Those hoping to upgrade from the nearly 2-year-old Surface Book 2 might soon finally have what they’ve been waiting for. Recent leaks reveal that Microsoft could be working on a powerful Surface Book 3 model.
Although its authenticity can not be verified, Twitter user @_rogame, known for previous hardware leaks, recently revealed alleged 3D Mark benchmarking listings and supposed configurations of what many have come to believe as the Surface Book 3. The device mentioned in the listings is classified with Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake processor, and Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Max Q graphics card.
As the results lists Microsoft as a vendor, and the Surface Book is the only device in Microsoft’s lineup that features such a mobile and dedicated GPU, there appears to be an added reason that this could indeed be a Surface Book 3. However, such listings are easy to manipulate, so it is best to be taken with a grain of salt.
According to Notebookcheck.net, however, this alleged Surface Book 3 model mentioned in the listing could be a high-end 13.5-inch option. An additional 15.5-inch model with the Intel Core i7-1065G7 and GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q GPU could also be in the works as well.
If this is true, this would be an upgrade from the existing Surface Book lineup. Currently, the Surface Book 2 is stuck on significantly older 7th- and 8th-generation Intel processors. That’s well behind the 10th-gen Ice Lake processors found elsewhere on the Surface lineup, such as the Surface Pro 7 or the Surface Laptop 3. The existing Surface Book 2 devices also come with options for the GTX 1050 GPU, or the Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU, both of which are around 3 years old.
An upgrade for the Surface Book lineup is long overdue. Microsoft last held a hardware event in October 2019, which revealed the Surface Pro X, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro 7, and dual-screen Surface Neo and Duo. The Surface Book 3 was noticeably absent.
Combined with this listing, there could be a reason that a release or Surface Book refresh might be coming later this spring. Microsoft last quietly updated the Surface Book 2 in April 2019 with newer an eighth-generation quad-core Intel Core i5-8350U processor. It could remain a possibility that the Surface Book 3 might launch in a similar way, as Microsoft usually only holds hardware events in the fall.