The thicker form factor of the Surface Pro ultraportables allows for more thermal management (including a fan to help shift hot air out of the hardware. Given the expansive screen and the requirement to be as thin and light as possible, the design is limiting the technology that can be integrated. The defining feature of the detachable screen to offer a Windows 10 tablet means that the screen assembly has to act as a complete standalone Windows 10 machine. There’s no room in the design to allow today’s top-end specifications that are needed by creatives. Yes there have been technical improvements to the likes of the hinge, the latching system that allows the screen to detach, and an increase in the keyboard base to accommodate more cooling for the graphics processor, but it’s clearly the same design.Īnd here lies the Surface Book 3’s achilles heel.

If you don't need a laptop/tablet hybrid, look elsewhere (perhaps at the Surface Laptop 3) because the design is what makes the Surface Book 3 so expensive.The Surface Book 3 is effectively the same design as the first Surface Book launched five years ago. The Surface Book 3's flexibility enabled by its unique form factor is what makes it stand out from the pack. The XPS 15 is a traditional clamshell laptop whereas the Surface Book 3 is a detachable 2-in-1 with a lid that turns into a tablet. On the high end, there is a $3,399 version with a Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.Īnd if you want to go for broke (literally), you can get a similar config with a 1TB SSD and Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 GPU with Max-Q for $3,699. Our $2,799 review unit upped the ante with 32GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

The $2,299 base model Surface Book 3 with a 15-inch display comes with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q GPU. The Dell can be configured with up to an Intel Core i9-10885H processor, 64GB of RAM and a 2TB PCIe SSD, but it will cost you more than $3,000.

Ms surface book 3