Microsoft Surface Book Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,974 words · ~9 min read
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my Surface Pro 3 video was not one of my
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most liked videos ever I bought a Surface Pro 3 with the intention of
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using it as a daily driver machine but over the course of creating this review
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determined that contrary to Microsoft's assertion it was not for me anyway a
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suitable replacement for a laptop as a primary portable computer and that
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having a stylus included with a product without having considered that not
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everyone on the planet has a front shirt pocket in which to hold it is absolutely
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ridiculous so I eventually gave that machine away in a sweep Stakes a couple
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of months later but let's see if the Surface Book Microsoft's clear
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acknowledgement that I was right can put a surface product in my hands
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permanently this review is super late thanks Microsoft store so we'll just do
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a lightning fast tour of the device and get into the usability right away the
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charger is Compact and includes a 1 aamp USB charging port awesome for travel the
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included pen or pencil depending on who you ask now has a flattened Edge to snap
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onto the magnetic left side of the screen and it triggers Cortana when you
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press the Eraser along with some other changes I'll discuss later and finally
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the Surface Book itself comes pre-assembled in its laptop
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configuration which means that on the top part of the Magnesium clam shell
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you'll get the following a power button and volume controls on the top left
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there a headphone jack on the right that I'd really have preferred closer to this
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bottom corner and a kind of finicky but thankfully magnetic power input on the
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bottom then on the detachable keyboard SL battery SLO unit thing you get an
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alternate power input mini DisplayPort
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thank you for this bye-bye HDMI it's been nice knowing you two USB 3 ports
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and a full-size SD card reader just right for a mouse a display a USB
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drive and a way to transfer to and from a portable device even in the wilderness
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Microsoft nailed the io on the surface book which brings us to how these things
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go together well from early complaints
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not very well but Microsoft has been
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surprisingly on the ball about fixing common complaints like the display
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glitching out when they're detached and reattached and at this point with the
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click of a button in the system tray the device prompts you if there are any
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applications that need to be saved or closed then disengages with a satisfying
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click that makes it feel kind of like you know opening the air loock or
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something like that which I guess leads us into the piece of voodoo magic that
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is the keyboard attachment much like is's famous TF101 transformer the
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surface books base includes a keyboard a touchpad and an additional battery pack
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but unlike anything I've had my hands on before unless you count this thing it's
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got a PCI Express 3.0 link to a discret
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level GPU a slightly customized GTX 940m
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with one Gigabyte of gddr5 memory by the look of things that gives the Surface
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Book much more Graphics horsepower than onboard Graphics would allow when it's
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attached to the base it's more for GPU
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accelerated productivity tasks though you won't be playing Modern AAA games on
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it at the full 3000x 2000 resolution of
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that 267 pixel per in 13.5 in IPS pixel
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sense display that Microsoft has been bragging about which doesn't mean they
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shouldn't be bragging about it first of all we can finally add a PC maker to the
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list of companies that understand that 16x9 is not where it's at for
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productivity and Microsoft goes even further than we used to enjoy 16 by1 all
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the way to 15 by10 the effect is subtle
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but it's just more comfortable if you're
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trying to read or edit documents and second man I was floored by the way the
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black taskbar gets lost in the black glass bezel and if you'd have told me
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the screen was OLED I'd have probably believed you for a minute or two
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Microsoft says that they're individually calibrating every one of these displays
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and that it's got an incredible 1,700 to1 contrast ratio and I believe them a
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few more housekeeping items the workmanship of my sample is what I can
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only describe as excellent the onboard speakers are forward-facing and loud
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enough for individual use in a quiet environment but not like some laptops
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where you can kind of leave them near you on the dining room table while you
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make dinner in the kitchen and the hinge it's neat it shows really well in
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marketing videos but frankly I think lenovo's yoga series 270° hinge is a
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more elegant way to make a twoin one but let's talk about the twoin oness then
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I'm not a huge tablet user in both senses I own a few tablets because of
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work but I almost never use one larger than 7 in because I find them kind of
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heavy and redundant if I'm doing something important enough to need a big
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screen I'm probably doing something important enough to need a keyboard and
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the Surface Book didn't cause me to have any kind of epiphany about how wrong I
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was about large tablets for it's shockingly light for its size yet strong
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and Microsoft has probably nailed the use case where like Mom and Dad are
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sitting on the couch watching something on the TV and you know Junior wants to
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be nearby but watch something else on a nice big screen but that's not a
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situation that comes up for me very often as a laptop the surface book is
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pretty good my usual cinebench thermal throttling score showed perfect scaling
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from run to run and even a PR longed idida 64 stress test at room temperature
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yielded acceptable Acoustics and no thermal throttling this is the i7 6600u
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3 GHz dual core 16 gig model guys well
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done Microsoft on that point the trackpad is responsive with perfectly
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tuned sensitivity out of the box something we don't see enough of the
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keyboard is a little bit mushy feeling for my tastes but the travel distances
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are good and the mushiness is not in a
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way that affected my typing speeds and it compensated by being very very quiet
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something a lot of people care about and finally I think Apple's nonsense about
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touch screens not being suitable for laptops is just an excuse to make their
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devices a hair thinner because I used the touchcreen on the surface book in
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laptop mode all the time it's just natural to do it sometimes to be clear
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the surface book is not perfect the onboard Wi-Fi is terrible there is no
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excuse for anything but Intel in a device this expensive it weighs almost
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as much as my blade 14 with much less powerful hardware and this is something
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I noticed especially when using the pen to make little diagrams while writing
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scripts and putting together shot lists for videos there's more screen wobble
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than I'd have liked but it is a huge
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leap forward from my last surface device the Pro 3 well hold on a second lonus
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let's just back up you griped about the pen in the Surface Pro 3 review what a
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joke why are you talking about how you used it this time great question because
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this time it's better there's little changes like really you know low latency
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more granular pressure detection it's got one button versus two on the bottom
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now and it's powered only by a single quadruple a battery instead of needing
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those other cells but the big change for me is that it's actually carriable the
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magnetic clip on the side is great I mean it's not as good as if you could
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really put it inside it but it it sticks to It Like Glue it's freaking awesome it
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makes it something that I can take with me places instead of worrying about
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losing it and being out 60 bucks every time which leads us to the conclusion
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the Surface Book stands out as a beacon
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of beautiful elegant design among PC makers who somehow manag to use you know
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high quality aluminum materials in the construction of their products but just
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can't make feel premium in the hand
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unlike a product like the iPad Pro the 128 gig model of which is closer in
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price to an entry-level Surface Book than people probably realize since that
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one doesn't include the keyboard or the pencil in the Box the Surface Book
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actually delivers on its promise of true laptop productivity in addition to being
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a ginormous tablet I guess for me though
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I just don't have much use for the tablet part of it so whether it's worth
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it to you is going to be a matter of personal choice because what it amounts
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to for someone like me is a really
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expensive laptop but at least that's more than I can say about most first
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generation devices and Imo Microsoft
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nailed what they were going after here and are going to have a lot of really
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happy customers and speaking of brands that
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hope to have a lot of happy customers watchable whoa what's watchable that's a
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of a return to that instead of relying on just an algorithm you can view
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