PERFORMANCE TESTING
I benchmarked this version of the Surface Laptop 3
against a few competing ultraportable laptops: the
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch, Asus ZenBook 13 (UX334),
Dell Inspiron 14 7000, and Microsoft Surface Laptop 3
15-inch.
The Surface Laptop 3 performed slightly worse on most
WDVNVWKDQWKHVLPLODUO\FRQ¿JXUHGLQFKPRGHO WKDW¶V
to be expected, since the larger laptop has more room for
heat to dissipate and so can operate at maximum
performance for longer periods. Multimedia performance
YDULHGVLJQL¿FDQWO\ZLWKWKH6XUIDFH/DSWRS
outperforming the Core i5-equipped Apple MacBook Pro
13 on some tasks but not others. Graphics performance
was impressive, though not quite up to the level of the
Asus ZenBook 13’s discrete GPU.
Productivity and Media Tests: PCMark 10 and 8 are
holistic performance suites developed by the PC
benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). The
3&0DUNWHVWZHUXQVLPXODWHVGL̆HUHQWUHDOZRUOG
SURGXFWLYLW\DQGFRQWHQWFUHDWLRQZRUNÀRZV:HXVHLWWR
DVVHVVRYHUDOOV\VWHPSHUIRUPDQFHIRUṘFHFHQWULFWDVNV
such as word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web
browsing, and videoconferencing. The test generates a
proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.
The larger
laptop has
more room for
heat to
dissipate and
so can operate
at maximum
performance
for longer.