With a large 3:2 screen, a comfortable touchpad, light weight for its size, and decent performance (powered by new partner AMD), Microsoft's larger-screen Surface Laptop 3 is an excellent mainstream machine.

Attractive, unassuming design; Thin and light for a 15-inch laptop; Bright, vivid 3:2 display; Comfortable touchpad.

Optional extras (such as the Surface Dock) are pricey; Limited selection of ports; No Wi-Fi 6 support.

As you might have noticed, each of these options forces you to make a compromise. That's where the Surface Laptop 3 finds its niche, because as an ultraportable laptop with a large display, there's nothing else like it.

Slim; lightweight chassis; Attractive metal design; Bright; vivid 15-inch display; Loud; clear speakers

Mediocre battery life; Underwhelming performance; Slow; expensive SSD; Limited ports

The Surface Laptop was a fine device when it launched, and the Surface Laptop 2 improved it quite a bit with the addition of quad-core processors. But both had their success hampered somewhat by some bad design decisions, which Microsoft has thankfully corrected with the Surface Laptop 3 family.

Thin; Portable; Incredible GPU performance.

Battery life is middling; Keys can feel mushy; Aluminum finish picks up hand grease fast.

The Surface Laptop 3 is a striking-looking laptop that may disappoint with its performance.

Elegant metallic design, Excellent audio, Bright, colorful screen

Middling performance, Slow SSD, Unimpressive battery life for the price

This was meant to be it. After working with AMD on Xbox, Microsoft was going to unleash an AMD-powered laptop that would blow the figurative doors off every laptop held back by having Intel silicon.

Metal appearance is far better than cloth; 3:2 display; Points for giving AMD a run; Nice keyboard

Disappointing battery life; One side vacant of USB ports

We expected the Surface Laptop 3 15 to be a MacBook Pro 15 rival, but it can't deliver the compute or graphical performance that Apple's high-end machines can. Then there are laptops like the XPS 15 that offer more power for the same or less money.

Brilliant keyboard and trackpad; lovely display; clean aesthetics.

Expensive; no Thunderbolt 3; middling battery life; the custom AMD chip doesn't offer zen-like performance.

Having being hamstrung on desktop, Intel needs a win and is eager to highlight its advantages in the mobile space, where efficiency, Wi-Fi capabilities and battery life are more pressing concerns than sheer core count.

15in 3:2 PixelSense display; Sleek; robust aluminium chassis; Outstanding keyboard and trackpad; Choice of Intel or AMD configurations; Enough GPU power for casual gaming; LPDDR4X and Wi-Fi 6 on Intel model; Silent at low load; quiet when pushed

Middling battery life on AMD model; Lacks support for Thunderbolt; Limited port selection

The Surface Laptop 3 13 may not be a massive upgrade on the Surface Laptop 2, but upgrades such as Intel's 10th Generation Ice Lake processor and a couple of new colour options are enough to keep this ultrabook among the very best

Classy; ultra-portable design; Excellent performance; Stunning 3:2 display; Fantastic keyboard

Middling battery life; Lack of Thunderbolt 3

The new 15in Surface Laptop 3 retains much of the charm and style of the 13.5in version, while adding some welcome extra desktop space

Slim and light; Big; sharp display; Excellent keyboard and touchpad

Performance isn't first class; Lacks Wi-Fi 6; Limited physical connectivity