This one goes to 11

What lies beneath the Surface.

I’ve just come back from Microsoft’s launch event for the new Surface range, and once again the company has dazzled with some really beautiful machines. But the really big takeaway is that the company has crossed some age-old borders and not only launched devices with CPUs from its long-term partner Intel, but also AMD and Qualcomm! This is one of those shifts that will have significant influence and give other system makers confidence to adopt a similar approach.

Now, this is absolutely not a move away from Intel. The 10th-gen Ice Lake CPUs used in the Surface Pro 7 and 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 are high performance and low power parts that fit the Surface’s enterprise aspirations perfectly. Ice Lake incorporates Wi-Fi 6, too, and that’s going to be an especially big thing with business customers.

But for the larger 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 Microsoft is using a custom AMD 2.3GHz 3rd-gen Ryzen – the 3780U Surface Edition. The reasoning is that this larger screen model will be likely used for gaming more than the smaller Laptop 3, and this Ryzen sports superior RX Vega 11 graphics to handle that job. There’s also a budget yet-still-custom 1.3GHz Ryzen model, with Vega 9 graphics.

This represents a notable foot in the door for AMD in the mobile space. Until now AMD hasn’t seen much success finding partners willing to use previous AMD processors in laptops. 3rd-gen Ryzen finally delivers the performance, and the Vega GPU has the gaming chops to appeal. It’s also fascinating to see AMD create these custom devices. This particular processor has one additional graphics compute unit, for a total of 11 CUs compared to the 10 used in the Ryzen 7 3700U that we think was the template for this custom chip. Besides added performance, there’s an obvious marketing edge when Microsoft can say that its Laptop goes to 11 when stacked up against Ryzen 7 3700U-based competitors with 10 CUs. Which is cool and cute and I love it.

And, for the very sexy new Surface Pro X it’s driven by a Qualcomm ARM processor – also a custom part designated ‘SQ1’. Amazing. This thing is more tablet than laptop and is intended for lighter workloads and being a traveller’s friend with its slim and light form, and that you can plug a SIM card into its LTE-enabled body.

It’s all fantastic. Intel’s 10th-gen Ice Lake CPUs will deliver excellent performance and connectivity, Ryzen will add good graphics power to the mix and the ARM-powered Surface Pro X will, hopefully, sip the juice and be good enough for all but heavy work. We’ll have reviews in the next issue, and I can’t wait to see how they perform!