PC World - USA (2019-02)

FEBRUARY 2019 PCWorld 57

Most of the laptops in this

category all measure up

relatively well in terms of

graphics, though these are

not gaming machines.

The HandBrake test measures

video transcoding, a real-

world test where the Surface

Laptop 2 performs well, and

outclasses its predecessor by

a significant margin.

Laptop 2 as a gaming

machine, we test using

3DMark’s Sky Diver

benchmark to measure

how well the Laptop 2

would fare in a 3D gaming

scenario. We don’t expect

much here.

Finally, there’s battery

life, increasingly a key

buying factor. In this case,

the 1st Gen Surface

Laptop lasted nearly 11

hours, while the Surface

Laptop 2 lasted slightly less,

about 10.5 hours. There’s

an explanation: The 1st Gen

Surface Laptop’s 48Wh

battery has an inherent

advantage over the Surface

Laptop 2’s 45Wh supply.

Both times are good for

working all day.

Microsoft Surface Laptop
(1st Gen) (Core i5-7200U
Asus ZenBook 13
UX331UA (Core i5-8250U)
HP Spectre x360 13t(Core i7-8550U)

Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-85LZ (Core i7-8550U

Sam(Core i7-8550U)sung Notebook 9 Pen

M(Core i5-8250U)icrosoft Surface Pro 6

Microsoft Surface
Laptop 2 (Core i5-8250U)
Lenovo ThinkPad L480
(Core i5-8250U)
Dell New XPS 13 9370
(Core i5-8250U)

HandBrake 0.9.9 Encode (H.264)
(Seconds)

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

6,353

4,137

4,373

3,874

5,136

4,116

4,151

3,701

3,444

M(1st Gen) icrosoft Surface Laptop(Core i5-7200U

Lenovo ThinkPad L480 (Core i5-8250U)

HP Spectre x360 13t
(Core i7-8550U)
Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N
-85LZ (Core i7-8550U
Samsung Notebook 9 Pen
(Core i7-8550U)
MLaptop 2 icrosoft Surface(Core i5-8250U)

M(Core i5-8250U)icrosoft Surface Pro 6

Dell New(Core i5-8250U) XPS 13 9370

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA (Core i5-8250U)

3DMark 8 Sky Diver 1.0 Overall
(Demo mode off))

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

3,841

4,520

4,370

4,690

4,274

4,658

4,431

4,734

4,764