That doesn’t mean that those doing video editing, heavy lifting on images, or software development should ignore the Surface Book 3 but they should be aware that there are limitations at the very top of the envelope. The Surface Book 3 is not the ultimate laptop for those that need as much power as possible in a laptop. If you want a detachable screen on your laptop, then you are going to have to sacrifice some computing power to do this. Laptops with more power are going to use the H-Series processors that can run up to 45 watts with more cores and threads (the aforementioned Razer Blade uses an eight-core sixteen thread Core i7-10875H). This is designed for ultraportable machines and draws 15 watts. Microsoft is using a U-Series processor from Intel. Thanks to some smart engineers, the extra graphical power is accommodated in the keyboard, which does offer more cooling potential thanks to the thicker wedge as you approach the hinge.īut the trade-offs remain. Take the processor. The thicker form factor of the Surface Pro ultraportables allows for more thermal management (including a fan to help shift hot air out of the hardware. Given the expansive screen and the requirement to be as thin and light as possible, the design is limiting the technology that can be integrated. The defining feature of the detachable screen to offer a Windows 10 tablet means that the screen assembly has to act as a complete standalone Windows 10 machine. There’s no room in the design to allow today’s top-end specifications that are needed by creatives. Yes there have been technical improvements to the likes of the hinge, the latching system that allows the screen to detach, and an increase in the keyboard base to accommodate more cooling for the graphics processor, but it’s clearly the same design.Īnd here lies the Surface Book 3’s achilles heel.

The Surface Book 3 is effectively the same design as the first Surface Book launched five years ago.

Surface book reviews