clinging to the touch-everywhere bad old days of Windows 8.
lazybum131 - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
"It really is odd to see them clinging to the touch-everywhere bad old days of Windows 8."If only Microsoft actually did, then the tablet experience with Win 10 wouldn't be so poor. On Windows pure and detachable tablets aren't strong because the tablet experience just isn't good or polished even for built-in basic functions, let alone the barren app Store. Add in the slow progress on low-tdp chips that would actually enable portable designs.
lmcd - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Intel's Lakefield could change the story there -- aside from the Intel tax with the experimental-technology surcharge, it could fit in 8 inch tablets. Based on the Surface Neo delay, I'd assume it's using a Lakefield chip.Microsoft's lack of good tablet software in the store boils down to the .NET team absolutely ignoring everything the Windows team would prioritize. Windows 10X doubles down on UWP while the .NET team hasn't released an up-to-date AOT compiler and C# project format in over 2 years.
Deicidium369 - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
I will probably use the tablet mode on the 13 2-in-1 about as much as on the previous model - not much at all - but when needed (stocking up at a Spec's type place for a party) it is very useful. But yeah the time of the tablets looks to be over.Deicidium369 - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
would be obvious 1st time it got dropped...