Microsoft Surface Book 3 15 Convertible Review: Still great, but is it better than its predecessor?

Compared to the first 2015 Surface Book from five years ago, the appearance of the case remains unchanged. It consists of magnesium alloy, while both the display and its edges are made of glass.

The measurements are identical to the previous model. Due to the somewhat bulky hinge, the entire device expands towards the back, where it exceeds its comfortably thin competition by a large margin. However, it only has a z-height of 15 mm near the front edge, which would make the Microsoft convertible thinner than many of its competitors.

Other than that, the Surface Book 3 is slightly narrower than competing 15-inch devices from Apple and Asus, although at the same time, it has a significantly larger height that can once again be attributed to the big hinge for an overall larger and thicker appearance than its direct competitors.

Microsoft still has not implemented Thunderbolt 3, citing safety reasons for the decision. However, the optionally available Surface Dock does offer Thunderbolt, which leaves us wondering whether this was a measure to increase sales for the expensive accessory. There are three USB ports, all of which support USB 3.1 Gen. 2 and one of which is a Power Delivery-enabled Type-C port. Additionally, there is a full-size SD card reader and the Surface Connector, which is used as the default power connection or alternatively for the optional Surface Dock. Unfortunately, the proprietary power port prevents the use of popular third-party AC adapters.

While the port layout is good, the low number of total ports hardly makes this impressive. Only the USB Type-C connector and the narrow power connector occupy the right side, while the remaining ports can be found on the left.

Even though at least one USB Type-C port could have come in handy, the tablet unit only comes with an audio jack.

The transfer rates of the SD card reader in conjunction with our reference card Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II only marginally deviate from those of the previous model, suggesting that our test model uses the same SD card reader as its predecessor. The results exceed the device class average by a significant margin. On top of that, many convertibles do not even offer a full-size SD card reader in the first place (Apple, Lenovo).

Since the Surface Book now comes with Wi-Fi 6, it shines in our comparison due to its measurably higher download speeds. The potential of the Wi-Fi module is still not fully exhausted, and it could theoretically achieve 25% to 50% faster performance. Its competitors are currently still slower, although this will likely change soon. While there are fluctuations in terms of the transfer rates, they are not noticeable during daily use. Furthermore, Bluetooth version 5.0 is supported.

The Surface Book 3 is equipped with two cameras: An 8-MP main camera and a 5-MP front camera for video calls & more. Two far-field studio microphones complement the latter for improved clarity and better speech quality.

While the cameras are above-average compared to normal laptops, they cannot quite compete with higher-end smartphone cameras. Pictures taken with the main camera in particular tend to look "milky" and the exposure constantly readjusts back and forth. However, the cameras are still a noticeable improvement for video calls.

TPM 2.0 comes with the Intel chip and users may use facial recognition via Windows Hello to log in. A Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor or other security features are not available, however.

Keyboard

Navigating the Surface Book via the screen is no problem either, since the touchscreen works reliably. Since the Surface Pen is no longer included and Microsoft did not provide us with one, we were unable to test the Surface Pen as an input method.

On paper, the Surface Book 3 is very well equipped and should achieve an even higher performance level than its predecessor. Theoretically, the Ice Lake processor, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and 16 GB of RAM should even satisfy gamers. Or as the official Microsoft web page puts it: "Tackle intensive tasks, edit large video files, and enjoy the best gaming experience on a Surface laptop."

While the 15-inch model is limited to the Intel Core i7, the 13.5-inch model can also be configured with a cheaper Core i5. With just 256 GB, the storage capacity of our test model is rather small. However, there are models with 512 GB or even 1 TB of storage space and there is a 32 GB RAM option. The premiums are substantial. The manufacturer demands an additional 450 Euros ($500) for doubling the RAM and storage space to 32/512 GB!

Our test device features the Ice Lake CPU Intel Core i7-1065G7 with integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7. In spite of its efficiency, this CPU is quite powerful, which makes it a common choice for subnotebooks and convertibles. The clock speeds are very flexible and while the guaranteed base clock speed is only 1.3 GHz, individual cores can boost to up to 3.9 GHz.

To quickly summarize in advance: The current Surface Book generation makes no big strides in terms of the CPU performance and its Core i7-8650U-based predecessor tends to achieve similar or even greater results. Similarly, the Surface Book 2 also offers faster short-term performance. Even the Lenovo Yoga, which is equipped with the same processor, performs better in the Cinebench loop, demonstrating the inability of our test device to fully exploit the CPU's potential. However, this only applies to the Cinebench R15 multi-core test. By contrast, the processor's results in the single-core and the Cinebench R20 multi-core benchmarks match our expectations. The overall performance level across all tests is very similar to our reference Core i7-1065G7 device.

In battery mode, the laptop's Cinebench R15 score only drops by about 5%.

Although the system performance is good, it is by no means better than that of the previous model. While the performance varies during the individual tests of the devices in our comparison, the performances of the Surface Book 2 and 3 are comparable with slight advantages for the former (PCMark 8). The Lenovo Yoga is equipped with the same processor and achieves about 15% faster performance.

Microsoft has replaced the fast Samsung PM961 with a 256-GB SK Hynix BC501. Our SSD/HDD benchmark table contains detailed measurements of both storage drives for comparison. While the SK Hynix SSD occupies the 218th spot, the Samsung model comes in at the 28th spot for a noticeable performance difference. Compared to the SSD within the Surface Book 2, the new OS drive is significantly slower and the Surface Book 3's competition tends to implement significantly faster solutions as well. Microsoft's decision to use a cheaper SSD strikes us as odd.

Although variants with 512 GB or even 1 TB are also available, the price gaps are very big and it is unclear whether Microsoft uses models from other manufacturers in these higher-end configurations.

Despite being equipped with the strongest integrated Intel graphics card Iris Plus Graphics G7, the Surface also comes with a dedicated GPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q. It is hidden within the base unit of the Surface Book. While its slightly lower clock speeds make it more economical, they also result in ~15% slower performance compared to a normal GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

The results of the synthetic 3DMark tests match our expectations for a GTX 1660 Ti fairly precisely and only the Fire Strike benchmark produces a severe outlier. Relative to the previous model, which is equipped with the GTX 1060, it offers around 20-30% faster performance.

With a deficit of about 17%, the GPU performance decreases even further in battery mode.

While the performance results in the synthetic tests match our expectations, the results of our gaming tests unfortunately do not. In The Witcher 3, the Surface Book 3 performs about 10% to 25% worse than an average GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q. At least, the gap becomes smaller at higher resolutions and quality settings. At Full HD resolution, The Witcher 3 can even be played at maximum settings. At the Surface's native 4K resolution however, it tends to struggle when it comes to more-demanding titles (The Witcher 3, Far Cry 5) and the limited performance then also becomes apparent. Although the average frame rate in Battlefield V promises smooth 4K gaming, micro stutters adversely affect the gameplay.

Even though 4K gaming may be out of reach, the Surface is still well suited to gaming overall. Due to the slower SSD, users may experience longer loading times.

Detaching the tablet unit incurs a two-fold performance decrease: On the one hand, the tablet then permanently operates in battery mode, since it can only be charged through the base unit, and on the other hand, it loses access to the dedicated GPU and the integrated Intel G7 graphics becomes active, which is significantly weaker. For example: In Far Cry 5, the tablet only reaches 19 FPS at the lowest settings compared to 68 FPS and particularly the lack of dedicated VRAM becomes apparent.

The performance in our The Witcher 3 loop is mostly consistent and the graphics performance of the convertible only marginally drops over time.

Microsoft has managed to reduce the fan noise further. While idling, the fans tend to stand still and the fan noise of the convertible barely exceeds the ambient noise level even under medium load for a total improvement of 16% compared to the previous model. Under maximum load, the fan noise drops from 45 dB (Surface Book 2) to just 34 dB - incredible! The only device that is able to achieve similar results is the Lenovo Yoga, although it has no dedicated graphics card.