24 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE386
THELAUNCHOFalargerSurfaaaceLaptop 3
shouldbecauseforcelebration–theSurface
Laptop 2(Shopper372) was a
fine ultraportable,and the
prospect of an updated
successor with more screen spaccce
toworkwithwas,initially,averyyyexcitingone.
AftersometimewiththeSurrrfaaaccceeeLaaappptttoooppp 333
15in, however,it’s hard not to come away
disappointed. While succeeding and even
excelling on core aspects such as build quality
and the display, Microsoft’s decision to fit all
15in configurations with an AMD Ryzen chip
instead of sticking with the Intel Ice Lake
CPUs used by the13.5in Surface Laptop 3
(Shopper385) proves to be agrave error.
MORE OFTHE SAME
First, here’s something that the bigger Surface
Laptop 3gets right. Outwardly,itisliterally an
upsized take on the 13.5in model, which
means the same neatly angled shape and the
same tough-but-classy magnesium alloy
construction. Youcan choose between aplain
metal finish or with hydrophobic Alcantara
fabric around the keyboard; to our eyes, the
former looks more grown up,especially on
the matt black version we were sent.
It measures amodddest340x244x14.7mm,so
isonlyahairthickerttthanthe13.5inmodel,
and its 1.5kg weight issseasily manageable.
There’s alikeable straaaightforwardness to this
design: it’s not overly flashy,but it is as
handsome and portabbbleasyou’dwantfrom
alaptopthisexpensivvve.
Thespeakersaregggreat, too. In fact, they’re
easily among the bestttlaptop speakers of any
we’ve used, which admmmittedly isn’t saying
much –they’re still liggght on bass –but the
relative thickness ofttthe soundisinstantly
noticeable.Asisthe laaack of sibilance when
the volume is crankedddup,which it can be to
surprising heights.
What’s more,becaaause audio is emitted
from behind the keybbboard, there’s no
difference in sound deeepending on what
surface the Surface issson. That should please
anyone who’s ever muuuffled underside-
mounted speakers with their legs.
Surface Laptops have allllwaysbbbbenefifififittttedddd
from high-spec, touchhh-enabled displays, and
the Surface Laptop 315in might well have
the best one yet. It
has the same tall 3:2
aspect ratio as the
MICROSOFT
SurfaceLaptop315in
★★★★★
£1,699•Fromwww.microsoft.cooom
WINDOWS10 LAPTOP
reeessstttoooftttheeefaaamilyyy,,,bbbuuutttwittthaaabbbitttooofeeextttraaaheeeiggghttt
and width, so it’s better than ever forreading
long documents or working with multiple
windows. The resolution of 2,496x1,664 may
sound alittle weird, but it’s more than enough
to keep everything looking pin-sharp.
BRIGHT SPOT
Content creators will also be pleased with
how well the screen performs on amore
technical level. Peak brightness reaches ahigh
399cd/m^2 ,and by covering 97.4%ofthe sRGB
gamut, colours look handsomely rich. The
highlight, however,iscolouraccuracy: we
measured an average delta-E of just 0.66, low
enough to qualify the Surface Laptop 3for
professional-level photoand video editing.
The only real weakness is the
reflectiveness of the screen’s glossy finish,
but the high brightness nonetheless helps
keepppthingggsreadable.
Despiteupsizing, the keyboard and
trackpad are exactly the same as on the 13.5in
model. Again, that’s no real issue,because
both are brilliant. Keysizingand spacinnnngare
perfectly judged, and the slight concave
VERDICT
The new,enlarged version of Miiicrosoft’sultraportableisslickly
designed,butfallsbehindthe 1333 .5inmodelinmultiplemetrics
ssshaaapppeeeoooftttheeekeeeyyycccaaapppsss–aaaneeewaaadddddditttiooonfooor
the3rdgeneration–createsamorenatural
feel.Travelisontheshallowsidebutstill
sufficient,andtheswitchmechanismsare
crispandresponsive.
The trackpad is smooth and fast, too.
The lack of asizeincrease doesn’t matter as
it’s already pretty spacious, and the diving
board-style button switches have apleasantly
substantial feel to them.
Of course,you can also use the
touchscreen forinputs. It’s not as vital as it
would be in aconvertible,but it works well
enough if you’re inclined.
THE RYZEN FALL
The biggest internal difference between the
15in and 13.5in models are that while the latter
all use 10th-gen Intel Ice Lake chips, all 15in
variants are powered by AMD Ryzen
ppprocessors.Ourmodel,forinstance,isbuilt
around the quad---coreRyzen 53 580U–a
Surface Laptop exclusive,noless. It’s backed
up by 16GB of RAAAM, integrated Vega 9
graphics and a2 555 6GB SSD,makingitthe
second-highest spec available after the sole
Ryzen 73780U oppption.
Sadly,our4Kbenchmarkssuggestthe
biggerlaptophasssgot the shorter end of the
stick. Its overallllscore of 92 fails to even
match the 10 222 scored by the13.5in
Surface Laptttop 3wetested; that has an
ostensiblyhhhigher-end CPU, the Intel
Core i7-10 666 5G7,but costs £150 less.
It’s alsodddownright embarrassed
by theDDDell XPS 15 (Shopper379),
which managed 178.
ThhheSurface Laptop 315in also
undeeerwhelmed in Geekbench 4,
scoooring 3,934 in the single-core
test and 11,386 in the multicore
tttest. Again, its smaller,
cheaper sibling performed
better,scoring 5,517 and
18,492 respectively.
At least the NVMe
SSD produced adecent
1, 555 11MB/s read speed in the
