Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 for Business packs faster performance and longer battery life than its AMD-powered sibling.
FOR
- Slim, lightweight chassis
- Attractive metal design
- Fast performance
- Comfortable keyboard
- Long battery life
AGAINST
- Scant port selection
- Integrated graphics still underperform
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 for Business, powered by 10th Gen Intel processors, fixes almost every criticism we had with the AMD model. Not only does it provide faster performance, but the enterprise model lasts for 1.5 hours longer on a charge. You get all those benefits without giving up the Surface Laptop 3’s slim, aluminum design and gorgeous 15-inch display.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel) price and configuration options
The Intel version of the Surface Laptop 3, or the Surface Laptop 3 for Business, starts at $1,299 for a base model equipped with a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.
That’s not enough storage for most people so we recommend spending $1,399 for the 256GB SSD model. That storage bump normally costs $300 but an ongoing $200 off discount spares customers of Microsoft’s overpriced upgrade.
Our $1,599 (retail price is $1,799) review unit packs a Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Doubling storage to 512GB runs up the bill to $1,999.
This Surface Laptop 3 for Business won’t be sold at your local Best Buy. You can buy this version at online retailers that specialize in business products and from Microsoft’s online store.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch, Intel) design
There are no visible differences between the Intel and AMD versions of the Surface Laptop 3. You get the same sleek aluminum notebook that’s just as thin (0.6 inches) as the 13-inch model. The Surface Laptop 3 ended up being a great laptop to bring on my basic economy flight, as it slid into the interior sleeve of my stuffed backpack.
Just as impressive is how lightweight this laptop is. I could hardly feel the 3.4-pound Surface Laptop 3 in my backpack when I carried it from our Manhattan office to my apartment in Brooklyn. Although the Surface Laptop 3 isn’t as portable as the 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (0.6 inches, 2.1 pounds), it’s significantly lighter and thinner than the Dell XPS 15 (0.7 inches, 4.5 pounds).