Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

A high-quality but poorvalue option, even if you choose the £999 version at the bottom of the range

SCORE

Range starts at: £833 (£999 inc VAT) Model tested: £1,058 (£1,269 inc VAT) from microsoft.co.uk

Q uality is threaded right the way through the Surface Laptop

3. It starts with the sturdy aluminium chassis, which protects an equally excellent screen. The 3:2 aspect ratio and 13.5in diagonal are just enough to work on two windows side by side – a 2,256 x 1,504 resolution helps. The screen kicks up to a bright 395cd/m2 too, while 95% coverage of the sRGB gamut coupled with an average 0.44 Delta E ensures excellent colour reproduction.

The keyboard is among the best here, with a positive action and large keys, plus a bright backlight. Then there’s the massive touchpad with a glass coating to ensure fingertips slide seamlessly. We should also hail the quality of the 720p Hell0-compatible webcam, with accurate colours and none of the compression that afflicts lesser cams. The mics pick up voices well too.

Curiously, Microsoft offers AMD Ryzen chips with the 15in version of the Laptop 3, but sticks with Intel for the 13.5in models. These start at £999, but only if you opt for the “Platinum” finish with an Alcantara covering for the keyboard. This includes a Core i5-1035G7 processor and 8GB of RAM,

but with 128GB of storage it only makes sense for the lightest of users.

Our test unit was the Black version with a metal finish and a 256GB SSD. This wasn’t as fast as we expected for such an expensive laptop, returning a strong 1,875MB/sec in our sequential read test but following that up with 755MB/sec for writes. Nor did this laptop excel in our benchmarks, with the CPU kept below 2GHz under sustained load – that led to an overall score of 85, with the multitasking test proving particularly punishing. This doesn’t mean it’s slow in general use. Quite the opposite. But we wouldn’t choose it for demanding tasks.

Nor does it excel at games, despite a promising 65fps in the off-screen OpenGL Car Chase test. Its highlight was 45fps in Dirt: Showdown, but this dropped to 33fps at the screen’s native resolution. Finally, battery life is a solid 8hrs 57mins and, while you can recharge via the USB-C socket, the charger uses Microsoft’s proprietary Surface Connect port. This leaves just one USB-A, one USB-C and a 3.5mm jack, but at least Wi-Fi 6 is present.

Let there be no doubt: this is a fine laptop. The only reason it gets such a low rating this month is because our emphasis is on value for money, and on this criteria the Surface falls down badly against its opposition.