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Microsoft unveils its new Surface Book 3

by on07 May 2020


Goes for Intel 10th gen CPUs and Nvidia GPUs

Microsoft has officially announced its new Surface Book 3, keeping it in both 13.5-inch and 15-inch versions, with Intel's latest 10th gen Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs as well as a wide choice of Nvidia GPUs.

Available for pre-order as of today, Microsoft's new Surface Book 3 is touted as Microsoft's "most powerful laptop ever. Designed for professionals who need desktop-level performance from anywhere, this is the powerhouse workstation".

According to Microsoft, the new Surface Book 3 provides up to 50 percent more performance compared to Surface Book 2 and up to 17.5 hours of battery life, which is quite a feat.

Coming in 13.5-inch and 15-inch versions

Microsoft decided to keep both the 13.5-inch and the 15-inch version of the Surface Book 3.

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The smaller Surface Book 3 comes with a 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen with 3000x2000 resolution (267 ppi), 3:2 aspect ratio, 1600:1 contrast, and 10-point multi-touch G5.

The Surface Book 3 13.5" version measures at 312x232x13-23mm (15-23mm with Core i7 CPU) (12.3"x9.14"x0.51-0.90" (0.59-0.90" with Core i7), and weighs just a tad bit over 1.5kg (1,535g-3.38lb) with keyboard and Core i5 CPU (1,642g-3.62lb with Core i7).

The Surface Book 3 15" version has a 15-inch PixelSense display with 3240x2160 resolution, trailing slightly with 260ppi of pixel density. It is also a 3:2 aspect ratio touchscreen with 10-point multi-touch G5 and 1600:1 contrast ratio.

It measures 343x251x15-23mm (13.5x9.87x0.568-0.90") and weighs 1,905g (4.20lb) with keyboard.

Both Surface Book 3 versions have magnesium chassis and come in the Platinum color option only.

It is important to note that Microsoft pulled the most out of its special hinge, which means that the Surface Book 3 can be used as a laptop, fold over, and even detached to be used as a standard tablet with optional Microsoft's Surface Pen and Surface Dial. Bear in mind that the battery life ratings are with the battery in the keyboard.

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Intel's 10th gen Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, and wide choice of Nvidia GPUs

The biggest update to the Surface Book 3 is on the hardware side, as Microsoft went for Intel's latest 10th gen Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs as well as a wide choice of Nvidia GPUs.

You can equip the Surface Book 3 13.5" with a quad-core Core i5-1035G7 or a quad-core Core i7-1065G7 CPU. The base model with Core i5-1035G6 comes with Intel's integrated Iris Plus IGP, while the Core i7 version can be equipped with Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

The Surface Book 3 15" comes with Intel's quad-core Core i7-1065 G7 CPU and gets Nvidia's GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q with 6GB of GDDR6 memory. There is also an option of getting an Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 but it is currently not listed on Microsoft's site.

You can also equip both of them with up to 32GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4x RAM (8GB, 16GB, and 32GB for the 13-inch one and 16GB, 32GB for the 15-inch version), and up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage (1TB for the Surface Book 3 13" version).

Microsoft was also keen to mention the connectivity part, as you get two USB-A v3.1 Gen 2 ports, one USB-C v3.1 Gen 2 port, 3.5mm jack, two Surface Connect ports, full-size SDX card reader, 802.11ax WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0.

Both also get 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video support and Windows Hello, 8.0MP rear-facing auto-focus camera with 1080p HD video, dual far-field Studio microphones, and front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos.

The Surface Book 3 13" is rated at up to 15.5 hours of battery life when connected to the keyboard, and comes with a 65W PSU with USB-A (5W) charger for Core i5 and 102W Surface PSU USB-A (7W) for the Core i7 version. The Surface Book 3 15" has a 127W Surface PSU, also with USB-A (7W) charger.

Already available for pre-order, starting at $1,599

Both the Surface Book 3 13" and the Surface Book 3 15" are available for pre-order.

The Surface Book 3 13" with Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and no Nvidia GPU starts at $1,599, while the one with Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage starts at $1,999. The most expensive one, coming with Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and Nvidia GPU is available for pre-order at $2,699.

Some Surface Book 3 15" models are already out of stock, and while the base version, with Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage, as well as an Nvidia GPU, starts at $2,299, it is unavailable. The only one currently available is the one with 32GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, for $2,799. The most expensive one with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage is listed out of stock with a price of $3,399.

You can check them all out over at Microsoft's Surface Book 3 landing page.

 

Last modified on 07 May 2020
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