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That being said, the XPS 15 and 16-inch MacBook Pro (especially the latter) produce strong sound that my colleagues have raved about, while I wouldn't tell someone to use the Surface Book 3 as their new sound system. My favorite part of the Surface Book 3 sound is that its speakers are located on both sides of its display (for when it's detached), which make it feel like sound is coming from all around the laptop, and not from below, as most laptops speakers are in the deck. Not only do they get loud enough for a laptop, but there's some bass in there and vocals come through clearly as well. Listening to Run The Jewels' "Ooh La La" on the Surface Book 3, I was pleased with the Surface Book 3's speakers. It read my taps and swipes precisely, and offered speedy and smooth scrolling. The Surface Book 3's 4.1 x 2.75-inch glass touchpad is one of the best I've ever used. Not only does each key have a pleasant amount of feedback, but each has enough vertical travel to prevent that pain of repeatedly bottoming-out, hitting the deck of the deck of the keyboard as much as you're clicking the key. While I hit a respectable (for me) 72 words per minute, not too far from my 80 wpm average, that speed was inconsequential compared to how Microsoft gets the key-click feel right. Testing the Surface Book 3 keyboard out on the 10fastfingers typing test, I quickly noticed that this Surface is a joy for typing. Microsoft Surface Book 3: Keyboard, touchpad It also speedly recognized taps and navigational gestures as I navigated Windows 10. I experienced smooth scrolling as I skimmed through the Start Menu and large Chrome docs. The Surface Book 3's 15-inch panel offers responsive touch-based input. The 429-nit MacBook Pro gets even brighter. That's not enough, though, for colors not to slightly darken when viewed at 35 degrees to the left and right, but it still beats the 371-nit XPS 15. The Surface Book 3's screen also gets plenty bright, as our light gun picked up a maximum of 402 nits. That's not bad, but the XPS 15 (115%) and 16-inch MacBook Pro (114%) both pump out more color. Our colorimeter rated the Surface Book 3's screen as producing 101% of the sRGB spectrum.
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The 13.5-inch Surface Book 3 starts at $1,599, with a config that has a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. I hope you prospective Surface Book 3 owners have been saving! The 15-inch Surface Book 3 we tested starts at $2,299, and while its 10th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU and 16GB of RAM are nice, its 256GB of SSD space is too little at this rich a price point. Microsoft Surface Book 3 (13.5-Inch) (Blue) at Microsoft US for $39.99 (opens in new tab).Microsoft Surface Book 3: Price and configurations $1,599 (integrated graphics) / $1,999 (discrete GPU)Ģ USB Type-A, 1 USB Type-C, SD Card, 3.5mm audioĭual far-field mics, Front-facing stereo speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
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