Product test
A Surface clone with a Bluetooth keyboard: Testing the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i
by Martin Jud
Test Microsoft Surface Book 3 power three: 10th generation Intel and nVidia graphics power
16.7.2020
Translation: machine translated
Surface Book 3 to the power of three. Twice with i7 and nVidia graphics and once with i5 and nothing else. Even without cooling. What's in them? They're supposed to be versatile. Tablet, notebook and gaming device in one. I'll show you how in this test.
The Surface Book 3 is available in 13.5-inch and 15-inch sizes. If you choose the smaller version, you can choose between a version with or without a dedicated graphics card (nVidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q). This is installed under the keyboard in the base, where most of the battery cells are also located. The 15-inch models are all equipped with an nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q.
In addition to size and graphics power, the different models also differ in terms of processors, available RAM and SSD memory and battery life.
Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5"
Microsoft Surface Book 3 15"
For this test, I'm taking the cheapest 13.5-inch Book with i5 processor, without dedicated graphics card, as well as a small and large version with nVidia graphics card. All three have the following specifications:
Unfortunately, the third version of the Surface Book still doesn't have a Thunderbolt connection. Memory has therefore been changed from LPDDR3 to LPDDR4, and thanks to the 10th-generation Intel SoC, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are also supported.
Design and ports: accordion hinges make the Book a Book
The complaint-coloured magnesium casing not only looks good, but feels good too; I like the cool, metallic feel. The base with the keyboard on the Surface Book seems to be made from a single piece. Unlike the Surface Pro and Go, this Microsoft convertible offers extra battery life, as well as more graphics power when needed. There's no thin keyboard to clip on here, but a solid base and screen that can also be used separately, like a tablet at the press of a button.
Without its base, the 15-inch tablet weighs 818 grams. In hand, the difference with the 13.5-inch tablet is not very great. The latter weighs 718 grams.
On the left side of the Book are two USB 3.1 (Type A) ports and an SDXC full size (UHS-II) card reader.
On the right are the USB 3.1 type C and the Surface Connect (power) connector. By the way, this connection is available twice. The second is at the bottom of the screen. This allows the tablet to be charged without its base. There is also a 3.5mm jack connector on the right-hand side of the screen. The power button and volume control are located on the top left of the tablet.
Multitouch in 3:2 format: what integrated screens are worth
The 10-point multitouch screens with a 3:2 aspect ratio and IPS technology have not changed in terms of resolution compared to their predecessors. Which is understandable, because with 3000×2000 and 3240×2160 pixels, the screens are pretty sharp. Even if I bring my face closer when I draw with the stylus.
I find that the colour representation is accurate for all models. But my feeling can also be wrong, which is why I want to know for sure. How good are the screens, how bright are they? Is the lighting on the screens balanced and uniform? To find out, I measure them with the x-rite i1Display Pro Plus.
Analysis of the Book i5's 13.5-inch screen
As for colour space coverage, I measure 94.5% for sRGB, 65.7% for Adobe RGB and 67.5% for DCI P3. The screen shouldn't be usable for professional creation or preparation of printed content. However, it is ideally suited to amateur designers and web content creation. Thanks to the IPS panel, colours appear natural, but rich enough. Measuring black and white values, I note a net static contrast of 1225:1.
Analysis of the Book i7's 13.5-inch screen
Although the panel on the 13.5-inch i7 version probably comes from the same production line, it shines a little brighter with an average of 333 cd/m². The biggest light drop occurs from the centre down and is 27 cd/m².
With an accuracy of 93% for sRGB, 64.3% for Adobe RGB and 66.2% for DCI P3, the panel performs slightly worse than the i5 variant tested above. Static contrast is 1291:1.
Analysis of the 15-inch screen
Bigger doesn't automatically mean better. But the 15-inch panel offers 80 or 100 cd/m² more brightness. The average of 410 cd/m² will delight, all those who found 310 cd/m² insufficient. This display is an advantage in bright conditions. On the other hand, the uniformity of lighting is a little less good: lighting decreases by 29 cd/m² from bottom right to top left. A relatively low value that is difficult or impossible to detect with the naked eye.
When we measure colour space coverage, the largest display is worse. At 87.5% for sRGB, 60.5% for Adobe RGB and 62.2% for DCI P3, it's even less suitable for polygraphers and graphic designers. On the other hand, static contrast is a little sharper at 1475:1.
Keyboard and touchpad
The three-stage backlighting on the keyboard of the models tested is identical. And the latter surprises me in a positive way.
Although I've become used to the fact that the trend is to build keyboards with minimal typing depth in laptops, it's really refreshing, almost nostalgic, to feel 1.55 millimetres under your fingers again. When typing, the keys are quite firm and have a clearly perceptible trigger point. Reaction speed is maximum, my typing system works perfectly.
The glass touchpad with gesture support is great. It's big and everything works smoothly here too. But it's not too big. When I use the keyboard, my hands are not on it, but next to it. I'm grateful for that. Only a fanatique of Apple - the MacBook touchpads are huge - or someone with big fingers, or even huge fingers, might not appreciate the trackpad. Well done, I'm a fan of designs based on ease of use.
Speakers with Dolby and the like
Music and movies are a pleasure with all devices for mobile conditions. The sound is wider than the distance between the speakers themselves. Mids and highs are clean. As with all laptops and tablets, deep bass lacks what subwoofers do.
Battery performance
Streaming YouTube
To ensure comparability with our other tests, I set the brightness of the screens to 150 cd/m² before starting the test. Now I let the clips run on YouTube until the energy reserves are exhausted. During the tests, I noticed that Books with a dedicated graphics card work fine on their own with the integrated Intel Iris Plus graphics card. This saves energy.
Nothing should stand in the way of enjoying a feature film in a dark room.
Battery life put to the test
To push all the hardware to its limits, I run the HeavyLoad and FurMark with the screen brightness set to maximum.
The stress test shows that the i5 version is only passively cooled. It makes no noise. A faint, barely audible hiss emanates from the Book i7s. After 10 to 15 minutes, both start to make more noise. From my seated position, i.e. about an arm's length from the screen, I measured 41dB for the smaller and 52dB for the larger; this did not change until the end of the test. It's no noisier than the soundscape of a residential area or quiet park.
For almost 50 minutes, the cooling system manages to keep the 15-inch Book's processors running at over 90% capacity. Then it drops rapidly to 58% and continues to drop gradually before remaining at 46% after 71 minutes. Automatic shutdown occurs after 103 minutes.
Not only the aforementioned fan noise, but also the processor's load behaviour show that the 13.5-inch version with i7 and dedicated graphics card has poorer cooling; smaller dimensions in short. The CPU remains at over 90% for just 14 minutes. After that, the load fluctuates around 70%, before heading towards the 50% mark after 67 minutes and ending up between 21% and 53% from the 87th minute onwards. The device switches off after 121 minutes.
Without active cooling, the CPU load of the i5 processor halves in the little Book after just 34 seconds. After that, it fluctuates between 46% and 55% and remains at 53% after 15 minutes. Not surprisingly, the computer only shuts down after 208 minutes. Reduced CPU performance and the lack of a dedicated graphics card lead to longer runtimes during the test.
I'm happy with the actively cooled Book. Their i7 processor can also deliver high clock rates for a longer period, i.e. over nearly 15 minutes or even 50 minutes for the 15-inch Book. In contrast, the passively cooled i5 can't even flex its muscles for a minute.
Battery life for office work
CPU and graphics processor
Graphic cards
The nVidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q in the 13.5-inch Book is a little weaker. It only has 1024 shaders. In addition, its frequency ranging from 1020 to 1245 MHz is lower and it only has 4 GB of video RAM. Its power consumption is 30 watts.
Performance: here's what the Surface Book hardware delivers
In order to test performance, I run various tests; Cinebench R20 and Geekbench 5 for the processors as well as some 3DMark benchmarks to put the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and GTX 1650 Max-Q to the test.
Processor power: Cinebench R20 and Geekbench 5
With Cinebench from Maxon, you can test your PC's performance when rendering Cinema 4D content. Processors with more cores will always show better results (with the exception of the single core result). To compare processors with Cinebench, they must have the same number of threads. And that's what the SoCs tested do.
Here are the results from Cinebench and Geekbench:
In Geekbench 5, the small Book's i7 is better. But then again, the i5 in the Surface Pro 7 mentioned has an advantage. It comes close to the i7 tested here and achieves 4430 multi-core points and 1230 single-core points.
Graphic performance: 3DMark performance tests
3DMark offers a whole host of benchmarks for testing PCs and laptops designed for video games. To give you an idea of the hardware performance of Books with graphics cards, I'm testing a 1080p game (Fire Strike), a WQHD (Time Spy) and a UHD (Time Spy Extreme).
Although the design of the devices looks like anything but gaming, and the screens with their 60Hz aren't suitable for all games, gaming on these devices is possible. With one slightly better than with the others, as the various results show. According to the 3DMark website, the performance of the little Book is somewhere between a desktop computer and a gaming laptop. The larger one just misses the gaming laptop classification.
Gaming and FPS
Now I test the performance by playing Far Cry 5.
In the game, the performance test only partially reflects a real game, as rapid rotations, such as occur when playing with a mouse, are absent. But comparisons with laptops that have already been tested are possible. I set the graphics quality to the highest possible level, at 1080p resolution.
Far Cry 5 with Intel Core i7-1065G7 and nVidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q:
Far Cry 5 with Intel Core i7-1065G7 and nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q:
With an average refresh rate of 42, the GTX 1650 Max-Q delivers decent performance. The minimum FPS doesn't drop below 28 in the benchmark. So, when you're playing Far Cry 5 and need to shoot fast, I'd recommend the second-highest quality level, the one at 1080p.
The GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q achieves an average of 63 FPS with a minimum refresh rate of 46. The Lenovo Legion, with its 1660 Ti without Max-Q design and with a 17% more powerful processor, is again a good comparison. It achieves a low of 72 and an average of 87 FPS.
Balance sheet: if you've got the pennies...
If Microsoft's Books weren't so expensive, I could recommend these devices with no problem. But with the world offering a range of laptops with the same or better hardware at a given price, I have to turn my head to the big budget holders first before making a recommendation to buy. It's true that it takes a long time to find a well-designed 2-in-1 device with similar features. These Books have a certain charm.
Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
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