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Microsoft's Surface Laptop 3 wants to be great. *I* want the Surface Laptop to be great. I'd like to see the Microsoft AMD partnership produce something that sends other brands scurrying back to the drawing boards.
Alas, that's not the case. Which is not to say that Surface Laptop 3 isn't worth considering. It's a very well-made laptop that has plenty of power for the average user, and a wonderfully large, 15-inch 3:2 ratio screen that's a joy to work on. Throw in a great trackpad, decent keyboard, and some nice extras like the facial recognition features in Windows 10 and you have solid, lightweight workhorse of a machine.
###Going Big
The 15-inch Surface Laptop is a new form factor for the Surface line. It joins the 13-inch model, which has also been updated. While I did not test the 13-inch model, this years update looks to be yet another incremental update of a solid laptop. You'll get a faster processor in roughly the same shell for the same price.
To create the new 15-inch model it's almost as if Microsoft just hit the 13-inch model with some sort expanding ray gun. And there-in lies the rub in my view.
If you're at all familiar with Microsoft's Surface line, the first thing that jumps out about this laptop is the all aluminium design. Yes, this is an Alcantara-free Surface. While the aluminum is fine, the Alcantara has defined the Surface family since it was released and its absence makes this feel less, well, Surface-y.
Like the 13-inch, the 15-inch model is lightweight and has a very solid feel to it thank to the all-aluminum design. It also still has the 3:2 screen ratio of it's smaller sibling, making it really nice for editing documents and other tasks where a taller screen is welcome.
The most disappointing thing about the Surface Laptop 3 is that Microsoft has not really done anything with the added space of a 15-inch chassis. For example, the keyboard is identical to the 13-inch model, which means there's considerable extra room on either side of it where there could be, well, have a gander at the 15-inch MacBook Pro and maybe add some bigger speakers.
But no, the speakers in the 15-inch Surface are still right where they are in the smaller version, underneath. If better speakers aren't Microsoft's thing then maybe take a page from the Dell XPS 15 and pack in some extra USB ports and maybe a card reader too. But again, the Surface Laptop 3 sticks with the same single USB-A and USB-C ports found in the 13-inch model. Kudos to Microsoft for at least ditching the MiniDisplay in favor of a USB-C port, but charging still happens through the proprietary, magnetic Surface Connect port, which feels like a missed opportunity to pack in another USB-C port.
And it's worth noting that the USB-C port you do get does **not** support Thunderbolt 3, which means you won't get the speed boost Thunderbolt 3 offers, nor can you use Thunderbolt 3 docking stations to expand your port options. Technically you can use it to charge the Surface Laptop, but I have no idea why you'd want to sacrifice your one USB-C port to charge.
That's not to say the Surface 15-inch is all misses. There's some good stuff too. One high point for is the Windows Face Recognition login works great. You also get support for Microsoft’s Surface Pen, which is not included.
Given it's place in the Surface universe as the beacon of light for those of us still clinging to trackpads and real keyboards that actually sit in your lap, it should be no surprise that both of these are very well done. The trackpad especially is first rate—the best non-Apple trackpad I've used. The keyboard lacks a certain snappiness I've come to appreciate from Lenovo's recent efforts, but it's still well-spaced and comfortable to type on.
###AMD Inside
The 15-inch form factor is the power users laptop. That's how Dell, Apple, Asus and others have positioned their offerings in this space. High end 15-inch laptops like the MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 15 offer six-core (or more) processors and features creative professionals need like color-tuned screens. Then there's 15-inch gaming laptops, which often sacrifice the sleek form factor, but pack in powerful graphics cards and plenty of ports.
The Surface Laptop will make neither of these groups happy. As mentioned earlier this machine is really aimed at more casual users looking for a larger screen, but not needing the power of more expensive options. That's why the smart buy here is the low end model.
The base model features AMD's new Ryzen 5 chip which Microsoft calls the Surface Edition Processor to indicate that it has been specifically tuned for the form factor of the Surface. The performance in my testing, using the PCMark 10 test suite pegged the processor at roughly the same performance as an eighth generation Intel i5.
That's plenty of power for everyday tasks. I noticed no stutters or lags streaming 4K content, editing photos in Darktable, or working with some very large spreadsheets. That level of performance is not, however, going to be capable of editing high res video or compiling large pieces of software. Nor is it likely to impress gamers. There is an option to upgrade to a Ryzen 7 chip with a better graphics card as well, but even these fall short of similarly priced Apple and Dell models (at least on paper).
One place the AMD chip did impress was battery life. Microsoft claims 11.5 hours. I was not able to get anywhere near that, but I did get a respectable 6.25 on the PCMark battery test and just a hair under 8 playing a looped video with the brightness at 50 percent. The good news is that the proprietary charging cord will get you from zero to 80 percent in just over an hour in my testing.
The other notable thing, especially compared to some other 15-inch laptops I've used is that the Surface never gets hot in your lap and you hardly ever hear the fan.
The Surface Laptop 3 15-inch base model is available in Platinum, and starts at $1,199 with a Ryzen 5 chip, 8-gigabytes of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. The unit I tested bumps the RAM to 16-gigabytes and the solid state drive to 256-gigabytes, which brings the price to $1,299. You can also get the higher specced models in black if you prefer.
If you want a 15-inch laptop for the extra screen real estate it affords, and plan to use it to watch Netflix, edit documents, and browse the web, then the base model Surface Laptop 3 fits the bill. While there are cheaper, equally powerful options out there, none of them are quite as well designed, well-built, nor offer the battery life of the Surface. The base model is a solid buy if your needs are that of the casual user.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for a 15-inch powerhouse that can handle everything from video editing to gaming, you're better off looking to the Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Pro, both of which offer better performance for roughly the same price as a maxed out Surface.
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