Microsoft's October Surface event could feature a large lineup of new devices.
What you need to know
- Benchmarks were spotted online that appear to be for the Surface Go 3.
- The listings show two variants of the device, one with an Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y and one with an Intel Core i3-10100Y CPU.
- Our sources indicate that a Surface Go 3 could be announced alongside the Surface Pro 8 in October 2021.
Microsoft appears to have a Surface Go 3 in the works. Listings appeared on Geekbench that are believed to be for the upcoming Surface Go 3. WinFuture reports on the listings and breaks down some of the specs. The outlet also explains why it believes the listings are for a new member of the Surface Go lineup.
The name listed on Geekbench is "OEMAL Product DV1.1." Before you get worried that Microsoft has come out with a new naming structure, this name lines up with previous Surface hardware leaks. WinFuture believes that the "AL" in the name refers to a still-unknown codename for the device. For context, the most recent Surface Pro X was listed as "OESMR."
While nothing is confirmed regarding the Surface Go 3 at this point, the device showing up on Geekbench around this time makes sense. Our sources indicate that Microsoft may announce a Surface Go 3 alongside the Surface Pro 8 and whatever the company decides to call the Surface Book 4. If that is the case, now is about the time benchmarks would start to trickle out on the web ahead of an October announcement.
As for the devices themselves, there appear to be two variants of the Surface Go 3. One has an Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y processor, while the other has an Intel Core i3-10100Y CPU. Both CPUs are from Intel's Amber Lake Y Series. These are energy-saving chips that deliver more modest performance.
Based solely on these listings, the base model of the Surface Go 3 seems to have an option with 4GB of RAM, while the Core i3 model has an option with 8GB of RAM. Of course, exact specifications aren't known at this time, and different configurations could be available.
The Geekbench 4 scores for the listed devices are 3,197 for single-core and 5,643 for multi-core. These are solid improvements over the Surface Go 2. The base model of what is believed to be the Surface Go 3 has 62% better single-score, and 47% better multi-score figures than the Pentium Gold 4425Y model of the Surface Go 2. The difference in the higher end appears to be smaller. The listing for the alleged Surface Go 3 is 4% better in single-core and 11% better in multi-core than the Surface Go 2 with an Intel Core i3-8100Y.
If these benchmarks are for the Surface Go 3, they don't fully reflect improvements over its predecessor. We don't know all of the configurations that will be available and will need to perform our own tests to confirm benchmarks on any future hardware.
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