- As I said in my video with the Razor Blade Pro 17,
now is the time for big, beefy laptops to shine.
Because for most of us, sheltering in place,
our travel is limited to popping from room to room,
and sometimes chair to chair.
Now the 15 inch Surface Book 3 isn't a desktop
replacement like that Razor Blade,
but it is the only computer of its kind
that becomes a tablet on demand.
(upbeat music)
All right, so comparing the Surface Book 3
to a two year old Book 2,
Microsoft didn't change the design language at all.
And while that really bums me out,
it's important to understand why.
The long and short of it, maybe the thin and light of it,
is this: like the Starship Enterprise D,
the Surface Book needs to be able to function
in both docked and separated modes.
So Microsoft can't meaningfully change this design
because all the critical guts needed to run a full PC
still need to live in this thin top half;
Microsoft calls it a clipboard.
To refresh your memory, that's the motherboard,
SSD, the RAM, some of the battery,
and the processor, which is a 15 watt Intel Core i7
made for Ultra Books.
Why not one of the big 45 watt processors in the H series?
Well as Daniel Rubino explains
in a piece at Windows Central,
there's just no more room, thermally speaking,
to put in a higher power CPU.
The most Microsoft can do is run this 15 watt chip
at 25 watts, which it can and does when necessary.
The base has also gotten a spec bump
in the form of a new graphics processor.
When you dock that clipboard into the base,
it can use that more powerful GPU for more intense
graphics tasks.
In my review sample from Microsoft here,
it's an Nvidia GeForce 1660 Ti.
Now that's more spec talk than I usually get into
in my videos, so let me jump back to the real world
for a sec and say this.
For a user like me, whose biggest tax on the system
is probably gonna be World of Warships
or too many chrome tabs,
I'm more than happy to trade raw power for versatility.
Specifically, that of having a laptop when I need it,
and a tablet when I want it.
Here's how that works; you push the eject button,
the system thinks about it for a second,
and bam, the clipboard unlocks
so you can leave the base behind.
The special hinge that makes this possible
is another reason the design couldn't be changed.
And while I continue to love the look,
it still carries drawbacks.
Just like its predecessors, the Book 3 is thicker
than comparably sized laptops.
Also, while Microsoft has made it faster
to pop off the clipboard,
the identical hinge also means we're likely to see anomalies
as these machines age,
as we've seen a lot of with Book 1 and 2 over the years.
Even on this brand new Book 3,
I've already had a few hiccups.
I know Daniel Rubino's review sample has too,
and there's also a curious temporary issue
that pops up if you detach while playing sound.
(upbeat music)
- [Speaker On computer] The Surface Book 2
launched back in November.
- [Mr. Mobile] And that's over and above;
the speaker's just being tinny and not very loud in general.
Back on the spec sheet, there's better news.
Wifi six comes courtesy of a new Intel adapter
which should be a lot faster and more reliable
than the experience provided by the Marvel adapter
in the older model.
The keyboard is exactly the same, but that's a win.
Full travel with nice, soft, bottom out,
not insubstantial with the feedback,
but not aggressively noisy either.
Mwah, chef's kiss.
And Bluetooth five replaces the older 4.1
which makes it a little easier to set up headphones,
and an app that wasn't around the last time
I used a Surface Book; the aptly named My Phone.
Your phone, yeah, your phone.
- Name. - My name?
- No, my name. - I do not know your name.
- [Mr. Mobile] You need Android to get the most out of it.
On Samsung phones, you just go into the settings
and search for link to Windows.
While on other Androids, you'll download the free app.
Setup takes about a minute and a half,
and after that, any notification that comes in on your phone
will be duplicated on your screen.
You can see those notifications either
in the Windows notification center or inside the app,
which gives you access to your phone's photo gallery too.
That means you can quickly save pictures right from the app.
No more emailing them to yourself, as Microsoft says.
And yes, you can also make phone calls from the computer
over BlueTooth.
People said I sounded good over the BlueTooth connection;
not great.
The comparison I heard is that it was like one of those
conference call devices in a boardroom,
big old speakerphone, you know?
But a lot of that is probably down to the room you're in.
As for on device audio,
well, you're listening to the microphone array right now
and you're seeing the webcam pick up.
Still the same webcam, max is at a 1080P,
which actually in 2020, a year when people are still
somehow still shipping laptops with 720p cameras,
it's pretty good.
I don't know, let me know what you think in the comments.
And finally, you can mirror your whole device.
So you can control everything on your phone
with a mouse and pointer from the PC.
This is useful for certain apps that don't have
Windows or web equivalent,
or maybe you wanna drag and drop a file
from your computer to phone or vice versa.
There were a couple little hanky bits,
both David and Mel and I ran into the same update loop
on initial setup, which was frustrating.
- [David] Launch.
Oh there's a new version, oh, update.
Okay, oh, well it's installed already.
Okay launch it.
Oh there's a new version, I should update that.
Oh it's already installed;
all right, well, I'll launch it then.
Ah, but there's a new version, let me update it.
Hey, it's already installed; I can launch it.
Oh, an update?
I better do that.
You starting to understand why this is frustrating?
- [Mr. Mobile] And when you bring it back
into the foreground,
it'll often take a second to re-sync with your phone,
but these are pretty minor complaints.
And what's otherwise a very cool experience.
I used it with the Galaxy Fold,
which I expected would throw it a curve ball
because you know, two screens, but no.
Dynamic switching between inside and outside screens
on the fly, no hassles.
Nice work.
The other significant optimization on the Book 3
is battery life.
While the batteries themselves are exactly the same,
the use of a more efficient 10 nanometer CPU
in concert with LPDDR4X RAM gave this machine
about one and a half hours more uptime per charge
than its predecessor.
According to PC Mark tests run by Windows Central.
My own benchmarking gave me less impressive scores,
mainly because I had to keep this machine
at full brightness basically all the time.
This is a beautiful display,
but it just doesn't get bright enough
in a room with a lot of natural light.
And you can forget about working outside.
It's great to see Microsoft continue to offer
all the good things from prior designs,
like a USBC port and an SD card reader,
but I think everyone's pretty much in agreement
that this is the last time the company can
reuse this exact same CMF and industrial design.
Let me stop a few comments, tweets here.
I've said the same about Apple devices recently
so you can go watch those videos of mine.
And you can actually use the same solution
to making the Surface Book less boring
with my sponsor Dbrand.
You probably already know they're the best
device skins in the world,
but I bet you didn't know just how sporty
a bullet proof banana makeover can look
on a machine like this.
Of course there are more conservative options as well
for the less ostentatious among us,
but to see which one is right for you,
head over to Dbrand at this link
to skin your own Surface PC, MacBook Console,
phone, pretty much whatever you got.
Oh and while we're talking about other stuff,
this isn't sponsored, but it's cool.
I've been using the Moft Z as a standing desk
with the Surface Book 2, and it's awesome.
It folds flat when you don't need it,
but stands really surprisingly firm when you do.
This was a free sample from Moft,
I'm testing it out for them,
and if you're interested,
I will link this in the description as well.
So at the end of the day, I'm pretty meh on this update.
Still pretty bored by the straight up reuse
of the same design.
But you know, when you have something special,
a PC that really is one of a kind,
you can go back to the well a few more times
than others might be able to get away with.
And after my last look at a Halo laptop
got us close to the $4000 mark,
this configuration's $2800 tag is
a bit more palatable, a bit.
Just make sure, and I mean this,
that you're really gonna make use
of the detachable clipboard before you pull the trigger.
Like Android on a tablet,
Windows on a tablet is an acquired taste.
And there's no question that some people
would be better served spending the same amount of money
for a less powerful laptop, and an iPad alongside it.
Folks, it took me two full length videos
to cover the last Surface Book,
so if you've never seen this machine before,
I'll happily direct you to those,
as well as Windows Central for a comprehensive
Surface Book 3 review.
Please subscribe to the Mr. Mobile on YouTube
for my continuing coverage on folding phones,
nostalgic mobile devices of days gone by,
and smart watches and laptops
and anything else that stands out.
Disclosure: this video was produced after 48 hours
with a Microsoft Surface Book 3 review sample
provided by Microsoft.
But Mr. Mobile does not produce paid reviews.
No compensation changed hands in the course
of producing this coverage,
and Microsoft did not receive copy approval
or an early preview of this content.
That means they're seeing it for the first time
right alongside you.
Until next time, thanks for watching,
and stay safe at home for now if you can.
But in spirit, stay mobile, my friends.