Minisforum’s Surface-like 3-in-1 laptop becomes more affordable — V3 SE features an older Ryzen CPU, less RAM, and lower-specced screen than the V3

Minisforum (via the company’s Weibo account) has introduced a new lower-tier V3 3-in-1 Windows PC variant. The latest version, V3 SE, features an older AMD Ryzen mobile CPU and less memory than its regular counterpart.

The V3 SE has the same 14-inch form factor as the standard V3 but guts some primary internal components for lower-end counterparts to save cost. Whereas the standard V3 came with a Ryzen 7 8840U and 32GB of LPDDR5-6400MH RAM, the SE model drops to an older and lower-powered Ryzen 7 7735U and 16GB of LPDDR5-6400M RAM.

The main downgrade is the processor. The V3 SE’s Ryzen 7 7735U is an entire generation older than the Ryzen 7 8840U, taking advantage of eight Zen 3+ cores featuring a maximum boost clock of 4.75 GHz and 16MB of L3 cache. The V3’s Ryzen 7 8840U has eight Zen 4 cores operating at 5.1 GHz and 16MB of L3 cache.

Another significant downgrade on the V3 SE is the screen. Specs go down to a 60 Hz 1920 x 1200 screen featuring a maximum peak brightness of 326 nits, compared to the vanilla model, which offers a 165 Hz 2560 x 1600 screen at a much brighter 500 nits of peak brightness. All of the other specs remain the same, including the 50.82Wh battery and I/O consisting of dual USB 4 ports, one Type-C port, one SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

When it launched in April, the Minisforum V3 was touted as the world’s first AMD-based 3-in-1 device. The V3 series is a Surface clone featuring the same functionality as a Microsoft Surface device with a detachable keyboard and kickstand. Now, with the introduction of the V3 SE, users will be able to grab Minisforum’s 3-in-1 device at a much lower price.

The V3 SE’s lower specs translate into a significantly lower price of $628, 60% less than the vanilla model’s $999 MSRP.