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日本Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15.0) review – decent package of features and performance but it’s too expensive for what it is
Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″) is equipped with a 60Hz touchscreen IPS panel, Sharp LQ150P1JX51 (SHP14B4). Its diagonal is 15 inches (38.1 cm), and the resolution – 2496 х 1664p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 3:2, the pixel density – 200 ppi, and their pitch – 0.127 х 0.127 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 40 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).
Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.
Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.
The maximum measured brightness is 401 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 391 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 7%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6870K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 61% Brightness (White level = 141 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1220:1.
To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.
The yellow dotted line shows Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″)’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 89% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976 and 69% of DCI-P3.
Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.
Below you can compare the scores of Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).
The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.
Response time (Gaming capabilities)
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.
We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 27 ms.
After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.
Health impact – PWM / Blue Light
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″)’s display uses PWM to adjust its brightness up to 110 nits. Not only that but below 110 nits, the pulsations have a very high frequency, undetectable for most users. This makes the display comfortable for continuous work.
Blue light emissions
Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.
Gloss level measurement
Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 107 GU).
Sound
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″)’s speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.
Good review. Well explained pros and cons. I just want to suggest that people who want this laptop, should buy it when it’s on sale, since prices tend to go down up to 50%. I’ve bought mine last September for only €799. It was down from €1599. Surface Laptop 4, i7-1065G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Screen, speakers and touchpad are great, keyboard is ok, connectivity is very limiting (I use USB-C dock with mine), but the most annoying part is when the screen is fully opened (170 degrees I think), it creaks quite a bit. Also, mine version gets warm… Read more »