Microsoft Surface Book 3 15-inch Review: The Best Laptop Form Factor!

The Microsoft Surface Book 3 is Microsoft’s most powerful laptop. It’s also Microsoft’s most interesting laptop. See, the Surface Book series isn’t like the Surface Pro or Surface Laptop series. The Surface Pro is a Windows tablet with an attachable keyboard and a trackpad. The Surface Laptop is just a Microsoft-made laptop. The Surface Book takes the best of both worlds—a laptop with a removable screen that turns into a tablet.

Microsoft Surface Book 3 Specifications

Tech Specs	Surface Book 3 13″	Surface Book 3 15″
Display	Screen: 13.5” PixelSense Display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 10 point multi-touch G5	Screen: 15” PixelSense Display Resolution: 3240 x 2160, (260 PPI) Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 10 point multi-touch G5
Available Models	Quad-core 10th gen Intel® Core i5-1035G7 processor Or Quad-core 10th Gen Intel® Core i7-1065G7 Processor	Quad-core 10th Gen Intel® Core i7-1065G7
Graphics	Intel® i5-1035G7 models: Intel® Iris Plus Graphics Or Intel® i7-1065G7 models: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 with Max-Q Design with 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory	Intel® i7-1065G7 models NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q Design with 6GB GDDR6 graphics memory
Windows OS	Ships with 64-bit Windows 10 Pro and Home	Ships with 64-bit Windows 10 Pro and Home
Dimensions	Intel Core i5: 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm) Intel Core i7: 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.59”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 15 mm-23 mm)	Intel Core i7: 13.5” x 9.87” x 0.568-0.90” (343 mm x 251 mm x 15 mm-23 mm)
Weight	Intel Core i5 Total – 1534 g (3.38 lbs) Tablet – 719 g (1.59 lbs) Intel Core i7 Total – 1642 g (3.62 lbs) Tablet – 719 g (1.59 lbs)	Intel Core i7 Total – 1905 g (4.20 lbs) Tablet – 817 g (1.80 lbs)
Battery	Connected to keyboard base: Up to 15.5 hours of typical device usage	Connected to keyboard base: Up to 17.5 hours of typical device usage
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax compatible Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology	Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax compatible Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology Xbox Wireless built-in
Ports	2 x USB-A (version 3.1 Gen 2) 1 x USB-C (version 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Power Delivery revision 3.0) 3.5mm headphone jack 2 x Surface Connect ports (one on keyboard base, one on tablet) Full-size SDXC card reader Compatible with Surface Dial on- and off-screen interaction	2 x USB-A (version 3.1 Gen 2) 1 x USB-C (version 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Power Delivery revision 3.0) 3.5mm headphone jack 2 x Surface Connect ports (one on keyboard base, one on tablet) Full-size SDXC card reader Compatible with Surface Dial on- and off-screen interaction
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Cameras	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video
Audio	Dual far-field Studio Mics Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos®	Dual far-field Studio Mics Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos®
Keyboard and Trackpad	Full-size, backlit keyboard with 1.55mm of full key travel Glass trackpad with anti-fingerprint coating and improved multi-finger gestures	Full-size, backlit keyboard with 1.55mm of full key travel Glass trackpad with anti-fingerprint coating and improved multi-finger gestures
Modes	Laptop Mode, Tablet Mode, View Mode or Studio Mode	Laptop Mode, Tablet Mode, View Mode or Studio Mode
In the Box	Intel Core i5 65W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (5W) charging port Intel Core i7 102W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (7W) charging port Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	127W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (7W) charging port Quick Start Guide

About this review: I received the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 from Microsoft on May 12th, 2020. I later purchased the Surface Book 3 13.5-inch at retail price for personal and school use.

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Microsoft Surface Book 3: Design

When shopping for laptops, you’ll find that most laptops have the same basic design. There’s a display, a hinge that can bend, and a body with a keyboard. You open up the lid and there’s a keyboard with a screen there. If I asked anyone to describe a laptop, this would be the most basic description you would get. In the most basic sense, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 15-inch matches this description. When you use it normally, it is a laptop. It has the hinge, the screen, and the keyboard. By all measures, it is a laptop.

The difference comes with the overall form factor. See, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 has two parts to it. You have the display and the keyboard. The display is a little more than just a display, though: It’s a fully functioning tablet. All the internals from the CPU to RAM to SSD to battery are stored behind the display. That means when you push the release button on the keyboard, the display pops off and you have a fully functional Windows tablet.

The keyboard is what makes this a Surface Book instead of a Surface Pro. The keyboard provides a full-sized typing experience along with a dedicated GPU and extra battery. That means when the screen is docked to the keyboard, you get longer battery life and some extra graphics horsepower for gaming or CUDA-accelerated tasks.

Something that gives me some nice throwbacks to the old Lenovo laptops is the rotating screen. When you detach the display, you can flip it around and actually fold it down. You can use this in what is commonly referred to as “tent mode” and what I like to call “thick tablet mode.” Thick tablet mode is basically just going to get you extra battery life while using your Surface Book flat on a table. It’s great for taking notes or drawing, but since the device needs to be flat, it does limit what you can do. Tent mode is absolutely fantastic for gaming with an Xbox controller or watching movies. You don’t have to worry about the keyboard being in the way, it’s just a full-screen experience. The Microsoft Surface Book 3 has front-facing speakers, so the audio is directed right at you which makes for a fantastic media consumption experience since the display is high resolution.

When I was using the laptop, I found that I was using it mostly in the laptop-style. I’m thankful that I have the option to switch to tablet or tent mode, though. A lot of my friends have bought a tablet but then later regretted not getting a laptop, or they bought a laptop and regretted not getting a tablet. With the Microsoft Surface Book 3, you get both form factors.

It’s refreshing to be able to look at something on your laptop and just press a button to take the display off the keyboard and continue what you were doing. Instead of being stuck at a desk or awkwardly holding the laptop, you have a full-powered Windows tablet whenever you want it. Few other devices can offer this same experience with the same level of polish as the Microsoft Surface Book 3.

Microsoft Surface Book 3: Hardware

Before I get into the hardware part of this review, I want to be clear: the Microsoft Surface Book 3 is not an affordable computer. If you are going to be using this computer as a normal laptop for basic web browsing, document editing, schoolwork, etc., there are a lot of laptops out there that offer greater value. This is a device meant for people that want both a laptop and a tablet without having to carry around multiple devices.

The 15-inch Surface Book 3 that Microsoft sent me came with a 512GB NVMe SSD and 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM. There are a few different options for SSD and RAM capacities ranging from 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM to 2TB of storage and 32GB of RAM. Neither the RAM nor the SSD are user-replaceable and are soldered to the motherboard.

Across all 15-inch models, you will find the 10th generation Intel Core i7-1065G7. For consumers, all 15-inch models will come with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memory. The enterprise-grade 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 has an option for an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 GPU with 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memory. The GPUs are only available while docked in the keyboard because they’re actually part of the keyboard half and are not placed behind the display like most other parts.

The display on the Microsoft Surface Book 3 is a 15-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 3240 x 2160 with a 260 ppi. It has an aspect ratio of 3:2 and a contrast ratio of 1600:1. It supports 10 point multi-touch. The Surface Book 3 has a fantastic display, but it doesn’t get too bright while using it outside. There’s nothing jaw-dropping about it either, I would have loved to have seen an OLED display or high refresh rate, but the display is good anyway and I can’t complain too much. It also supports Active Pen, so you can use any active pen stylus on the computer. Both the left and right side of the display have magnets to hold a Surface Pen if you choose to get one.

The number of ports on computers has become less and less in recent years, but luckily Microsoft decided to provide a good amount of them on the Surface Book 3. On the left side of the keyboard, there are two full-sized USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports and a full-sized SD Card slot. On the right side of the keyboard, there is a Surface Connect port and a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. On the top left of the tablet/body, there is a headphone jack. There is also a Surface Connect port at the bottom of the tablet, but this is mainly used for connecting the tablet to the keyboard to become the laptop.

The keyboard itself is a full-sized keyboard without the number pad. It uses membrane switches, which is expected for most laptops. All around, I find it to be an absolutely fantastic keyboard. This is one of my favorite keyboards to type on, outside of my usual mechanical keyboard. The trackpad is right below the keyboard and there’s nothing too special about it. It’s a Microsoft trackpad, though, which means it feels very good to use. I do wish it was a little larger, though. Apple made the right move increasing the size on the Macbooks.

For battery life, Microsoft doesn’t provide battery capacity numbers but they do claim about 17.5 hours of battery life on the Surface Book 3 while it’s connected to the keyboard. Of course, not everyone is going to get the same battery life. I was able to get around 10 hours of constant usage out of the device. My usage ranged from playing a little No Man’s Sky to watching videos on YouTube and editing documents in Microsoft Word. In tablet mode, I noticed battery life to be around two hours. This device is obviously laptop-first but there is still the added flexibility of using it as a tablet even if it doesn’t last as long. The computer has a 127W charger in the box and charges over the Surface Connect port.

Microsoft includes two front-facing speakers inside the front bezel of the display. They are good but not fantastic. They do support Dolby Atmos, which is a plus if you’re into their tuning. In that front bezel, we also have the 2 dual far-field studio mics. In between those microphones is a 5MP 1080p HD front-facing camera and a Windows Hello IR camera for secure facial recognition. On the back, we have an 8MP 1080p HD camera with autofocus.

Windows Hello is by far one of the best features that should be available across all Windows computers. As soon as you open the screen, the computer scans your face and unlocks it. It can’t easily be tricked by a picture and just feels very seamless. It’s by far one of the best additions to the Microsoft Surface Book 3 that makes it a great computer.

As for connectivity, the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 supports Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax. It is using an Intel wireless card which is soldered to the motherboard. The laptop supports Bluetooth 5.0 but not the slightly newer Bluetooth 5.1 or 5.2 standards. Included in only the 15-inch model is an Xbox Wireless adapter built-in. This means you won’t need to connect an Xbox controller to your 15-inch Surface Book 3 using Bluetooth, like on most other machines, as the device supports the same connection used by the Xbox itself. It’s very nice to have this included and is great for people who have the Xbox One but not the Xbox One S. The Xbox One S controller came with Bluetooth as standard while the Xbox One controller did not.

Microsoft made the Surface Book 3 in just one color, Platinum. It’s a muted gray that I think looks pretty good. I did end up applying a skin on my Surface Book 3, though. The body of the computer is made of magnesium so it’s fairly light but durable. I only say “fairly” light because it does come in at 4.20lbs, or 1,905g, including the keyboard. This isn’t really heavy for a laptop like this, but at the same time, it isn’t really light. Most of the weight does come from the keyboard with its extra battery and GPU, so when you undock the tablet, it feels much lighter.

Something I also wanted to talk about before getting into the performance is thermal/heat management. When doing most normal tasks, I really never had any complaints about the computer overheating. The PC really never throttled and the fans barely kicked in. One great advantage of having the CPU and most internals behind the display is that when you use the laptop on your lap, you won’t feel any heat. The laptop isn’t going to burn your legs like a lot of other high-performance laptops might.

Performance

The performance on a laptop can be covered through a few different lenses. We can talk about video editing performance, gaming performance, compiling performance, synthetic benchmark performance, and more. For this review, I’m going to focus on video editing, gaming, and development.

I tested the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 against a few different computers to get a comparison between the machines. The other PCs I used for comparison are the Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018 with the Intel i7-8550U and NVIDIA GTX MX150 GPU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD; the Surface Laptop 3 with the Intel i7-1065G7 CPU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD; and my gaming desktop with an Intel i7-9700K and NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti along with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. Obviously, these machines are not meant to match a gaming desktop, but I still wanted to throw it in to see how well the Surface Book 3 fares.

Specs	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 (2018)	Custom Desktop
CPU	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz Base speed: 1.50 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz Base speed: 1.50 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz Base speed: 1.99 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz Base speed: 3.60 GHz Cores: 8 Logical processors: 8
Dedicated GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	N/A	NVIDIA GeForce GTX M150	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
RAM	32GB LPDDR4x @ 3773 MHz	16GB LPDDR4x @ 3773 MHz	16GB LPDDR3 @ 2133 MHz	32GB DDR5 @ 3200 MHz
SSD	512GB PCIe NVMe SSD	512GB SSD	512GB SSD	1TB NVMe SSD

I know this comparison between three laptops might not be fair, but Microsoft did tell me this was supposed to be as powerful as a desktop. At the same time, it is a laptop-tablet convertible, so comparing against a true modern laptop and a 2-year-old flagship laptop gives a good comparison between current-gen and previous-gen devices.

For the testing environment, I tested each computer in the same situation across all benchmarks. All the computers were plugged in and set to the maximum performance power mode. I closed all background apps besides Google Chrome, Telegram, Discord, and any needed benchmarking tools. This is to give a real-life usage situation. Not everyone is going to want to close every app running on the machine while using it.

For the video editing test, I took a 5 minute 4K 60fps recording from my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, opened it in Davinci Resolve, made a few edits, and rendered the resulting video at 4K 60fps. To make sure the file was the same, I copied the same project to each computer.

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Time (m:s)	26:42	24:21	15:01	3:22

As you would expect, my desktop PC performed the best.  Surprisingly, the Surface Laptop 3 outperformed the Huawei MateBook X Pro. Resolve does seem to be more CPU than GPU intensive, which could make sense. The Microsoft Surface Book 3 obviously outdid both laptops by a good 10-minute margin.

For the gaming test, I took three different games and ran them on each computer using Fraps to record the minimum FPS, maximum FPS, and average FPS. I tested each PC in Overwatch and Hyper Scape. Each game was set to the same settings across machines. These aren’t the most graphics-intensive games but they are games I could see being popular on laptops. I did also run a few games like No Man’s Sky, Sea of Thieves, Destiny 2, and My Friend Pedro, and all of them were able to run at a stable 60fps at 1080p.

Overwatch

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Min. FPS	12	1	45	49
Max. FPS	50	62	73	223
Average FPS	41.532	34.567	64.573	167.165

Overwatch FPS Test

Hyper Scape

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Min. FPS	20	N/A	57	198
Max. FPS	55	N/A	63	300
Average FPS	42.086	N/A	59.933	238.573

Hyper Scape

As you would expect, my desktop performed the best with the Microsoft Surface Book 3 coming in second. Right behind that was the MateBook X Pro and in a not-at-all shocking last place was the Surface Laptop 3. The margin between the Surface Laptop 3 and MateBook X Pro was smaller than expected seeing as the MateBook X Pro has a dedicated GPU while the Surface Laptop 3 has Intel Iris Plus integrated graphics.

Unfortunately, I was not able to test the Surface Laptop 3 in Hyper Scape. Hyper Scape has a minimum graphics driver level required to play, and unfortunately, Microsoft had not pushed that driver yet. Microsoft doesn’t allow the newest drivers for included parts, but instead tests and approves their own with each update. This is for stability purposes and is generally appreciated though it causes issues in cases like this.

In the development test, I originally wanted to see how much time it would take for each machine to compile a full LineageOS ROM using WSL2, AKA Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, for one of my phones. Unfortunately, this was unrealistic to run on each device due to the storage size requirement and the amount of time it would take to run on each device. So instead, I just built Lineage OS 17.1 for the OnePlus 7 Pro on just the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3. In total, it took 5 hours and 8 minutes to compile the ROM using WSL2 (Ubuntu). This is by no means fast but about expected for the specs of the computer. This machine would thus be a great companion for those who have a build server or a more powerful PC at home to build the ROMs.

3 hours and 31 minutes into building Lineage OS for the OnePlus 7 Pro on the Surface Book 3. pic.twitter.com/px5hnVghcK

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) July 30, 2020

As a more generic CPU and compute benchmark, I also ran Geekbench on all four devices. The scores are pretty in line with the expected values of the CPUs and GPUs on each laptop.

Laptops Tested	MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Single Core	928	800	758	1213
Multi Core	2720	2673	3169	6536
Compute (Vulkan)	8854	6236	41514	74931
Compute (CUDA)	8512	N/A	59462	50536
Compute (OpenCL)	8737	5725	53574	53156

The performance of the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 is all around great. While it is not as fast as my desktop, obviously, it is plenty fast. It’s within spitting distance of the other comparison laptops in terms of computing performance and can easily run most games you throw at it, as long as you don’t push the settings too hard. It can definitely render and edit videos but it won’t be as good as a powerful desktop, once again.

Overall, I have no complaints about the performance, and while the 45W TDP CPU would have been nice, the 25W chip is more than powerful enough and doesn’t have any of the throttling issues the 45W would have had.

Software

The Surface Book 3 is, of course, a Microsoft product. That means it runs Windows 10. The unit Microsoft sent me came preloaded with Windows 10 Pro 1903 which was then updated to Windows 10 Pro 1909. That doesn’t really matter, though as Windows on this device is the same Windows that you can expect on other Windows devices. So instead of reviewing Windows 10 as a whole, I’m just going to go over a couple of things that I really like about Windows on the Surface Book 3.

Before we get into that, though, there is one thing that you get on the Surface that you won’t get with other brands—stable updates. With Windows, generally, each company supports each part separately. That means if you have a laptop from Dell with an NVIDIA GPU, Intel CPU, and Broadcom wireless card, each of those companies would push their own driver updates for the respective parts. The same goes for Microsoft—except Microsoft tests each driver update and are the ones who push only stable and tested drivers to the computers. This means you won’t have to worry about an NVIDIA driver update killing performance or an Intel wireless driver update making connectivity worse. Microsoft also exercises control over the rollout, so if a bug does sneak past, the update is paused before it reaches a wider audience.

The first thing I want to mention, as XDA is all about Android phones, is the Your Phone app. This is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s ecosystem as a whole. Your Phone lets you access most parts of your Android phone from your Windows 10 machine. On any Windows 10 machine with any Android phone, you can access your messages, phone calls, pictures, music controls, and notifications. To connect Your Phone to your phone, you just need to use the Your Phone Companion app from the Google Play Store.

If you’re using a Samsung phone, the Your Phone suite gets even better. Samsung and Microsoft partnered for better connectivity between the phone and the computer. The Link to Windows service, also known as Your Phone Companion, is built into the phone. This allows for clipboard syncing between the phone and computer. It also allows for remote connectivity of the phone screen. You’re able to mirror your phone to your computer and control it remotely. Both of these features are in addition to the aforementioned suite of phone controls. It’s all-around great and I really like it!

Another great feature is on the gaming side. Microsoft has greatly improved the Xbox Game Bar from its earlier version. Microsoft added new widgets to the screen where you can have easy access to certain information or controls. For example, the Spotify widget lets you control music or switch playlists. It even integrates with Spotify Connect, so you can control music playing on your phone from the Xbox Game Bar.

The widgets aren’t the only thing that makes the Xbox Game Bar great. There are three specific Capture settings that let you take screen recordings, screenshots, or, if enabled, save a 15-second to 10-minute background recording. A built-in high-quality screen recorder is absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite things about Xbox Game Bar.

There are a lot more features in Windows besides this that are useful for this laptop and tablet form factor. As a student, the one I think is the best is Microsoft Whiteboard. It’s a full-fledged whiteboard but you’re able to change the background to lined paper or graphing paper. You can change the color or type of marker on the board. You can even share a link to it and have friends or teammates write on the same virtual whiteboard as you at the same time!

One new feature on the developer side is Windows Terminal. It’s just like the old command prompt or PowerShell terminal, except its command prompt, PowerShell, and Linux subsystem in one. You have full access to all command lines in one application. It makes life really easy and it’s been my go-to for tinkering since I installed it.

There are a lot of small things throughout Windows 10 that make it an all-around great computing experience. These same experiences are what makes the Microsoft Surface Book 3 a great computer.

Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Book 3?

Unfortunately, this laptop is by no means a great value PC. It has a less powerful CPU and GPU with less storage than the competition for the same price. For the $2,799 that this laptop costs for the 512GB storage and 32GB RAM spec Microsoft sent me, you could get a significantly much more powerful computer. You could get something with the new Ryzen 4000 series CPU or a 45W i9 CPU from Intel. You could get a Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition with a 300Hz FHD display, RTX 2070 GPU, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $200 less. That laptop is by far a better value product, and even that isn’t the best value compared to other laptops. And we aren’t even considering building your own desktops in that budget!

The Microsoft Surface Book 3, and the Surface lineup in general, aren’t about offering the best possible specs for the price. It’s about the experience you get while using the laptop. Microsoft is always conservative with specs while charging a high price, but with those specs and prices, you are getting an experience no other company offers. I have yet to find another device that feels as good to use as the Microsoft Surface Book 3 15”, or even the Surface series in general.

The experience and form factor of Microsoft’s Surface Book 3 is so good that I even went and purchased one for myself. I ended up going for the 13.5” model because the 15” is just a little too big for me. I’m starting college in a few months and I needed a laptop. I thought the ability to turn it into a tablet with the push of a button would be absolutely fantastic for classes. That, along with the full-sized keyboard and great design, was hard to pass up. I could take notes on it like a notepad, then dock it and write an essay, and then do an APK teardown. No need to have an iPad for writing notes and a laptop for writing essays and more powerful work. The Surface Book 3 just checks every box for me and even lets me cut down on devices!

Buy the Microsoft Surface Book 3: Microsoft USA ||| Microsoft UK ||| Microsoft AU

Amazon USA (Affiliate Link) || Best Buy USA

I really love the Surface Book 3 and if you’re interested in getting one, there are a few different options. Microsoft sells it directly starting at $1,599 for the 13.5-inch and $2,299 for the 15-inch model. At the time of writing this review, the Surface Book 3 is on sale for $200 off across the board. If you are a student or teacher, you can sign up for the education discount to get an extra 10% off the laptop.

The post Microsoft Surface Book 3 15-inch Review: The Best Laptop Form Factor! appeared first on xda-developers.

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AUKEY Omnia 65W Charger Review – For all your Type-C charging needs

Since COVID-19 took over our lives, many of us have become more reliant than ever on PCs and smartphones to stay connected. When you’re at home, there isn’t much of a need to run to a charger, but I’m sure some of you have a lot of devices to charge. Every device usually comes with its own charger, some of which are large bricks that take up way too much space. I personally have a lot of these to deal with, so I jumped at the chance to review the AUKEY Omnia Mix and AUKEY Omnia Duo, a pair of small and lightweight 65W Type-C chargers. I’ve been using these two chargers to power my smartphones, laptops, and other devices for the last few months, so here’s my brief review.

AUKEY Omnia Mix Specifications	AUKEY Omnia Duo Specifications
Model: PA-B3 Dimensions: 52 x 52 x 30mm Weight: 109g Input: AC 100-240V 50/60Hz USB-C Out: (Max 65W) 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25A USB-A Out: 5V/2.4A Total Out: 65W IC: AUKEY OmniaChip Features: AUKEY Dynamic Detect MSRP: $49.99 Current price on Amazon: $37.99	Model: PA-B4 Dimensions: 52 x 52 x 30mm Weight: 111g Input: AC 100-240V 50/60Hz USB-C Out 1: (Max 65W) 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25A USB-C Out 2: (Max 18W) 5V/2.4A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A Total Out: 65W IC: AUKEY OmniaChip Features: AUKEY Dynamic Detect MSRP: $59.99 Current price on Amazon: $45.99

Disclaimer: AUKEY provided me the Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo chargers for review. However, the company did not have any input regarding the content of this review.

When the Omnia chargers were first unveiled at CES, AUKEY claimed they were the “world’s smallest PD [Power Delivery] chargers ever.” The chargers feature AUKEY’s OmniaChip, a gallium nitride-powered IC developed in collaboration with Navitas, a maker of GaN-based ICs. GaN can sustain higher voltages than silicon, allowing for currents to run through the device faster. Because of this, electronics using GaN are more power-efficient and can thus be made much smaller.

The Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo are both very compact, as expected. They’re identical in size and almost identical in weight. The main difference between the two is in port choice: The Omnia Duo has 2 USB Type-C ports while the Omnia Mix has 1 USB Type-C port and 1 USB Type-A port. The Duo’s top Type-C port supports up to 65W (20V/3.25A) Power Delivery fast charging while the bottom Type-C port supports up to 18W Power Delivery. The Mix’s top Type-C port also supports up to 65W Power Delivery while its bottom Type-A port supports 12W standard charging. If you’re using both ports to charge devices, then whatever is connected to the top Type-C port will top out at 45W (15V/3A) Power Delivery. AUKEY calls this feature Dynamic Detect, and it applies to both the Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo.

Left: AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4). Right: AUKEY Omnia Mix (PA-B3).

Thanks to the compactness of these chargers, I’ve had no issues carrying them around in my bag or slotting them into an already crowded multiplug. I may not be traveling as much these days thanks to COVID-19, but I appreciate that these chargers have made it so easy for me to find a charging spot anywhere at home.

To get a sense of just how compact these two chargers are, here are a few photos showing the Omnia Duo side-by-side with OPPO’s 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charger, OnePlus’ 30W Warp Charge 30T charger, and RAVPower’s 61W PD 3.0 Wall Charger. The OPPO and OnePlus chargers make use of proprietary charging tech from both companies, while the RAVPower is the company’s previous-generation Type-C charger made with silicon instead of GaN. That should give you a good idea of the improvements in size from using GaN.

Left: AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4). Right: OPPO 65W SuperVOOC 2.0, OnePlus 30W Warp Charge 30T, and RAVPower 61W PD 3.0 wall chargers.

Since my most used devices all have Type-C ports, I’ve been able to swap my stock chargers in favor of the AUKEY Omnia Duo and Mix. That’s saved me a bit of room at the plug, and I’ve only had to sacrifice on charging speed for my smartphones. It takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to fully charge the Nintendo Switch, 1 hour and 20 minutes to charge the Microsoft Surface Pro X, and 2 hours and 30 minutes to charge the OnePlus 7 Pro. For reference, Nintendo says it takes approximately 3 hours to fully charge the Nintendo Switch with the included charger, while the OnePlus 7 Pro fully charges in about 65-70 minutes with the Warp Charge 30T charger (based on our own testing.) The OnePlus 7 Pro supports 15W USB Type-C Power Delivery, which explains the extended charging time with the Omnia Mix/Duo. The Surface Pro X’s stock charger, however, delivers 65W of power, meaning the Omnia Mix/Duo serve as perfect replacements. In fact, I’ve stopped using Microsoft’s stock charger because of how much bulkier it is in comparison:

Top: HP Chromebook X2 charger. Bottom: Microsoft Surface Pro X charger.

…I’ve also stopped using my HP Chromebook X2’s stock charger for the same reason.

When GaN chargers first hit the market, they were a bit pricy. Fortunately, you can grab GaN chargers like the AUKEY Omnia series for much cheaper these days, and the price of GaN chargers will keep going down as manufacturing processes improve. Both chargers currently cost about $12-14 less than their MSRP, and I’ve seen deals that bring these prices down even further. I’m not going to recommend that you store away all your existing chargers and go buy these chargers immediately, but if you’re in the market for a new charger, then I can definitely recommend the AUKEY Omnia Duo and AUKEY Omnia Mix. They’re both very lightweight, compact, and offer very fast-charging for your Type-C devices.

Pros	Cons
Very small and lightweight Perfect replacement for a clunky laptop charger (provided your laptop supports USB-C charging) Can fast charge any USB-PD smartphone or tablet at up to 18W (Omnia Duo) Can charge a laptop at 45W and a smartphone at 18W simultaneously	Does not come with a cable Does not support USB-PD with PPS to fast charge the latest Samsung Galaxy phones

Shop AUKEY Omnia Mix (PA-B3) on Amazon ||| Shop AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4) on Amazon

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AMX XP60 PD Charger Review – The only charging brick you need in your bag

By now, most of us have accumulated a fair few gadgets and accessories that need charging at least once every few days. If you share a living space with other people, then you have also likely run into the same problems that I have—there just aren’t enough charging sockets at home for everyone. What follows is either a carefully orchestrated charging plan for your many devices or an investment into a few multi-pin plugs and adapters. A more compact solution is a multi-port charging brick, and the AMX XP60 PD charger did just the trick, well enough for me to write a review on it.

About this review: AMX sent me the XP60 PD charger back in March 2020 for a quick review on my personal Twitter. I separately purchased their USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable for personal use. This review is after more than four months of regular use of the charger and cable. AMX did not have any inputs on this review.

Back in March 2020 when I spotted AMX’s XP60 PD charger, I realized that it would solve some of my charging woes. My computer desk has very limited space and access to only a single charging socket in the vicinity. So I was usually juggling between chargers and cables in an attempt to keep multiple smartphones, accessories, and my laptop (Dell XPS 13 2in1 2019 – 7390) charged through the days and weeks. The situation was further complicated when you take into account the fact that my primary smartphone at the time, the OnePlus 7 Pro, worked best with a proprietary charger, while other smartphones would work better with other chargers. Some accessories, like my Logitech MX Master 2S, require a micro USB cable, while others like the Amazfit GTR 47mm smartwatch and the Mi Band 4 require their own proprietary cables. At any point in time, I need to charge my laptop, my smartphone(s), my earbuds (either the Sony WF-1000XM3 or the Galaxy Buds+), and possibly a smartwatch (though these last longer and hence are charged infrequently). I was also on the lookout for a solution that I could carry around in my bag and thus cut down on the need to carry multiple charging bricks for my phone and laptop. Airports and coffee shops aren’t very generous with charging sockets (though by fate, neither are frequented by me anymore), so a multi-pin charging brick was what I really needed to sort out this mess.

The AMX XP60 PD perfectly delivered on my needs, at least from a functional perspective.

AMX XP60 PD: Design

The design on the charging brick could use improvement—the charging brick is best described as “chunky”, but that is to be expected at least where the ports are placed. The charger comes with one USB Type-C port and three USB Type-A ports, so you have a fair bit of versatility on what devices you can charge simultaneously.

The charger does not come with any included cable, so you can either use any of your existing cables or purchase them separately. There is an LED present above the USB Type-C port, and it glows blue when the charger is receiving current.

The Xiaomi Mi 18W Fast Charging Adapter (affiliate link) is dwarfed in comparison, while the chunky OnePlus Warp Charge 30 charger comes close in bulkiness.

The real flaw in the design is near the charging pin. Because of its long blocky design, the charger ends up blocking nearby buttons, especially if you use a 3-pin (type-D) charging socket that is widely used in India. AMX perhaps recognized this design flaw later, so their packaging included an extension pin that alleviates some of this obstruction. But in the same breath, it also causes the charger to droop down because of its 150g weight. The charging pin itself isn’t too robust, either. Hopefully, the charger design can be improved for future products.

If you have a 2-pin charging socket placed vertically, then you should be able to use the charger without needing an extension pin, unless you have any other blocking elements nearby.

AMX XP60 PD: Charging

Where the AMX XP60 PD excels at is charging a lot of things at once. The lone USB-C port is capable of 45W output (5V/3A; 9V/3A; 12V/3A; 15V/3A; 20V/2.25A) and is USB Power Delivery PPS 3.0 compatible. Because of this, it supports 45W Super Fast Charging on the latest Samsung Galaxy flagships. This is also perfect for charging my laptop through the USB-C port and the output specifications on the charger match the stock AC Adapter that came with my laptop. I’ve since relegated the stock adapter back to the box and only used the AMX XP60 PD as it leaves me room to charge other devices as well.

There are three USB Type-A ports, capable of a maximum of 12W (5V/2.4A) output on each port. Sadly, these aren’t Qualcomm Quick Charge certified. The charger also has a maximum output cap of 62W (contrary to the number in the marketing name), so you cannot exceed this ceiling on this product. So if you have all the ports occupied on the charger, the maximum theoretical power you can draw out is 45W from the USB-C port and 17W combined from the three USB-A ports. At first sight, this may feel inadequate, and it will be if you need to fast charge all your devices all the time. But if you have slower charging accessories around, this should not be as much of an issue. For my smartphone, I alternate between using USB PD through the Type-C port when I need a quick boost or let it charge slower over a few hours.

Thermal performance on the charger has been satisfactory too. The charger gets warm to the touch when you max it out for an hour or so, but it does not get unreasonably hot, remaining well within acceptable levels of performance. The charger also claims to be BIS certified.

Pricing and Availability

The AMX XP60 PD charger was available in India for ₹1,599 (~$22) back in March 2020 on the AMX website, but currently, the product is out of stock. The website mentions that the charger will be back in stock in mid-August, though the listed price is ₹1,699 (~$23), likely to account for recent currency fluctuations and tax changes.

The AMX XP60 PD charger in my usage thus has the AMX USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable on the first port, usually connected to my laptop and sometimes to my new smartphone, the OnePlus 8 Pro. Two of the three USB-A ports are connected with USB-C cables for slowly charging my primary smartphone and audio accessories. The last port usually is free most of the time, but I have the flexibility to connect a micro USB cable for charging my mouse or the proprietary cable for my watches. When regular traveling does resume, this will be the only charging brick I will take along in my bag.

Overall, I’m happy with this charger, while still recognizing that it isn’t perfect. Unlike other parts of the world, finding a safe, high-output, multi-port charger with USB PD in India is a bit of a challenge by itself, and so there aren’t as many solutions available in this space. I would recommend this for people who want multi-port chargers with USB PD in India. As long as you know what to expect out of the charger, you should be happy with the price. If you are looking for something more compact and portable, or something even more powerful, you should keep your eye out on GaN chargers (though they will take some more time to arrive in India and are expected to be more expensive initially).

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Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition Review: The Hottest New Thin and Light Notebook – Literally

Xiaomi, traditionally known for its smartphone, first entered the laptop segment in China all the way back in 2016. Ever since then, I’ve seen countless posts from Xiaomi fans in India either asking the company to launch its laptop lineup in the country or asking their peers if it’s safe to import the laptops from China. Earlier this year in June, Xiaomi finally gave in to all the fan requests and launched the Mi Notebook 14 and Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition in India.

The Mi Notebook 14 lineup consists of two models — the entry-level Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 and the slightly more premium Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition. I recently had a chance to experience the top-of-the-line Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition and, having used two exceptional Xiaomi notebooks in the past, I instantly jumped on the opportunity. I’ve been using the Intel Core i7-10510U variant of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition as my daily driver for the last month, and here are my thoughts on the hot new thin-and-light notebook.

Note: Xiaomi India sent us a Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition for the purpose of this review. However, the company did not have any input on the content of this review. This review is written after over a month of use.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Specifications

Xiaomi offers the Mi Notebook Horizon Edition in two SKUs. There’s the Intel Core i5-10210U powered base variant and the Intel Core i7-10510U powered top-end variant. As mentioned earlier, I’ve been using the Intel Core i7 variant, and here are its complete specifications:

Specification	Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition
Dimensions & Weight	321.3mm x 206.8mm 1.35kg
Display	14-inch FHD (1920×1080) Matte-finish 16:9 250nits
Processor	Intel Core i7-10510U @1.8GHz
GPU	NVIDIA MX350 (2GB GDDR5)
RAM & Storage	8GB DDR4 @2666MHz 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Battery & Charging	46Wh 65W fast charging
I/O	2x USB 3.1 Type-A 1x USB 2.0 Type-A 1x USB Type-C 1x HDMI 1.4b 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 Bluetooth 5.0
OS	Windows 10 Home Edition
Other Features	Microsoft Office 365, 30-day trial Mi Smart Share Mi Blaze Unlock

Design and Build Quality

Now that we’ve got the specifications out of the way, let’s take a look at one of the most striking features of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition — its design. The notebook features a minimal MacBook Pro-like design with a magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis and no visible branding on the outside. It features a healthy selection of I/O ports on either side, a large air intake grille at the bottom, and an exhaust grille on the left edge. The laptop measures just 17.15mm thick and weighs just 1.35kg, making it extremely portable.

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition features a large center-mounted hinge that, combined with the excellent weight distribution, lets you easily open the notebook with just a single finger. Once you have the notebook open, you’re greeted with an impressive 14-inch display with just 3mm bezels on three sides and a 91% screen-to-body ratio, a compact keyboard with no number pad, and a substantially sized trackpad right underneath it. The minimal branding theme continues on the inside, with the notebook just featuring the Mi logo smack dab in the middle of the bottom bezel and Intel Core i7 branding on the right edge of the palm rest.

For a thin-and-light notebook, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition offers a decent port selection. The notebook features two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a USB Type-C port, an HDMI 1.4b port, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. Sadly though, the notebook doesn’t include an SD card reader. The USB Type-C port on the notebook can be used for data transfer and charging, however, Xiaomi doesn’t include a Type-C charger in the box. Instead, the notebook utilizes a barrel-style charger with a 65W adapter. This is particularly disappointing because Xiaomi does make a 65W USB PD fast charger for laptops and could’ve included one in the box.

The lack of a built-in webcam is another major disappointment, especially when so many of us have shifted to work-from-home, but Xiaomi does at least include an external webcam in the box that can get the job done in an emergency. However, if you’re someone who cares about not looking like a pixelated mess, then the included webcam will be disappointing.

Regardless, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition doesn’t fail to impress on the design front. When compared to other thin-and-light notebooks in this price range, Xiaomi’s notebook offers a cleaner and more minimal design, better build quality, a healthy I/O selection, and a great display with slim bezels. Xiaomi hasn’t gone over the top with its branding, and that’s another thing I appreciate about this notebook.

Display

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition, unlike the regular Mi Notebook 14, features a 14-inch FHD matte display with 3mm bezels on the top and sides and a 91% screen-to-body ratio. Thanks to the slim bezels, Xiaomi has managed to fit the 14-inch display in a chassis that’s the same size as a 13.3-inch notebook. This not only makes the notebook a lot more portable but also gives it a premium appeal. The display has a matte finish to avoid any unnecessary screen glare and improve outdoor visibility, and it has a peak brightness of 250 nits which makes it fairly usable in direct sunlight.

On the downside, the matte finish means that the display doesn’t look as vibrant as its glossy counterparts, and those of you who are planning to use the notebook for any kind of photo or video work won’t find it as appealing as some of the other options out there. Furthermore, the display doesn’t offer the best color accuracy, and there’s a noticeable color shift while you’re looking at it from an angle, making it a poor choice for any kind of content creation. However, the display is more than satisfactory for content consumption and you shouldn’t face any issues with it in day-to-day use.

Keyboard & Trackpad

I’ve been using the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition as my work laptop for the last few weeks, and in that time, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with the keyboard and trackpad. The notebook features a compact chiclet-style keyboard with 1.3mm key travel and no number pad. Coming from a full-sized mechanical keyboard, typing on the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition felt surprisingly inoffensive. The key travel was decent, the feedback was satisfactory, and the key spacing was good enough for me to get used to typing on the Mi Notebook in just a couple of hours. Similarly, the trackpad was also quite usable, even though it doesn’t include support for Windows Precision drivers. Tracking was responsive, multi-touch gestures worked just fine, and the click action offered good feedback.

However, there are some major downsides to the input devices on the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition which might be deal-breakers for some of you. Since the keyboard is quite compact and I have fairly large hands, I wasn’t able to achieve my usual typing speed on the notebook. With my wrists resting on the palm rest, I faced issues reaching the bottom two rows on the keyboard and, even though I tried for a week, I had to switch back to my keyboard for the remainder of my testing. The keys also felt a bit cheap and the stabilization on the large keys, especially the spacebar, was a bit concerning. On top of that, the lack of backlighting was a deal-breaker for me. Palm rejection on the trackpad was also poor and resulted in the cursor moving almost every time I hit a key near the spacebar.

Do note that since most of the aforementioned issues have a direct correlation with the size of my hands, most users shouldn’t face these problems in day-to-day use.

Audio

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition packs in two 2W bottom-firing speaker units that sound unimpressive. Tinny would be the best word to describe the audio profile as there’s absolutely no bass whatsoever. On top of that, the speaker placement results in a muffled sound if you don’t place the laptop on a flat surface.

The speakers also don’t get loud enough at max volume, and you’ll have to use a Bluetooth speaker or headphones if you plan to use the notebook as your primary content consumption device. Xiaomi has included DTS audio processing on the notebook for better audio performance but, in my experience, finetuning the audio from the DTS app barely made a difference. Audio performance from the 3.5mm headphone jack was satisfactory, though.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Performance

Now, coming to the meat of the matter, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition’s performance. As mentioned earlier, my review unit is powered by an Intel Core i7-10510U processor, coupled with an NVIDIA MX350 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of M.2 NVMe storage. The notebook performed admirably for my daily use case, which mostly comprises of browsing the web, watching videos, a lot of typing, and a bit of photo editing. Thanks to the NVMe drive, the notebook booted up almost instantly, and everything from opening apps to transferring files felt snappy. If you have a similar use case, then the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a great notebook.

However, if you’re planning to do anything more intensive, then you should probably consider other options. This is due to the fact that the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition suffers from some major thermal issues (more on that later) and, as a result, it throttles under load. To give you an idea of how the notebook performs under load, I ran a couple of synthetic benchmarks and tried playing a few eSports titles on the notebook, and here’s what I observed.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition doesn’t fare well in synthetic benchmarks when compared with other similarly spec’d notebooks. In Geekbench 5, the notebook manages a paltry 946 in the single-core score and 2,994 in the multi-core score. In comparison, the ASUS VivoBook S14, which packs the same processor, manages to eek out a single-core score of 1,296 and a multi-core score of 3,808. In PCMark 10, Xiaomi’s notebook managed a combined score of 4,302, which is comparable to other Intel Core i7-10510U powered notebooks.

In Cinebench R20, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition managed 875 points, which is significantly lower than the average of 1,468 delivered by the same processor. In 3DMark, the notebook delivered a combined score of 13,350 in the Night Raid benchmark and 11,148 in the Sky Diver benchmark. Since the NVIDIA MX350 is relatively new to the Indian market, I wasn’t able to compare the score with other notebooks featuring the same GPU.

Gaming

Despite Xiaomi’s claims regarding the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition’s gaming performance, I wouldn’t recommend the device to even the most casual of gamers. Based on Xiaomi’s claims during the launch event, I planned on trying a ton of eSports and AAA titles on the notebook. However, after trying out only two eSports titles on the notebook, namely League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, I can safely conclude that this notebook is not meant for gaming.

While the notebook managed to deliver promising framerates (around the 100fps mark at 720p) when I first fired up each game, the fps dropped significantly just 15 minutes into the game. The fps drop was a direct result of the laptop thermal throttling, as the notebook got incredibly hot within 15 minutes of getting into a match. The keyboard deck reached an uncomfortable 60 degrees around the center and top left corner, while the CPU temperature crossed 90 degrees. As a result, I had to conclude my gaming test as I didn’t want to damage something internally by continuing the tests for a prolonged duration.

Thermal performance

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition has a simple thermal solution that is decent for day-to-day productivity tasks. With my daily use case, the notebook stayed cool and the fan stayed silent for the most part. However, as mentioned earlier, the thermal solution isn’t as effective for anything more intensive. While using Photoshop, the fan ramped up immediately and the base felt warm to the touch within a few minutes. I noticed no thermal throttling while working on a single image in Photoshop, but as soon as I opened multiple files each with a couple of layers, the notebook started stuttering.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Battery Life

Powering the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a 46Wh battery which includes fast charging support that can charge up the laptop from 0-50% in just 30 minutes. While Xiaomi claims up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge, in my testing I found the laptop consistently lasted around 7 hours on the battery saver power setting and the screen set at 50% brightness. Even though the notebook’s battery life doesn’t match up to Xiaomi’s claims, 7 hours on a single charge is pretty great for a Windows notebook in this price range. The battery life drops to about 5 hours on the best performance power setting and the brightness set to 100%. All the measurements were taken while using the notebook primarily for web browsing, writing articles, and some light photo editing. Of course, the battery won’t last as long in case you do anything more performance-intensive.

Should you buy the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition?

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a well-designed notebook that offers decent performance for basic productivity tasks and content consumption. Thanks to its exceptional battery life and compact form factor, the notebook can also prove to be a great travel companion. But if you’re planning on doing anything even remotely performance-intensive, then the notebook isn’t for you. Along with that, there are a few other issues that you might want to consider before going ahead with the purchase.

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition features soldered RAM, so you can’t upgrade past the included 8GB capacity, and Xiaomi doesn’t offer a 16GB variant yet. The keyboard isn’t backlit and might feel a bit cramped for some users. Its audio performance is mediocre, it doesn’t include an SD card reader, and there’s no built-in webcam.

For a starting price of ₹54,999 for the Intel Core i5-10210U and SATA SSD variant, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Editions isn’t the best option out there. Xiaomi’s design-first approach does make the notebook a lot more appealing on paper than it actually is and, for those of you who care more about performance than design or aesthetics, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is not a great choice.

Buy the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Amazon ||| Mi.com

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Google Pixel 5a shows up in AOSP alongside Pixel 4a 5G/Pixel 5

It was only yesterday when Google started to tease an August 3 launch of what’s expected to be the Pixel 4a. Now, thanks to a comment by a Googler on the Android Open Source Project, we’re already getting references for what’s to come well beyond next week. The upcoming 2020 Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 make another appearance, but there’s also a mention of next year’s Pixel 5a as well.

A comment made in an AOSP code change first spotted by 9to5Google references the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a. The first one is of little surprise to us since it’s been leaked so extensively, while the next two are also unsurprising since this appearance marks the third time we’ve seen their names. However, this is the first time we’re hearing of the Pixel 5a, and it’s before the Pixel 4a has even launched.

 

Source

It ultimately shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google is already setting its sights on what’s to come next year. Companies typically have product roadmaps planned years in advance, and with the success of the mid-range Pixel line, a more affordable Pixel 5a was inevitable.

Based on the comment and the code in context, the Pixel 5a will likely launch with Android 11 rather than next fall’s Android 12. Furthermore, it seems that the Pixel 4a 5G won’t launch alongside the Pixel 4a next week, since the comment mentions it as having a first API level of 30, which means it’ll run the not-yet-stable Android 11 release out-of-the-box. More juicy information, such as what hardware the Pixel 5a will run on, isn’t available just yet.

One last thing that’s mentioned in the comment is that Google is preparing to drop support for the Pixel 2. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL were announced back in 2017 with Android 8.0 Oreo. Both devices will receive official updates to Android 11, but Android 11 will be the final OS upgrade for both devices. Google promises 3 years of Android OS and security patch updates for each Pixel device, so this news isn’t surprising. Hopefully, future Pixel phones will have longer-lasting support periods as Google continues its work on modularizing Android.

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Featured image: The Google Pixel 4

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Here’s how Google is bringing Windows apps to Chromebooks

Earlier this year, Google revealed that high-end, enterprise Chromebooks will get support for running full Windows apps. In a new interview with The Verge, Google has finally provided more details for how everything will work.

According to Cyrus Mistry, group product manager for Chrome OS, Parallels will boot a full copy of Windows so you can run the operating system side-by-side with Chrome OS. Chrome OS can also redirect supported Windows file types to the Parallels Desktop instance to make things a bit more seamless. In the future, however, Mistry says users won’t have to run the whole Windows desktop, but rather just the apps you need.

Windows apps running on Chrome OS thanks to Parallels Desktop. Source: Google. Via: The Verge.

The feature is expected to take advantage of Parallels’ Coherence feature. On the Mac, the mode allows users to run Windows apps as if they’re native applications made for Apple’s ecosystem. “We worked with Parallels because they really have done this before,” Mistry explained. “They understand the concept of running an entirely separate OS within another OS. They’ve done it with Mac and they’ve done it with Linux.” Mistry said Google did investigate a Windows dual boot option for Chromebooks but ultimately decided against it because of security concerns related to the boot process. Parallels offers “the best of both worlds,” Mistry said, and it provides users with a seamless experience that they can quickly hop in and out of.

No pricing or launch date has been revealed, but Google said Parallels Desktop will be available to businesses later this year. A page has been set up for interested parties to get in touch with Google. According to The Verge, resellers can bundle Parallels Desktop with enterprise Chromebooks while IT admins can enable access to Parallels for Chromebooks enrolled in Chrome Enterprise Upgrade (PDF warning). Interested parties will also need relatively modern Chromebooks to run Parallels Desktop, although Mistry didn’t reveal exact spec requirements. Instead, he said users will need “power usage” Chromebooks. Expect that to mean needing a Chromebook with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and at least 8GB of RAM.

Google is hoping that adding support for Windows apps will attract new customers while growing its enterprise ambitions. With commercial Chromebooks up 155% in unit sales year-over-year, the arrival of support for Windows apps comes at an opportune time.

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Featured image: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook

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Google and Apple announce new privacy and functional improvements to their COVID-19 contact tracing API

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our habits have changed drastically. Social distancing is now the norm because of the sheer amount of asymptomatic people carrying the virus. Knowing who has tested positive and who came into contact with those persons is essential to containing the spread of the virus, and that’s why Google and Apple teamed up to create a COVID-19 contact tracing API called Exposure Notification. This API is meant for use in contact tracing applications from public health agencies, and it supports both iOS and Android. Today, Google and Apple announced a few improvements to the API.

One of the improvements gives public health agencies more flexibility in determining the level of risk associated with an exposure event. Another improvement is support for interoperability between countries for the app to work on a more global scale. With better Bluetooth calibration on hundreds of devices (the Exposure Notification API uses Bluetooth LE in order to ping nearby devices), contact tracing will be less prone to false positives.

Google and Apple are also addressing privacy concerns that have been raised by users and developers. You can now easily turn off the notifications with a toggle and, if the feature is turned on, you will also get a periodic reminder that it’s on. On Android 11, users will no longer have to enable Location Services in order for the Exposure Notification API to work. The reason the API requires location access to be enabled is that Bluetooth scanning can be used to infer a device’s location. Google tied Bluetooth (and WiFi) scanning to location services to warn users of this fact, but this has scared some users into thinking that all contact tracing apps are actively tracking their location.

Here’s a summary of Google and Apple’s improvements to the Exposure Notification API, per Google’s blog post on the matter:

Improvements to the Exposure Notification API

• When an exposure is detected, public health authorities now have more flexibility in determining the level of risk associated with that exposure based on technical information from the API.
• Bluetooth calibration values for hundreds of devices have been updated to improve the detection of nearby devices.
• The API now supports interoperability between countries, following feedback from governments that have launched Exposure Notification apps.
• To help public health authorities build apps more efficiently, we’ve added reliability improvements for apps and developer debug tools.
• We’ve improved clarity, transparency and control for users. For example, the Exposure Notifications settings on Android now include a simple on/off toggle at the top of the page. In addition, users will also see a periodic reminder if ENS is turned on.

Public health authorities have used this API, jointly developed by Google and Apple, in 16 countries, including those in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. More areas are planning apps using the API, with 20 U.S. states and territories (accounting for over 45% of the U.S. population) exploring its usage. We are tracking the apps that use the Exposure Notification API in a separate article, in case you’re interested. Using contact tracing to contain the spread of COVID-19 is essential in establishing a return to normalcy, but we’re still a long way off from that goal.

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