Microsoft is SO CLOSE - Surface Laptop 2 Review

[Lamothe]

Hey Alex, Black Friday is at our doors and I'm thinking about buying a surface laptop 3... BUT WHERE IS DA REVIEW?!?

 

More seriously, I would love to buy a 15 inch (base model) but all the reviews claim the 3580U chip is not that great... I'd like the additional screen space, but should I go for the 13 inch (base model)? (performance wise)

 

Thanks!

[Deli]

10 hours ago, Lamothe said:

Hey Alex, Black Friday is at our doors and I'm thinking about buying a surface laptop 3... BUT WHERE IS DA REVIEW?!?

 

More seriously, I would love to buy a 15 inch (base model) but all the reviews claim the 3580U chip is not that great... I'd like the additional screen space, but should I go for the 13 inch (base model)? (performance wise)

 

Thanks!

I have yet to find a direct comparison of the 3580u , or for that matter the lesser 3500u to the new Intel Icelake. All I know is the 3500u is on-par in term of CPU performance to Intel i5 8265u. The 8265u has better single core performance, but 3500u does better at multicore(how many stuffs you do are only single core nowadays, please). And then I also know the new Intel Icelake isn't much better than the old Whiskeylake(8265u). Can you draw a conclusion here?

 

However, all the Surface laptop 15' reviews I saw are "AMD cpu, meh." "Microsoft puts the wrong CPU in Surface laptop 15"." They selectively pick some applications that favourite Intel, e.g. Adobe Premiere. If you try DaVinci Resolve, 3500u is actually better, partly because it has a stronger iGPU . To make matter worse. Microsoft decides to put a 45.8Kwh battery in. So people are shouting the battery life is bad because of AMD. Jesus, my cheapy Zenbook 14 has a bigger battery than the much more expensive Surface laptop. I really think some of those reviews are pay-off by Intel. I'm not saying the 3580u is much better than Icelake. However it shouldn't be much worse either, like some reviews want you to believe.

 

I have a Zenbook 14 with 3500u inside, dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. I notice the new Windows update makes the laptop boot up faster. From press the "on" button to ready to use is 8 second exact. Much faster than when I boot Ubuntu. Also Windows has better battery/power management than Linux for AMD. I get noticeable more battery life when using Windows.

[Drak3]

On 11/3/2018 at 7:58 PM, Twilight said:

prefer to have the option of using an eGPU. 

Having played around with eGPU over TB3 in both Windows and Mac, I will never use it for a laptop. It's hot garbage. Only reason I can stand using it on my Mac Mini is because I treat it as a permanent GPU, and it is a worthwhile improvement over Intel UHD.

[Arika]

On ‎11‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 10:07 PM, manikyath said:

its actually worse than that. even microsoft themselves cant do shit. if something breaks its either a refurb or a new one.

ah, the Apple method

 

edit: holy shit, just saw how old this thread was

[AlexTheGreatish]

On 11/28/2019 at 7:48 AM, Lamothe said:

Hey Alex, Black Friday is at our doors and I'm thinking about buying a surface laptop 3... BUT WHERE IS DA REVIEW?!?

 

More seriously, I would love to buy a 15 inch (base model) but all the reviews claim the 3580U chip is not that great... I'd like the additional screen space, but should I go for the 13 inch (base model)? (performance wise)

 

Thanks!

I'd personally go for the 13".  Nothing against the AMD CPU, just I like the size of the 13" more, it has Alcantra as an option, and the WiFi card is a lot better.  Both are pretty good laptops tho