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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
Temperatures and comfort, Battery life
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power
| Intel Core i5-1255U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″) | 3.49 GHz @ 2.83 GHz @ 65°C @ 46W | 2.26 GHz @ 2.76 GHz @ 78°C @ 44W | 1.28 GHz @ 2.54 GHz @ 71°C @ 22W |
| HP EliteBook 1040 G9 | 3.58 GHz @ 2.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 44W | 3.39 GHz @ 2.54 GHz @ 90°C @ 41W | 1.92 GHz @ 1.60 GHz @ 54°C @ 15W |
| Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2 | 2.90 GHz @ 2.30 GHz @ 61°C @ 30W | 2.86 GHz @ 2.29 GHz @ 70°C @ 30W | 2.34 GHz @ 2.06 GHz @ 65°C @ 23W |
| HP Elite Dragonfly G3 | 3.46 GHz @ 2.65 GHz @ 88°C @ 42W | 2.70 GHz @ 2.06 GHz @ 84°C @ 26W | 2.38 GHz @ 1.71 GHz @ 72°C @ 20W |
| Lenovo V15 Gen 3 | 3.75 GHz @ 2.84 GHz @ 82°C @ 51W | 2.69 GHz @ 2.02 GHz @ 76°C @ 31W | 2.18 GHz @ 1.69 GHz @ 61°C @ 19W |
| Acer Aspire 3 (A317-54) | 3.58 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 70°C @ 43W | 3.53 GHz @ 2.47 GHz @ 74°C @ 37W | 2.92 GHz @ 2.26 GHz @ 69°C @ 28W |
| HP EliteBook 860 G9 | 3.23 GHz @ 2.57 GHz @ 85°C @ 41W | 3.09 GHz @ 2.46 GHz @ 86°C @ 38W | 1.82 GHz @ 1.58 GHz @ 57°C @ 16W |
| HP 15 (15-dw4000) | 3.19 GHz @ 2.42 GHz @ 69°C @ 40W | 1.90 GHz @ 1.49 GHz @ 57°C @ 17W | 1.91 GHz @ 1.49 GHz @ 56°C @ 17W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 4 | 3.44 GHz @ 2.63 GHz @ 78°C @ 43W | 2.98 GHz @ 2.24 GHz @ 75°C @ 36W | 2.15 GHz @ 1.57 GHz @ 70°C @ 23W |
| MSI Modern 15 (B12M) | 3.63 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 78°C @ 44W | 3.63 GHz @ 2.65 GHz @ 86°C @ 44W | 3.26 GHz @ 2.40 GHz @ 85°C @ 35W |
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (15″) is showing strange behavior when the CPU is under different kinds of loads. In short stress, the processor can maintain a 3.49 GHz P cores frequency and 2.83 GHz for the E cores which is great. In normal daily and office usage, the clocks and power limits during short periods of stress are what matter the most. Bear in mind that the Core i5-1255U here can maintain the highest E cores clock that we have seen up to date among the devices that we have tested with this chip. So, in medium and long stress, the E cores frequency is higher compared to the P cores clock. This is very noticeable in prolonged intervals of maximum CPU stress. Perhaps this is the way to deal with the extra dissipated heat that comes from the performance cores.
Aside from that, the temperatures are under control and the chip can maintain 22W under a heavy load which is good given the 15W official base value.
Comfort during full load
You can definitely hear the fan noise while the CPU is pounded with a decent amount of calculations. Well, the noise isn’t loud as a vacuum cleaner but some of you may switch from “Best Performance” to “Better Performance” or “Recommended” through the Power Mode menu in order to decrease the noise levels (at the expense of lowered performance as well). You can feel the heat through the whole chassis and the hotspot is around the WASD zone. In this scenario, the machine is still comfortable for work but it’s on the limit. Of course, this happens only when you are using software to benchmark the CPU like Cinebench or Prime95. If you just browse the Web or you work with MS Office, you can expect much lower temperatures.
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. The notebook’s 47.4Wh battery lasts for 9 hours and 5 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback. Given the modest capacity and the display with a high resolution, this result is good.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
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 »