PC World - USA (2021-01)

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