Horizon

DOCTORED DOCK

The Surface Dock 2 expands the output options and boosts DisplayPort bit rates to support two 4K external monitors running at 60Hz. The only thing you won’t find is Thunderbolt 3 – Microsoft has security concerns, so it’s left it off for now.

“A terrific hybrid machine suited to tackling any task”

OPTIONAL OPTICS

Pay a little more and you can boost the graphics power beyond Intel’s Iris Plus chipset – the 13-inch version can run an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 Max-Q as an upgrade, while the 15-inch comes with a GTX 1660Ti or, for business power, a Quadro RTX 3000 – but that’ll cost you.

TABLET TIME

The hinge is secure enough to make the fully assembled Surface Book 3 feel like a dedicated laptop – pull off the tablet screen and you get reduced power and battery, but a super-powerful screen with a great art-friendly digitiser.

MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 3

₹TBA microsoft.com

Part tablet, part laptop, the third version of this dockable hybrid isn’t a case of Microsoft reinventing the wheel. In fact, the company has kept the minimalist outward design exactly the same. That’s fine. It got it pretty spot on in the first place; the segmented hinge is brilliant, the 13.5/15-inch screen is high in detail (while a little fat in the bezels) and the base and lid are a brushed aluminium delight. It’s a classy machine whether you’re using it for work or play, arguably just as iconic as a MacBook.

Looks aside, those seeking a new laptop will find a host of convincers elsewhere in the package. You can configure the Surface Book 3 with up to 32GB RAM, it has Microsoft’s fastest-ever SSD on board, and there’s a newly upgraded 10th-gen Core i7 processor running at 15W so as not to draw too much from the batteries. When it comes to the latter, one resides in the tablet portion, which should net you around eight hours, while there’s another stashed in the base, upping this to around a combined 17 hours heavy use. The 15-inch model has even earned itself a new 127W charger, so as to keep both batteries topped up while the Book 3 is under heavy load.

Although Microsoft is solidly pitching this as a machine for creatives and coders, it’s a remarkable gaming laptop too, with the discrete graphics available in docked mode providing plenty of pixel-pushing power to offer full details at 1080p. Third time’s the charm.

TECH-O-METER

GOOGLE PIXEL BUDS (2020)

$179 (around ₹13,500), store.google.com

Google’s previous set of Pixel Buds had, shall we