It has been five years since Microsoft introduced the Surface Book. The third variant is now for sale. The concept has remained the same: a laptop that you can also use as a tablet. Is this the best of both worlds?
Microsoft Surface Book 3
price € 2799, – (from € 1799, -)
Processor Intel Core i7-1065G7
RAM 32 GB
Storage 512 GB SSD
Graphic Intel Iris Plus and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q
Screen 13.5 inches (3000 x 2000 pixels)
OS Windows 10
Connections 2x USB 3.0, SD card reader, 3.5mm headset jack, USB-c
Webcam 5 megapixel (front), 8 megapixel camera (back)
Wireless 802.11ax, bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions 31.2 x 23.2 x 1.3 – 2.3 cm
Weight 1.5 kilos
Battery 18 + 51 Wh
Website www.microsoft.nl
7 Score 70 
- Pros
- Opportunities
- Good keyboard
- Battery life
- Screen
- Build quality
- Negatives
- Graphic struggles
- No Thunderbolt
Externally, the Surface Book 3 is identical to the Surface Book 2 and it was almost the same as its predecessor. In terms of design, the Magnesium surprises Surface Book 3 So not and the laptop consists of a tablet plus a keyboard where you click the tablet. The tablet itself is equipped with a 3.5mm headset connection and charging connection via the dock connector. All other connections can be found on the keyboard and include two USB, USB-C, a card reader and a charging connection. You can charge the device via USB-C as well as with the included charger. The three USB connections all neatly support the higher Gen2 speed and you can connect a screen to the USB-C connection. Unfortunately, there is no support for Thunderbolt.
The build quality is still fine. The design stands out because of the ribbed hinge and the large slit that is visible when you close the Surface Book. This slit is intended to prevent the device from overheating when you use it closed as a desktop. The hinge is unique, but the screen wobbles more than on a normal laptop, which is annoying when you touch the screen. The backlit keyboard with three brightness levels and touchpad are also of excellent quality. The Surface does not have a fingerprint scanner, but a camera with facial recognition is provided.
Tablet with dock
The spearhead of the Surface Book is that it is a combination of tablet and laptop where you click the tablet into the keyboard. The connection between tablet and keyboard is impressively strong and it simply does not work. Disconnecting is only done by pressing a key on the keyboard (or via software), after which the Surface neatly deregisters the connected devices, after which the lock unlocks and you can pull the tablet off. According to Microsoft, decoupling is now slightly faster than with the previous model. And it does seem to go a bit smoother. A disadvantage is that disconnecting is only possible when you are logged into Windows. Most of the hardware, including the processor and storage, is contained in the tablet. As mentioned, the keyboard dock contains almost all connections. In addition, the keyboard contains an extra battery and an optional extra graphics card.
In addition to the normal orientation, you can also click the tablet backwards into the dock. Handy if you want to watch a movie or draw on the screen with the optional pen. You can even use it as an extra thick (and heavy) tablet if you need the second GPU.
Powerful hardware
The review copy that Microsoft sent us is the second most expensive version (€ 2799, -) of the 13.5-inch variant. This means that a Core i7-1065G7 is combined with 32 GB of ram, a 512 GB ssd and that the keyboard is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. The ssd is an NVME copy of SK Hynix that, given the maximum read speed of 2071 and write speed of 825 MB / s is certainly not one of the fastest SSDs on the market. However, you will not notice this in practice. In PCMark 10 the laptop scores neatly 3899 points, an excellent result.
During normal work you do not hear the fan, but it becomes clearly audible when you go gaming, for example. As a laptop you can count on a battery life of about 10 hours for typical office tasks. The separate tablet lasts a lot shorter with 3 hours. The battery capacity of both batteries is shown as one percentage in Windows, but by clicking on this you can see the percentages of the individual batteries.
Good screen
The screen of the Surface Book 3 is identical to that of the previous model, which means a 13.5 inch screen in a striking 3: 2 aspect ratio with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 pixels. It is a pleasant aspect ratio to work with, especially in height, with more work space than you are probably used to. The image quality is excellent and the maximum brightness is pleasantly high. The screen edges are remarkably wide for a modern laptop. That looks old-fashioned (the design is already five years old), but in tablet mode, those wide edges are quite handy to grip the tablet. In addition to a normal touchscreen, the Surface Book also supports an active stylus. Depending on your work, this can be a big plus. The Microsoft Surface Pen works well, but will cost you 110 euros extra. Actually, you have to buy that pen, because it is one of the features that ultimately justify the high price of the laptop.
Graphic struggles
In addition to the Intel Iris Plus integrated in the processor, the keyboard dock of the Core i7 model in the form of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 contains an additional graphics card. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 is the minimum card you need to be able to play modern games fairly properly and for some graphics programs such as Photoshop, an Nvidia card comes in handy to speed up tasks. Thanks to Nvidia’s Optimus technology, both GPUs are seamlessly integrated with each other and the GPU is chosen depending on the graphics power that an application needs. If you don’t need a lot of graphics power, the Intel GPU is used and you have the best battery life.
So much for the theory, because unfortunately this system on the Surface Book 3 does not always work flawlessly because sometimes the Nvidia card is no longer detected. You will not receive an error message about this and the system works normally. Only when you start a graphically heavier application such as a game do you notice that something is wrong. The Nvidia driver will also report that there is no Nvidia hardware in the system. The only solution is to disconnect the tablet part and then reconnect it. A tricky problem, which has also been reported in the Surface Book 2 by several users on support forums. We have of course installed all updates including firmware updates for testing. There may be a problem in the graphics drivers, for example, but Microsoft does not allow the installation of the universal Nvidia drivers. The tricky part is that the device usually works fine, but in the few weeks that I have used the Surface Book 3, I still suffered four times with a lost graphics card.
Conclusion
The Surface Book in its third version is still an interesting device that is a cross between a laptop and a tablet. One plus one is not two, because for a laptop the Surface Book is a bit bulky while the tablet has a low battery life. Yet it is a useful, sturdy and smooth device, especially if you need the pen for your work. The not flawless operation of the extra Nvidia GPU is a downside to me. With a laptop of 2799 euros that is aimed at graphics professionals, this should always work well, which is especially true for a third generation product.
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