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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eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, June 3, 2020 - link
Thanks Brett! Too bad that "refreshing dip into Ice Lake" requires such a deep dive into ones bank account! I really like the design, but a more affordable version would make the Surface Book form factor a lot more compelling.Redshirt4life - Wednesday, June 3, 2020 - link
I mean, it's a premium device. Sure they could've made it out of plastic and sourced bargain components, but then it wouldn't be a Surface. It wouldn't even be a decent laptop. Besides the Book family has always had excellent sales periodically. If you don't like the entry price for quality and innovation, that's your choice, but making snarky comments about it isn't compelling at all.s.yu - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
lmfao, quality and innovation. The SP series has stagnated so much people are calling the SP7 a "SP4.99", nor is it known for its reliability or build quality. The XPS 13 2-in-1 has comparable (arguably better) build quality, a much bigger battery, a CPU that boosts far better(hardly throttles while SP7 throttles 30%), and its price is still about a tier below the spec-matched SP7 accounting for the pricing and SP7's mandatory keyboard and pen purchases(both included in the XPS, keyboard obviously, but the stylus also comes bundled). Better yet, it's easy to come across factory refurbished XPS13 that come with extended warranty, but not SP7, if they even sell those at all.ReverendDC - Sunday, June 7, 2020 - link
...and the XPS doesn't detach at all to a straight tablet, double the overall weight, fans, etc. iPads haven't changed much in 5 years. Laptops are still clamshells. And your "minor" spec bumps include doubling cores or threads (or both), WiFi 6, Intel ax adapters, USB - C, 50% better graphics output, instant on.... Etc, etc.... Yes, DEFINITELY NOT EXACTLY WHAT SURFACE FANS HAVE BEEN REQUESTING. How dare Microsoft listen to their customers!ArcadeEngineer - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Why are we still paying a big price for 'innovation' in a product that's only had spec bumps in four years?Deicidium369 - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
has the laptop surface been out for 4 years?Spunjji - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
You're pounding on the concept of "premium = expensive" to avoid discussing the fact that the design is no longer innovative, has been plagued by performance, stability and driver problems throughout its existence, and - as others have noted - you can get equivalent or better quality for less.A price drop now that they've presumably amortised the costs of the design would make any and/or all of those concerns more palatable.
PeachNCream - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Agreed that the hardware is interesting, but the price is quite high. As always. someone or some company will make purchases, but for the rest of us that like seeing their net worth go up rather than own status symbol hardware, there are alternatives.Deicidium369 - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
those two are not mutually exclusivePeachNCream - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
You have absolutely no idea and that much is painfully obvious from your comments.