It turns out that may not be strictly true. As spotted by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, while that’s true for consumer versions of the device, it’s a different story for businesses. Microsoft’s resellers appear to be offering only the 10th Gen Core i5-1035G7 and i7-1065G7 for the Surface Laptop 3. On the Microsoft Store, it’s a similar story. Selecting the 15-inch model only gives the option of an i5 or i7 Intel chip. It seems businesses won’t be getting the AMD Ryzen option at all. Panay said ‘Ryzen Surface Edition’ chip was the fastest processor in its laptop class, and it comes with some interesting additions. Based on the Xbox One’s GPU, it has more graphics power than a typical Intel laptop and lives for 11.5 hours per charge. That extra GPU power could be useful in industries that involve photo or video editing tasks. However, it’s worth noting that the Surface Book 2 has a stronger, dedicated GPU than the Ryzen’s integrated graphics, so it may be a better pick. The Intel-powered 15″ Surface Laptop 3 starts at $1299, versus the consumer Ryzen’s $1199. Of course, business users can purchase and AMD 15-inch model from consumer channels if they so wish. Whatever the choice, it’ll be interesting to see how the variants stack up. Another choice for businesses will be the Surface Pro X which will stick with Microsoft’s Qualcomm partnered SQ1 chip for both channels.
