Microsoft presents Surface Laptop 3 with custom AMD Ryzen processor

Microsoft has presented the third generation of its Surface Laptop. The 13″ version has an Intel 10nm processor from the Ice Lake generation, while the 15″ version has the AMD Ryzen 7 Surface Edition CPU.

The 15″ variant has an AMD processor with integrated Vega 11 GPU. This gives the processor a more powerful GPU than existing AMD laptop processors, which are equipped with Vega 8 or Vega 10. Microsoft talks about the Ryzen 7 Surface Edition and gives few details, but AMD has put more information online about the chip.It appears to be the Ryzen 7 3780U with Zen+ cores and not a chip with the new Zen 2 architecture.

Both laptops have a 3:2 LCD and a keyboard with 1.3mm travel on the keys, slightly less than the previous versions, which had 1.5mm travel. However, according to the manufacturer, the trackpad is 20 percent larger than before. The Alcantara version is no longer the standard version, because they will have an aluminum finish. The housing is also now easy to open with unnamed tools, something that is not possible with previous Surface Laptops. This makes it possible to replace parts.

The Surface Laptop 3 also has USB-C, where the previous laptops do not have that port. The 13″ version starts at a price of $999 in the United States, the 15″ version with AMD processor has a suggested retail price from $1499.

Update, 21:40: Microsoft announces that the Surface Laptop 3 will be available on October 22 for 1149 euros, while the 15″ version will be released the same day for 1349 euros.

* Renders and prices: Roland Quandt