PC World - USA (2020-01)

78 PCWorld JANUARY 2020

REVIEWS MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP 3 15-INCH (CORE i7)

numbers. But we

wondered how dialing

up the performance,

especially when

plugged in, would

affect the rankings. So

you’ll see a red

outlined bar indicating

the benchmark

recorded under “Best

Performance” settings.

It’s a lot of data, but it

should help you

decide whether the

Surface Laptop 3 is

right for you.

One real-world

performance note:

While other reviews

note that the Surface

Laptop 3 struggles

with 4K/60-frames-

per-second playback

on sites like YouTube,

that appears to have

been fixed, perhaps

with a software update.

Our Ice Lake-based

Surface Laptop 3

wasn’t affected at all,

99 percent of the time.

There was a tiny bit of

judder at rare

moments.

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 (Core i7) tops everything else we tested in this

PCMark test.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

Perf (Core i7-1065G7)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

(Core i7-1065G7)

MPerf icrosoft Surface Laptop 3 (Ryzen 7 3780U SE)

Huaw(Core i5-8265U)ei Matebook 13

Acer Sw(Core i7-8565U)ift 3 (2019)

MPerf icrosoft Surface Laptop 3 (Ryzen 5 3580U SE)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

(Ryzen 7 3780U SE)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

(Ryzen 5 3580U SE)

PCMark 8 Creative 3.0

(Native resolution)

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

4,365

3,662

3,670

3,595

4,033

3,610

3,662

3,500

While the Surface Laptop 3 (Core i7) is about a midrange performer overall,

it smokes the Ryzen PCs on our list.

Acer Sw(Core i7-8565U)ift 3 (2019)

MPerf icrosoft Surface Laptop 3 (Core i7-1065G7)

M(Core i7-1065G7)icrosoft Surface Laptop 3

Huaw(Core i5-8265U)ei Matebook 13

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

(Ryzen 7 3780U SE)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

Perf (Ryzen 7 3780U SE)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

Perf (Ryzen 5 3580U SE)

M(Ryzen 5 3580U SE)icrosoft Surface Laptop 3

PCMark 8 Work 3.0

(Native resolution)

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

3,642

3,050

3,551

3,032

3,567

3,043

3,432

3,017