Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 13.5" 2019, Core i5-1035G7, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Platinum

The Surface Laptop 3 is a beautifully built, ultra-portable machine with a great screen, but the 8GB RAM and aging 10th Gen CPU hold it back. It's best for light productivity work, not heavy multitasking or creative tasks. Worth considering only if you find it at a good discount.

The Core i5-1035G7 is a 4-core chip from 2019, and it sits at the 17th percentile for CPU performance in our database. That's not great. The Iris Plus integrated graphics land at the 43rd percentile, which is fine for spreadsheets and video calls but useless for anything beyond light photo editing. The 8GB of RAM is the real bottleneck here, sitting at the 13th percentile. You'll feel it with more than a dozen browser tabs open. The 256GB SSD is also tight at the 16th percentile. On the plus side, the 2256x1504 PixelSense display is a standout at the 79th percentile, sharp and bright with great touch response.

Against the MacBook Pro M4 Max, this thing gets absolutely smoked on performance, but that's not a fair fight. The MacBook costs several times more and targets a completely different buyer. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and Lenovo Legion 5i are gaming machines with discrete GPUs that make the Surface's Iris Plus look like a calculator. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 and MSI Raider are in the same boat. The Surface Laptop 3 wins on portability and build quality, but loses on every performance metric that matters. It's a different tool for a different job.

Pricing is all over the place for this one. We see it listed at CAD 1,699 in Canada and MXN 54,099 in Mexico, but those are different markets with different taxes and import costs, so don't try to compare them directly. For a laptop with a 10th Gen i5 and 8GB of RAM, that Canadian price feels steep when you can get newer hardware for less. But if you find this used or refurbished at a discount, the build quality and screen make it a decent deal for basic office work.

The Surface Laptop 3 is a weird one to review in 2025. It's a 10th Gen Intel machine with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which sounds ancient next to the M4 MacBooks and RTX gaming laptops it's competing against in our database. But the compact score tells a different story. At the 92nd percentile for portability, this thing still nails the thin and light brief better than most modern laptops.

It's a business machine through and through. Windows 10 Pro, a touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, and that Alcantara deck that people either love or find slightly gross after a year of palm sweat. The specs are modest, but the build quality and screen are where this laptop earns its keep.

Skip this if you need to run demanding software, edit video, or keep dozens of tabs open. The 8GB RAM and 4-core CPU will frustrate you. Also skip it if you need lots of ports, one USB-C and one USB-A is stingy by any standard. And if you're buying new at full retail, don't. There are better values out there with newer hardware.

This is a laptop for people who prioritize portability, build quality, and a great screen over raw performance. If you're a student or office worker who lives in a browser, writes documents, and does video calls, the Surface Laptop 3 still works fine. Just don't expect to edit 4K video or run anything demanding. The 8GB RAM ceiling is the main thing that will age this machine faster than it should.