The third generation of the Surface Laptop 3 is
preparing to launch on Oct. 22, and brings a couple of impressive new features
with it.
Standing in the way of the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3’s way
is the newest Dell XPS 13, which maintains its class-leading form factor
and updates to Intel’s latest 10th-gen CPUs. Which of these two premium laptops
is worth your hard-earned cash?
Design
The XPS 13 looks the same from the outside this time
around, and that’s just fine — there wasn’t much to improve. It’s an attractive
laptop that sports its trademark tiny bezels and diminutive chassis built
around a 13.3-inch display. The Surface Laptop
3 is similar to its predecessor, being the same size — with the same larger
bezels surrounding the 13.5-inch 3:2 display — but with some minor aesthetic
changes.
For example, the red color from the previous model is no
longer available and there are four color options including black, gold,
silver, and blue. The black and gold models skip the Alcantara fabric that was
the laptop’s trademark and instead have aluminum keyboard decks.
You won’t find fault with either of these laptops build
quality. The XPS 13 has the same metal and carbon fiber materials, while the
Surface Laptop 3 is all-aluminum except for the models with Alcantara fabric. Microsoft
Support Phone numberhas answered one complaint from the previous versions,
specifically that the laptop was impossible to repair or upgrade. Now, service
centers (not users) can remove the keyboard tray and access the components
inside, including the solid-state drive (SSD). The XPS 13 is similarly
expandable and more accessible to users.
The XPS 13 has the same snappy keyboard that’s was in its
most recent versions, and its excellent with sufficient travel and a precise
mechanism. The Surface
Laptop 3’s keyboard was updated from the previous models, now with 13mm of
travel, 19mm of pitch between keys, and sculpted keycaps.
We haven’t had a chance to try the new version, but the
previous keyboards were excellent. Both laptops have well-sized Microsoft
Support Phone numberPrecision touchpads — the Surface Laptop 3’s is 20 percent
larger — with support for the full gamut of Windows 10 multitouch
gestures. Like all Surface devices, the display is touch-enabled and supports
the Surface Pen, while the XPS 13 has both touch and non-touch display options.
Both laptops offer excellent displays. The XPS 13 offers
more choice, including touch and non-touch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution
displays with good contrast and colors, and a superior 4K
(3,840 x 2,160) touch display with excellent colors and contrast. The Surface
Laptop 3 benefits from a larger 13.5-inch display in the productivity-friendly
3:2 aspect ration, and has a high resolution of 2,256 x 1,504. Past Surface
displays have also had excellent contrast but average color support, and we
expect the same this time around.
Finally, the XPS 13 comes with two USB-C with Thunderbolt
3 ports and a single USB-C 3.1 port to go with a microSD card reader. The
Surface Laptop 3 finally adds in a USB-C 3.1 port, which unfortunately doesn’t
support Thunderbolt 3, along with a USB-A 3.1 port
and the Surface Connect port for charging. Microsoft Support Phone numberdid
not build in an SD card reader. Both laptops support the latest Wi-Fi 6
standard and Bluetooth 5.
Performance
Intel recently released two new 10th-gen lines of laptop
CPUs. The XPS 13 and Surface Laptop 3 are two of the first to implement them,
choosing between them becomes a challenge. First, the XPS 13 is built around
the Comet Lake 10th-gen processors, which use the older 14nm architecture and provide
increased core counts and clock speeds. Importantly, the XPS 13 will eventually
be configurable with the top-level, six-core Core i7 Comet Lake part. The two
extra cores should provide a meaningful advantage in multithreaded performance
— important
for anyone who runs demanding apps like video editing.
The Surface Laptop 3, on the other hand, uses Intel’s new
Ice Lake 10nm processors. These CPUs focus on providing increased IPC
(instructions per core) via some new instructions that leverage parallel
operations to run legacy programs faster. In addition, Ice Lake uses Intel’s
new Iris Plus integrated graphics — bringing Nvidia
MX150-level graphical performance.
We haven’t fully tested the laptops yet to make a direct
comparison, but it will be interesting to see which has the advantage. It’s
likely that each CPU, and therefore each laptop, will perform some tasks faster
and some slower. There will likely be power efficiency differences as well. Stay tuned for
more.
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