Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom the Tech Chap and this is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 and compared
00:04to the rest of the fairly radical Surface range, this is a pretty ordinary looking laptop.
00:09There is also a 15-inch version which we'll come to a bit later, but I've got the 13.5-inch
00:14one here.
00:15So if you're after a premium, portable and reasonably powerful ultrabook, then it's definitely
00:20worth considering alongside the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Pro 13.
00:24It's a beautifully designed and well-built laptop.
00:28You've got nice little features like instant on, which as you can see just turns it on
00:31straight away.
00:32The latest 10th Gen Intel Ice Lake processors, faster Iris Plus graphics, really nice keyboard,
00:39big touchpad and of course this high-res 3x2 touchscreen display.
00:44This one also has the all-new aluminum keyboard and body, but you still have the option for
00:48the usual Alcantara design.
00:50However, there are a couple of features that it's missing which makes this a good rather
00:55than great laptop and then also there's the price.
00:59The base model starts at £1,000 or $1,000, but with the top-spec version coming in at
01:04£2,350 or $2,400, some issues become a little harder to overlook.
01:10Now I do hope that you find this review useful and if you're not sick of me waffling on by
01:13the end of it, then it would mean an awful lot if you could hit that subscribe button
01:17below so I know to keep making these sorts of videos and that you guys enjoy them and
01:21then you'll be the first to know when I post a new video.
01:23Now Microsoft's line of Surface products is pretty varied but also a little bit confusing.
01:29Most of the Surface machines like the Surface Go, the Surface Pro 7 and Pro X are all tablet-like
01:33touchscreen PCs with detachable keyboards, hinged stands and all the processor gubbins
01:38behind the screen.
01:39The Surface Laptop 3 on the other hand is pretty much a regular compact clamshell laptop.
01:44The screen is touch-enabled and it supports stylus input but it doesn't flip over.
01:49Okay, let's talk performance and thanks to Intel's latest 10th generation Ice Lake processors,
01:54either i5 or i7, it's surprisingly how capable this is.
01:58I've got the quad-core i5 here and it's great for general productivity tasks and also slightly
02:03more intensive creator uses like photo editing and coding and I was genuinely surprised how
02:07capable it was at doing some light 4K video editing.
02:11The i7 is even more capable although if you do lots of intensive workloads or 3D modelling
02:15work then you are better off with a laptop that has a more powerful H-series processor.
02:20And while the CPU performance isn't really a huge boost over Intel's last gen processors,
02:25with Iris Plus graphics we are seeing up to two times the performance over the previous
02:30integrated chips and it's about time too and it makes a big difference when it comes to
02:34more graphically intensive tasks like editing photos and video and also doing a little bit
02:38of light gaming.
02:39In some tests I've seen it's a little bit quicker than the discrete NVIDIA NX150 and
02:43offers similar performance to the Vega 10 graphics in mobile Ryzen APUs, which is a
02:48seriously impressive jump in a single generation.
02:51I also managed an average 45 FPS in Fortnite on medium settings, although I did have to
02:56drop the resolution a bit, but it still looked decent and it was playable and that's the
02:59first time I've ever said that about Intel's onboard graphics.
03:03In Overwatch I got 35 FPS with low settings and a reduced resolution, so yeah we're not
03:07getting 4K60 here but it's still miles better than we got on last gen CPUs.
03:12You can hear the fan under load as you'd expect, but it was never distracting and temperatures
03:16peaked underneath at about 40 degrees Celsius.
03:19But it's not just about the raw specs, there's a few nice little extras that just make it
03:23nicer to use on a day to day basis and one of my favourites is the new instant on mode
03:28which I think, what was that, maybe a second?
03:30It takes a bit longer if you've done a full shutdown, but even if you've left it overnight
03:34it resumes just like a tablet or phone would.
03:37We also finally get fast charging, which should get you up to 80% in just over an hour.
03:41It seems crazy that we're only just getting this now on laptops, but it makes such a difference
03:45if you're about to dash out the door.
03:47The slight caveat is that it needs to be closed and in sleep mode to work.
03:51Okay so let's address the first elephant in the room and that's the price.
03:55As I say, I think for the entry level model £1000 or $1000 isn't too bad at all and for
04:00that you get the i5 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage, but as soon as you start going up
04:06the specs, maybe you want 256GB storage, then you're immediately looking at £270 more.
04:12So the base spec 256GB storage probably only exists to convince you to trade up a bit further
04:17to the one with an i7, 16GB of RAM and 256GB storage for a little over £1500, which is
04:23actually much better value if you need the extra grunt.
04:25I wouldn't really recommend going any higher though, the 512GB SSD costs an extra £400
04:31and a whopping £800 if you want a 1TB version.
04:34Thanks to the new modular chassis design, the storage can technically be swapped out,
04:38but according to Microsoft, this can't be carried out by the user.
04:42What that means is we can't just buy the cheapest model and upgrade the drive ourselves as this
04:45would risk voiding the warranty.
04:47I guess one area that slightly justifies the price is the build quality of the design.
04:52It's a beautiful looking laptop in this matte black aluminium finish, it really is gorgeous.
04:58There's a bit of an air of Macbook Air or Macbook Pro to it, but the Surface laptops
05:04have always been well engineered and good looking devices and this is no exception.
05:09Overall it has a light and balanced feeling, with just enough little design touches to
05:13the edges to keep it from feeling too much like a Macbook clone.
05:17The base model comes in silver with the Alcantara keyboard deck that we've seen on older Surface
05:20laptops and it's great actually.
05:23It's soft and gives it a unique look and feel compared to other laptops, plus it helps avoid
05:27smudgy fingerprints.
05:28If you want any other colour or material though, then you'll need to spec it to the slightly
05:31more expensive 256GB i5 version.
05:35So there is that new 15 inch model, but this is the 13.5 which I think is probably the
05:39one that most people will want to go for and the screen is largely the same as before on
05:44the Surface laptop too.
05:45It's a touchscreen, 3 by 2 aspect ratio, it's a little bit taller, a little bit more squarish.
05:50Most laptops use a 16 by 9 ratio which is great for videos and games, but for working
05:55and browsing the web, I always find this a little bit constrained and letterboxy.
06:00So 3 by 2 opens up more vertical room and it just feels like you've got more usable
06:04workspace.
06:05That said, it's not the most colour accurate of screens and the sub 4K resolutions mean
06:09that while it's still very good, it's not going to cut it if you're planning on doing
06:12professional video or graphical work.
06:15I do like that it's a touchscreen, it's nice to be able to reach out and tap or pinch into
06:18zoom sometimes.
06:19Plus it supports the Surface Pen and Windows Ink so you can make notes, draw, paint and
06:24sign documents.
06:25Slightly annoyingly though, there's nowhere to store the pen within the machine.
06:29The bezels aren't the thinnest, they're about the same as say the MacBook Pro, but when
06:32you've got the likes of the Dell XPS 13 which have these razor thin infinity edge display,
06:38it starts to look just maybe a little bit dated.
06:41But it's still a beautiful looking laptop and there is room for a 720p webcam here which
06:45is pretty good.
06:46And the quality is decent actually, it's a little bit noisy in the corners.
06:50We also do have dual microphones built in so hopefully you should be able to hear me
06:53fairly clearly.
06:54Plus of course it does support Windows Hello so you can lock it with your face.
06:58So paired with that Instant On, you just have to open the lid, it unlocks immediately and
07:02you can swipe up and you're on the desktop.
07:05When it comes to battery life, I've been averaging about 7 hours.
07:08It's okay but only about average for this class of machine and not really one of the
07:11Surface's strengths.
07:12Although of course you do have that faster charging.
07:15Surprisingly given there's no obvious speaker grills, the sound quality is actually pretty
07:19impressive here.
07:20The sound actually comes through the keyboard.
07:22It's loud and clear, although the bass is still lacking a bit.
07:29When it comes to ports and connectivity, it's kind of a mixed bag.
07:32We get a single USB Type-A, a 3.5mm headphone jack and finally we now get a USB Type-C port
07:38and of course the Surface Connected for power.
07:41So it's a decent range of ports given it's a thin and light laptop.
07:43But for some reason the Type-C port doesn't support Thunderbolt 3 which comes in handy
07:48for certain high res monitors or plugging in fast hard drives or even hooking up an
07:52external graphics card.
07:53The good news though is that WiFi has been improved and we now get the latest WiFi 6
07:57support which has better range and speeds.
08:00But remember you'll need a compatible router to make the most of it.
08:03The keyboard and trackpad are both outstanding.
08:06The keys are sensibly laid out, they're backlit and while we haven't got the greatest amount
08:09of travel, they have a nice click and they're not too soft.
08:12The precision trackpad is 20% bigger than before which makes a huge difference to usability
08:16and it just helps make the laptop look a bit more modern.
08:19It's really good and in fact I reckon it's the closest to a MacBook trackpad that you'll
08:23find on any Windows machine.
08:25But what about the 15-inch version?
08:27Well I've only had limited hands-on time with it and while it's more or less the same on
08:30the outside, inside it uses AMD Ryzen hardware and a slower WiFi 5 chip.
08:36From the reviews I've seen, the Ryzen parts aren't performing as well as the Intel options
08:40in the 13-inch and also the battery life isn't quite as good so you may want to consider
08:43that if you're choosing between the two models.
08:46So I think overall, the Surface Laptop 3 is a very good laptop and it's frustratingly
08:51close to being great.
08:53A couple of things lay it down and it does start to get very expensive when you start
08:57speccing it in the way that you actually might want to with an i7, 16GB of RAM, 256GB storage.
09:02But aside from that, there's an awful lot to like here and if you're looking for a thin
09:06and light premium portable laptop then this is definitely worth considering and being
09:10from Microsoft, this is essentially the MacBook Air of Windows machines, although with the
09:1610th Gen processor which is core-core in terms of performance and also the Iris Plus graphics,
09:21it's probably a little bit closer to the base MacBook Pro 13.
09:25It's much more powerful than the Air.
09:28And with that beautiful touchscreen, fast charging, instant on, the really nice touchpad
09:32and trackpad, Microsoft Precision trackpad, it's just a good all-round laptop and I actually
09:37really like it in this aluminium finish.
09:39I was never a huge fan of the Alcantara.
09:43So I think really I can only recommend the base £1000 i5 model or the £1550 base i7
09:49with 256GB of storage.
09:51If you do want to do a bit more intensive photo or video editing then the i7 is definitely
09:55the way to go.
09:56As I say though, just make sure to avoid the higher storage capacities, they're just way
10:00too expensive and the fact that you can't just upgrade it yourself does take the shine
10:04off this otherwise terrific machine.
10:06Also if you are interested in the Surface Laptop then you may want to check out the
10:09new Dell XPS 13, the XPS 13 2-in-1 or even the Lenovo Yoga C940 with the latter two also
10:15offering a 2-in-1 convertible design.
10:17I've put a little poll at the top right, let me know which one you would go for and let
10:21me know in the comments below what you make of the Surface Laptop 3 and how maybe you
10:25would improve it for the next one.
10:27If you do want to see more from me then as I say click that subscribe button, ding that
10:30bell, all those YouTuber cliches that we keep banging on about and hopefully I'll see you
10:34next time right here on the Tech Chat.