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Surface Pro 3 vs. Surface Laptop: What's different?

Microsoft's new Surface Laptop is the first real laptop with a simple stylish clamshell yet powerful with multiple colors. Is the Surface Laptop worth upgrading from Surface Pro 3? Let's find out here.

BY Evan Forrest November 10, 2023

A new member of the Surface family, the Surface Laptop, finally arrived with the new stylish design laptop. It now has a simple clamshell design with an undetachable keyboard and trackpad. So it is quite different from its cousins, either the Surface Pro or Surface Book series. Now there are four Surface series in the Surface family, the Surface, Surface Pro, Surface Book, and Surface Laptop for consumers to choose from.

If you are still using an older version of the Surface Pro 3 and looking for a worthy upgrade, the Surface Laptop seems to be a nice choice for you. Here is a quick specs comparison between the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro 3.

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Pro 3 See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Laptop See at Amazon
Key Features
What's new	New Design It’s now thinner (9.1mm), lighter (800g), and new platinum magnesium exterior. Better display New 3:2 aspect ratio, bigger and better 2K 12” ClearType pixel-free display. Better performance It’s now 10% faster than Surface Pro 2 with the new range of 4th Gen Intel processors up to Core i7. New Inking Supports It now supports a new Surface Pen with 256 pressure sensitivity, tail eraser, and remote Bluetooth activation. Better Battery It has 20% more battery life than Surface Pro 2 up to 9 hours. More Better 5.0MP front and rear-facing camera, new Surface Connect Port (charging and docking), new type cover with two typing angles.
What's missing	Replace old charging connector with new Surface Connect port

Availability	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Released	2014	2017
Release Info	Introduced: May 20, 2014 Pre-ordered: May 20, 2014 Released: June 20, 2014	Introduced: May 2, 2017 Pre-ordered: May 2, 2017 Released: June 15, 2017
Pricing	Starting at 799$	Platinum $799 - M3 \| 4GB \| 128GB $999 - i5 \| 4GB \| 128GB $1,299 - i5 \| 8GB \| 256GB Graphite Gold Burgundy Cobalt Blue $1,599 - i7 \| 8GB \| 256GB $2,199 - i7 \| 16GB \| 512GB $2,699 - i7 \| 16GB \| 1TB

Surface Pro 3 Price
	Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (256 GB, Intel Core i5)(Windows 10 Professional 64 bit) (Renewed) By Microsoft $245.90	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablet (1631) Silver - 256GB, 12in, Windows 8, Intel Core i5 - Renewed By Microsoft $193.99 $228.00 15% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablet (12-inch, 128 GB, Intel Core i5, Windows 10) + Microsoft Surface Type Cover (Renewed) By Microsoft $398.00	See at Amazon
Surface Laptop Price
	Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (2022), 13.5" Touch Screen, Thin & Lightweight, Long Battery Life, Fast Intel i5 Processor for Multi-Tasking, 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage with Windows 11, Platinum By Microsoft $799.00 $999.00 20% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 13.5" Touch-Screen Intel Core i5-8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive (PKX-00003) Matte Black (Renewed) By Microsoft $348.97 $398.41 12% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Laptop 4: High-Performance Windows Tablet with 13.5" Display, AMD Ryzen 5, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD - The Ultimate Experience Sandstone 7IV-00029 (Renewed) By Microsoft $527.92	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Size	12 Inches	13.5 Inches
Info	Resolution: 2160 x 1440 (3.1M Pixels) Density: 216 PPI ClearType Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 Touch: 10 point multi-touch Surface Pen support	Display Resolution: 2256 x 1504 (3.4M Pixels) Display Density: 201 PPI PixelSense™ Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 10nm Oleophobic Coating 100% sRGB color, individually calibrated

Exterior	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Size Comparison
Dimensions	11.50” x 7.93” x 0.36” (292 mm x 201.3 mm x 9.1 mm) Width: 11.50” (292 mm) Height: 7.93” (201.3 mm) Thickness: 0.36” (9.1 mm)	12.13” x 8.79” x 0.39-0.57” (308.02 mm x 223.2 mm x 9.93 mm-14.47 mm) Width: 12.13” (308.02 mm) Depth: 8.79” (223.2 mm) Height: 0.39 - 0.57” (9.93 - 14.47 mm)
Weight	1.76 lbs (800 g)	Intel Core i5 › 2.76 lbs (1.26 kg) Intel Core i7 › 2.83 lbs (1.28 kg)
Colors	Silver	Graphite Gold Platinum Burgundy Cobalt Blue
Keyboard and Trackpad	Surface Type Cover Not included Keyboard: Activation: Moving (mechanical) keys Layout: QWERTY, full row of function keys (F1-F12) 4 directional keys; Windows and Media Controls Keys; LED backlighting Trackpad: Precision glass trackpad. Supports up to three-finger multitouch gesture.	Keyboard: Full-size backlit keyboard with the soft-touch feel and full 1.5mm travel. Large palm rest with premium Alcantara® material for maximized typing comfort. Trackpad: Larger size 105 mm x 70 mm, glass. Supports up to Five-finger multitouch gesture.
Ports	1 x Full-size USB 3.0 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Surface Connect™ Supports charging and docking station. 1 x Headset jack 1 x microSD™ card reader 1 x Type Cover port	1 x Full-size USB 3.0 1 x Surface Connect™ Supports charging and docking station. 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Headset jack

Internal Specs	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Processor	4th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-4020Y 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.50 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 11.5W 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-4300U 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.90 → 2.90 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 15W 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4650U 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.70 → 3.30 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 15W	7th Gen Intel® Core™ m3-7Y30 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.00 → 2.60 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 4.5W 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-7300U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.60 → 3.50 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 15W 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-7660U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.50 → 4.00 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 15W
Integrated Graphics	4th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-4020Y Intel® HD Graphics 4200 20 Execution Units, 200 → 850 MHz 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-4300U Intel® HD Graphics 4200 20 Execution Units, 200 → 1100 MHz 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4650U Intel® HD Graphics 5000 40 Execution Units, 200 → 1100 MHz	7th Gen Intel® Core™ m3-7Y30 Intel® HD Graphics 615 24 Execution Units, 300 → 900 MHz 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-7300U Intel® HD Graphics 620 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1100 MHz 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-7660U Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 640 48 Execution Units with 64 MB eDRAM side cache, 300 → 1100 MHz
Memory	4GB 8GB 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM	4GB 8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	64 GB 128 GB 256 GB 512 GB SSD	128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB SSD 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage with 1-year subscription of Office 365

Connectivity	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology

Battery	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Size	42.2 Wh	45.2 Wh
Battery Life	Up to 9 hours of web browsing	Up to 14.5 hours of typical device usage
Power Supply	36W proprietary power supply USB-A output: 5W Surface Connect: 31W	44W proprietary power supply USB-A output: 5W Surface Connect output: 39W

Software	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
OS	Windows 8.1 Pro Free upgrade to Windows 10	Windows 10 S
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office 30-days trial	1 year of Microsoft Office 365 personal

Camera & Audio	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Camera	5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video 5.0MP rear-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 720p HD front-facing video camera
Audio	Front and rear-facing microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio enhanced sound	Dual microphones OmniSonic stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium

Misc	Surface Pro 3	Surface Laptop
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 256 levels of pressure N-trig Active Pen technology	Supports Surface Pen with 1024 levels of pressure
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Ambient light sensor
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Pro 3 Surface Pen Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	Surface Laptop Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents
Warranty	One-year limited hardware warranty
More	Mechanical features: Signature unibody magnesium design with hidden perimeter venting Kickstand with a full-friction multiposition hinge to 150 degrees Magnetic attach for keyboard fold stability Physical buttons: volumes, power	Supports Surface Dial Supports off-screen interaction only

Surface Pro 3 vs Surface Laptop: Processor Comparison

Surface Laptop

Processor		Intel Core i5-7200U	Intel Core i7-7660U
Base Frequency		2.50 GHz	2.50 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency		3.10 GHz	4.00 GHz
TDP		15 watt
Level 1 Cache		128 KB
Level 2 Cache		512 KB
Level 3 Cache		3 MB SmartCache	4 MB
Surface Pro 3

Processor	Intel Core i3-4020Y	Intel Core i5-4300U	Intel Core i7-4650U
Base Frequency	1.5 GHz	1.9 GHz	1.7 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency		2.9 GHz	3.3 GHz
TDP	11.5 watt	15 watt
Level 1 Cache	128 KB
Level 2 Cache	512 KB
Level 3 Cache	3 MB		4 MB

Surface Pro 3 vs Surface Laptop: Graphics Comparison

Surface Laptop

Graphics		Intel HD Graphic 620	Intel Iris™ Plus Graphics 640
Graphics Frequency		300 – 1000 MHz	300 – 1100 MHz
Graphics Max Memory		32 GB
Graphics 4K Support		Yes, at 60Hz
Graphics DirectX		12
Graphics OpenGL		4.4
# Display Supported		3
Surface Pro 3

Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 4200	Intel HD Graphics 4400	Intel HD Graphics 5000
Graphics Frequency	200 – 850 MHz	200 – 1100 MHz
Graphics Max Memory	2 GB
Max Resolution	2560x1600@60Hz	3280x2000@60Hz	3200x2000@60Hz
Graphics DirectX	11.2/12
Graphics OpenGL	4.3
# Display Supported	3