Tempted by Microsoft’s new top-dog Surface Book 3, but not sure if it’s a hybrid or a standard laptop? Then don’t sweat it as the team at Trusted Towers are here to answer the key question on every buyer’s lips…
Is the Surface Book 3 detachable?
Yes, the Surface Book 3 is detachable. It features a main tablet section that can be removed from the keyboard dock and used as a stand-alone device.
The only downside to detaching the tablet section is that it’ll radically decrease performance, particularly when gaming or video editing. This is because, like past entries into the line, the Surface Book 3’s GPU is housed in the keyboard dock. This is a key reason the device doesn’t overheat and is light enough to be held in one arm when used as a stand-alone tablet.
The Surface Book 3 was unveiled alongside Microsoft’s smaller, and significantly cheaper, Surface Go 2 in May. It’s being marketed at power-users and professional developers, artists and designers on the hunt for a flexible powerhouse laptop-come-tablet that can be used for demanding computational work.
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As a bonus, Microsoft specifically claims, the Surface Book 3 will play any game on Xbox Game Pass in 1080p at 60 fps (frames per second).
From a hardware perspective, there’s plenty of evidence to back up this claim. The Surface Book 3 is available in 13 and 15-inch variants, both of which come with Intel 10th Gen CPU and Nvidia graphics options. These include Nvidia GeForce graphics for regular gamers and power users and a new Quadro option for more serious creative professionals and academics.
As a further boon, it’s also being marketed as having “the fastest SSD” Microsoft has ever shipped. The firm hasn’t revealed the exact SSD used.
The only downside is that the device is seriously expensive. The bottom specced Surface Book 3 is set to retail for a heft $1599 in the US when it starts shipping on 21 May. That puts it in the same league as Apple’s new 13-inch Macbook Pro. UK pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but given Microsoft’s past strategy, we expect it to be about the same as the US.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
