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when we reviewed the surface laptop a year ago we ended up giving it a pretty

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tepid sorta recommendation but since then alex who writes most of our laptop

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reviews started using it as his daily driver

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and then just never stopped so what is it that gives the surface

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laptop that kind of staying power why is

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it that alex who can use any laptop he wants would keep coming back to it and

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why does alex put double spaces after periods in his writing memory express is

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the go-to place for your electronic needs and services in canada and they're

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opening a new store in victoria bc they're hiring for all positions so

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check them out at the link in the video description

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when your job description is literally writer a good keyboard is crucial and i

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think it's fair to say that the surface laptop has one of the best if not the

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best keyboard on the market there's something about the way the keys go down

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that just feels great it's crazy how much tactile feedback they've been able

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to get into such a compact device and the alcantara wrist rest makes typing

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just that a little bit more comfortable now we actually expressed concerns about

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its long-term durability but i'm actually very pleased to say that

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this unit thank you which has been subjected to some pretty harsh

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conditions over the last year hasn't yet shown any signs of wear

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below the keyboard though is the first missed opportunity of the surface laptop

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2. the touchpad is frosted glass topped

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it's responsive it's accurate overall it's great

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but even as only a very occasional macbook pro user it is

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really hard to go back to a small touchpad and i'd like to see it expanded

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next time around one thing that did get fixed this time

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though is performance now for our purposes the 7th gen dual

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core processor from last time hasn't been a huge issue i mean we all have

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desktops whenever we need more horsepower but if this was your only

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computer or even if you wanted to do some light photo editing on the road

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you'd probably be frustrated that similarly thin devices have been

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available for months with quad quad-core processors

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not anymore microsoft bumped the surface laptop 2 to a quad-core 8th gen

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processor and while they were at it they also canned the entry-level 4 gig model

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to prevent anyone buying such an otherwise premium device from having a

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pretty bad time running Windows 10. the entry level unit is now a totally

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different machine from last year's and it makes it much easier for us to

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recommend it with confidence while we're talking about great things

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that are great the screen is great for things like surfing the web and writing

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in word the three by two aspect ratio lets you see that much more of your work

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and when you combine that with excellent accurate color deep blacks and the top

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of the line touch capabilities that we've come to expect from microsoft service lineup

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well it's really hard to come up with complaints for the screen

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that is unless your favorite online content creator

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just made the switch to an 18 by nine aspect ratio for their videos leaving

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you with even more massive black bars than you otherwise would have had

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above the screen in what is obviously the correct place you'll find the webcam

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which again is about as good as they come and implements Windows hello facial

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recognition perfectly by the timeline has blade stealth even open i'm already

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signed in and even though we've had other Windows hello ira laptops here

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they have the camera below them and stuff so it normally takes longer to

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register the face with that said we still maintain that being the best

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webcam on a laptop is kind of like

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beating all the kids at the local elementary school at foursquare like

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there's still a lot of room for the entire industry to do better in this

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category though i'm not sure i can say the same about the build quality

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microsoft puts a lot of work into the design of its devices and it shows

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chassis flex is all but imperceptible the speakers are great considering their

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size and the battery life is good enough to last through most of if not quite all

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of the day and it looks great doing it matte black baby

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that is a welcome addition to the lineup so okay sounds good then right let's all

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run out and buy surface laptop twos they didn't change much but if they broke

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don't fix it yeah well actually there that well there was

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one thing that was broke the one thing that nearly everyone that

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reviewed the surface laptop complained about was the craptastic io

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and i mean i get it it's thin

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it's light so having a whack ton of ports on it isn't the easiest thing to

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do but but this isn't acceptable in 2018.

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yeah microsoft you do get a couple of points for the type a port it's nice to

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be able to use a a two-factor authentication key or a mouse without

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immediately reaching for a dog goal but then you immediately take all those

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points crumple them up in a ball turn light them on fire and throw them off of

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a cliff because why did you include a mini displaypor

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port who even cares about this

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it has its purposes but if you've got to use a dongle anyway where's the usb

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type-c port i mean sure you got your magnetic surface connect docking port

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over here which lets you add a bunch more connectors and stuff but

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you know microsoft you know what other port lets people dock their laptop and

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charge it at the same time Thunderbolt 3.

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you've created a thin and light here that has the potential

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to be basically perfect and the high price that you command for

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it would be so much easier to swallow if there were at least a single Thunderbolt

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3 port on the side then i could attach it to an inexpensive dongle for as many

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ports as i want i could attach it to an egpu turning this thing into a

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legitimately decent gaming machine i could use a super fast external SSD

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as it is now though the surface laptop 2

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pretty much just makes my job harder with Thunderbolt if someone asked me

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hey Linus i want a thin and light laptop

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what should i get my answer would be simple if you're cheap get a gram if you

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have a bit of extra cash and you like to look fancy get a surface laptop

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without it though well the dell xps 13

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and the razer blade stealth come back into consideration so at the end of the

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day alex is going to keep using the surface laptop because the screen and the

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keyboard are second to none also i think secretly has kind of a

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microsoft hard on but once again we can

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only give it a tepid recommendation rather than like an all out enthusiastic

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like just start throwing your wallets at it immediately one ting is the mobile

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carrier that's focused on customer service and customer satisfaction first

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if you ever do have an issue and you call them you don't speak to a robot you

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get put through directly to a person and it doesn't cost extra in fact with ting

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you pay only for what you use with the average ting bill coming in at just 23

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bucks a month per device if you're stuck in a contract and switch to ting they'll

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cover 25 of your cancellation fee up to 75

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and they've got lower mobile data rates than ever with data just 10 dollars per

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gig beyond the second gig to find out how much you'd save on ting head to

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linus2018.ting.com and try out their savings calculator you just enter your

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last couple bills and find out how much you'd save on ting then when you decide

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to sign up use our link again that's linus2018.ting.com and you'll get 25

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bucks in service credit or towards a new device

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so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if

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it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to

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where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also down there is

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our merch store which has cool shirts kind of like this one but not quite and

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our community forum which you should totally join

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10 points if you can find the spots where i screwed up

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based on the sand in the hourglass

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where were the cuts in this video