32 PCWorld JANUARY 2022
REVIEWS MICROSOFT SURFACE GO 3
full advantage of all the laptop’s cores and
threads will see more benefit from a six-core
or eight-core processor rather than the
two-core four-thread Core i3-10100Y.
Remember, we’re testing the top-of-the-line
version of the Surface Go 3.
What’s interesting is that we’re seeing the
older Surface Go 2 report higher scores than
the Surface Go 3, in both multithreaded
applications as well as single-threaded
applications (126 to 119). If you do buy the Go
3, consider adjusting the power mode
The synthetic Cinebench test again reveals
that performance isn’t a selling point for the
Surface Go 3.
LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4Ryzen 7 4980U SE
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 MaxCore i7-1185G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 8Core i7-1185G7
Lenovo ThinkPad X12 DetachableGen 1 Core i5 1135G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 7+Core i5 1135G7
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3Core i7-1065G7
Dell Latitude 7320 DetachableCore i7-1180G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 7Core i7-1065G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 6Core i5-8250U
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2Core i5-8250U
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet(3rd gen) Core i5-8250U
Microsoft Surface Laptop GoCore i5-1035G1
Microsoft Surface Go 2Core m3-8100Y
Microsoft Surface Go 3Core i3-10100Y
952
1, 531
819
862
751
776
737
74 0
558
576
457
Cinebench R15 0.38
All threads
414
245
218
SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE
2,510
2,973
2,890
3,313
3,245
3,895
3, 874
4,116
3,975
4,877
5,027
8,091
8,682
Handbrake 0.99.0
Encoding (H.264)
Seconds
Transcoding a Hollywood movie with the Surface
Go 3 takes about as long as it does to watch the
movie itself.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4Ryzen 7 4980U SE
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 MaxCore i7-1185G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 8Core i7-1185G7
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3Core i7-1065G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 7+Core i5 1135G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 7Core i7-1065G7
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2Core i5-8250U
Lenovo ThinkPad X12 DetachableGen 1 Core i5 1135G7
Dell Latitude 7320 DetachableCore i7-1180G7
Microsoft Surface Pro 6Core i5-8250U
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet(3rd gen) Core i5-8250U
Microsoft Surface Laptop GoCore i5-1035G1
Microsoft Surface Go 3Core i3-10100Y
Microsoft Surface Go 2Core m3-8100Y
1,493
upwards. In “Best performance” mode, it
reported a multithreaded score of 260, and a
single-threaded score of 132.
We used Handbrake, which is an open-
source transcoding tool, as a prolonged
stress test of the processor. Using this tool,
we converted video from its native format
down to a lower-resolution format for
playing back on a tablet. The test typically
lasts over an hour. Can the fanless Surface