The Surface Book is one of the most compelling products Microsoft has released in several years and for the first time in decades, the company's first laptop.
While Microsoft’s line of
Surface Pro tablets has proven popular among a certain crowd of productivity enthusiasts, they haven’t managed to truly replace a laptop for most users. Acknowledging that is the case after three generations of Surface Pros, the company has taken alternate direction in the quest for the perfect hybrid.
The Surface Book is a laptop first and foremost. The device comes with a solid keyboard base, rather than a thin keyboard cover. When the two parts are connected, the Surface Book looks just like a laptop, but at the click of a button the display can be removed and the device used as a free-standing tablet.
As Microsoft hopes that the Surface Book will finally be the hybrid that tempts traditional laptop users, there is no shortage of performance hardware inside. Entry-level models are equipped with an Intel ‘Skylake’ Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of fast SSD storage, though you can
configure the unit to have a Core i7 CPU, a dedicated Nvidia GPU, 16 GB of memory, and up to 1 TB of SSD space.
The Book also features an incredibly interesting design. The hybrid’s 13.5-inch display is fairly standard in terms of diagonal size, but the use of a strange 3:2 aspect ratio makes the device a lot taller than competing products. My
Dell XPS 13, for example, uses a 13.3-inch 16:9 display with ultra-thin bezels, and although these displays are of a similar size class, the Surface Book is a lot larger and packs a decent amount more screen real estate.
And then there’s the hinge, which is one of the most head-turning features about the Surface Book. As most of the device’s internals are found in the display portion of the Book, including a battery that allows it to be used as a tablet, a strong hinge is needed to keep the heavy display from tipping over. Faced with this design challenge, Microsoft came up with this multi-segment hinge that’s tough and surprisingly sturdy considering the weight of the tablet.
The downside to this hinge, and I’m sure this will annoy many people, is that the laptop doesn’t close fully. When the display is resting on the keyboard base, there is a pen-sized gap near the hinge, which isn’t a particularly elegant solution. Functionally there is nothing wrong with having a gap, and it didn’t bother me (apart from aesthetics) in my time using the Book, but it certainly would be nicer if the laptop closed properly.
Even though the hinge is tough and built to take the weight of the tablet, there is an unusual weight balance in the Surface Book that’s unlike many other laptops. It’s clear during use, especially on your lap, that the display is heavier than a typical laptop, and there were some cases where I felt the device might tip over (even though it didn’t). The entire product is also reasonably heavy for a 13-inch class laptop at 1.51 kg (3.34 pounds): the excellent
XPS 13 is 250 grams lighter, although the
13-inch MacBook Pro is of a similar weight.
Part of the reason why the Surface Book is an above average weight is due to the use of premium materials across all surfaces of this device. The matte-finish magnesium exterior, enclosing the rear of the tablet and the entire keyboard base, both looks and feels superb, giving the Surface Book a premium design that suits its premium price tag. The use of metal across the entire device also helps the hybrid feel tough and dependable, as does the use of glass to protect the touchscreen display.
The tablet portion of the Surface Book is large thanks to the 13.5-inch screen, which makes it pretty difficult to use without holding it in two hands. The tablet is slim – an 8.5mm thin chassis with a powerful Skylake CPU inside is impressive – but without a kickstand included I didn’t detach the tablet and use it standalone all that often, aside from watching the occasional video or showing a document to someone else.
All four sides of the Surface Book’s tablet include small vents along their entirety, allowing the Skylake CPU and other components to breathe. Compared to less powerful tablets, having so many vents looks strange, but it will be familiar for those who’ve used a Surface Pro previously. The keyboard dock also includes a vent just below the hinge, which is used to cool the Nvidia GPU found in models with a discrete GPU.
The tablet portion features limited connectivity: there’s only a 3.5mm audio jack on the top right edge, along with power and volume buttons on the left side of the top edge. The base features an SD card slot, a mini-Display port, and two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a Surface Connect port that is used to charge the device and connect to the Surface Dock. There is no USB Type-C on the Surface Book, and just two USB ports might be a little limited for some users.
The latching method that secures the tablet to the keyboard is strong and really makes the hybrid feel like a laptop when both are connected. The system includes both latches and magnets, and the tablet won’t detach unless you press a button in Windows or on the keyboard. It’s not the fastest method of accessing the tablet I’ve seen, but the way it holds the tablet in place is far stronger and sturdier than other methods I’ve used.
The Surface Book comes with camera arrays on the front and back of the tablet. The rear camera is a not-completely-terrible 8.0-megapixel sensor, while the front camera is equipped with a depth sensor for
Windows Hello.
And you should definitely enable Windows Hello if you get the Surface Book: it’s a fast, accurate and very cool way of keeping the device secure. Unlike other facial recognition security systems I’ve tried, this one just seems to work every time.
While the tablet doesn’t come with a kickstand, it is possible to dock it in a reverse position, allowing you to use the keyboard as a stand. There were some times I put the device in this mode to draw on the touchscreen or show others content at a decent hinge angle, and it could be the best mode to use the Surface Book in when wanting to watch videos.
The Surface Book is one of the most compelling products Microsoft has released in several years and for the first time in decades, the company's first laptop.
While Microsoft’s line of
Surface Pro tablets has proven popular among a certain crowd of productivity enthusiasts, they haven’t managed to truly replace a laptop for most users. Acknowledging that is the case after three generations of Surface Pros, the company has taken alternate direction in the quest for the perfect hybrid.
The Surface Book is a laptop first and foremost. The device comes with a solid keyboard base, rather than a thin keyboard cover. When the two parts are connected, the Surface Book looks just like a laptop, but at the click of a button the display can be removed and the device used as a free-standing tablet.
As Microsoft hopes that the Surface Book will finally be the hybrid that tempts traditional laptop users, there is no shortage of performance hardware inside. Entry-level models are equipped with an Intel ‘Skylake’ Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of fast SSD storage, though you can
configure the unit to have a Core i7 CPU, a dedicated Nvidia GPU, 16 GB of memory, and up to 1 TB of SSD space.
The Book also features an incredibly interesting design. The hybrid’s 13.5-inch display is fairly standard in terms of diagonal size, but the use of a strange 3:2 aspect ratio makes the device a lot taller than competing products. My
Dell XPS 13, for example, uses a 13.3-inch 16:9 display with ultra-thin bezels, and although these displays are of a similar size class, the Surface Book is a lot larger and packs a decent amount more screen real estate.
And then there’s the hinge, which is one of the most head-turning features about the Surface Book. As most of the device’s internals are found in the display portion of the Book, including a battery that allows it to be used as a tablet, a strong hinge is needed to keep the heavy display from tipping over. Faced with this design challenge, Microsoft came up with this multi-segment hinge that’s tough and surprisingly sturdy considering the weight of the tablet.
The downside to this hinge, and I’m sure this will annoy many people, is that the laptop doesn’t close fully. When the display is resting on the keyboard base, there is a pen-sized gap near the hinge, which isn’t a particularly elegant solution. Functionally there is nothing wrong with having a gap, and it didn’t bother me (apart from aesthetics) in my time using the Book, but it certainly would be nicer if the laptop closed properly.
Even though the hinge is tough and built to take the weight of the tablet, there is an unusual weight balance in the Surface Book that’s unlike many other laptops. It’s clear during use, especially on your lap, that the display is heavier than a typical laptop, and there were some cases where I felt the device might tip over (even though it didn’t). The entire product is also reasonably heavy for a 13-inch class laptop at 1.51 kg (3.34 pounds): the excellent
XPS 13 is 250 grams lighter, although the
13-inch MacBook Pro is of a similar weight.
Part of the reason why the Surface Book is an above average weight is due to the use of premium materials across all surfaces of this device. The matte-finish magnesium exterior, enclosing the rear of the tablet and the entire keyboard base, both looks and feels superb, giving the Surface Book a premium design that suits its premium price tag. The use of metal across the entire device also helps the hybrid feel tough and dependable, as does the use of glass to protect the touchscreen display.
The tablet portion of the Surface Book is large thanks to the 13.5-inch screen, which makes it pretty difficult to use without holding it in two hands. The tablet is slim – an 8.5mm thin chassis with a powerful Skylake CPU inside is impressive – but without a kickstand included I didn’t detach the tablet and use it standalone all that often, aside from watching the occasional video or showing a document to someone else.
All four sides of the Surface Book’s tablet include small vents along their entirety, allowing the Skylake CPU and other components to breathe. Compared to less powerful tablets, having so many vents looks strange, but it will be familiar for those who’ve used a Surface Pro previously. The keyboard dock also includes a vent just below the hinge, which is used to cool the Nvidia GPU found in models with a discrete GPU.
The tablet portion features limited connectivity: there’s only a 3.5mm audio jack on the top right edge, along with power and volume buttons on the left side of the top edge. The base features an SD card slot, a mini-Display port, and two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a Surface Connect port that is used to charge the device and connect to the Surface Dock. There is no USB Type-C on the Surface Book, and just two USB ports might be a little limited for some users.
The latching method that secures the tablet to the keyboard is strong and really makes the hybrid feel like a laptop when both are connected. The system includes both latches and magnets, and the tablet won’t detach unless you press a button in Windows or on the keyboard. It’s not the fastest method of accessing the tablet I’ve seen, but the way it holds the tablet in place is far stronger and sturdier than other methods I’ve used.
The Surface Book comes with camera arrays on the front and back of the tablet. The rear camera is a not-completely-terrible 8.0-megapixel sensor, while the front camera is equipped with a depth sensor for
Windows Hello.
And you should definitely enable Windows Hello if you get the Surface Book: it’s a fast, accurate and very cool way of keeping the device secure. Unlike other facial recognition security systems I’ve tried, this one just seems to work every time.
While the tablet doesn’t come with a kickstand, it is possible to dock it in a reverse position, allowing you to use the keyboard as a stand. There were some times I put the device in this mode to draw on the touchscreen or show others content at a decent hinge angle, and it could be the best mode to use the Surface Book in when wanting to watch videos.
Display, Keyboard & Trackpad
The Surface Book is equipped with a 13.5-inch “PixelSense” IPS LCD display with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 (267 ppi). Its 3:2 aspect ratio is unconventional in a market dominated by 16:9 laptops, but during actual use the taller display is far more useful in productivity apps. Yes, you are going to get a letterbox effect when watching videos and movies, but this laptop is designed for productivity, where this sort of aspect ratio makes a ton of sense.
A resolution of 3000 x 2000 gives this device the equivalent density of a 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 16:9 display. In other words, the Surface Book’s display is well suited to rendering text and imagery, with both looking extremely sharp on this display. When Windows is set to a scaling value of 200% (which is the default), the desktop is a perfect size for regular use, and thanks to the improvements in Windows 10, most apps don’t look completely terrible.
The display is quite bright, capable of reaching as high as 410 nits, while black levels are excellent, allowing the LCD to boast contrast ratios in excess of 1:1700. Viewing angles from this panel are superb for an LCD, which makes it easy for a group of people to content on the screen. I didn’t notice any significant levels of backlight bleed in typical usage either.
Microsoft has managed to calibrate this display extremely well out of the box. Using an i1Display Pro colorimeter and SpectraCal’s CALMAN 5 software, I determined that the Surface Book’s display falls under a dE2000 of 2 in our greyscale, saturation and general accuracy tests. Performance like this indicates the display is almost indistinguishable from correct sRGB calibration, which makes this the perfect laptop for content creators wanting a powerful machine for color accurate work on the go.
The Surface Book’s keyboard is a typical island laptop keyboard, which feels somewhat mushy but has decent travel for a thin laptop board. All keys except for the smaller up and down arrows are of decent size and are spaced adequately for quick typing. Writing a portion of this review on the keyboard was a breeze, and it’s definitely a lot better for typing than the Type Covers you can get for the Surface tablets (let alone other lesser covers).
Along the top row of the keyboard are a collection of function keys, which control things like the keyboard backlight, volume and media playback. There’s also a dedicated button for undocking the tablet from the keyboard base, which you need to hold down in order for the latches to disconnect.
The trackpad, centered below the keyboard, is fairly decent for a laptop. The material the trackpad is made of feels great, allowing you move your fingers across its surface with ease. The trackpad has a satisfying click, which made using the mouse easy, and in general I found gestures to work as intended. I had no issues with this part of the Surface Book, and it complements the touchscreen well when you need increased accuracy.
Performance: General Usage & Battery Life
The Surface Book is a pretty powerful laptop, with all options packing high-end Intel Skylake hardware. The base model features an Intel Core i5-6300U with two cores and four threads clocked at 2.4 GHz with a Turbo Boost up to 3.0 GHz on a single core, or 2.9 GHz on two cores. This chip features an Intel HD 520 GPU at 1000 MHz, and there’s 3 MB of L3 cache. All Core i5 models come with 8 GB of RAM, and either 128 GB or 256 GB of storage.
If you want a faster processor, Microsoft will sell you one with an Intel Core i7-6600U, which features two cores, four threads clocked at 2.6 GHz with a Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz (single core) or 3.2 GHz (dual core). There’s 4 MB of L3 cache in this model, and a HD 520 GPU at 1050 MHz. Both the Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs have a rated TDP of 15W, are built on a 14nm FinFET process.
All Core i7 models also come with a discrete Nvidia GPU located in the keyboard base. This means that when the tablet is attached to the keyboard, and you’re running a graphics-intensive app, the Nvidia GPU will take over the HD 520 GPU in the Skylake CPU. In all other cases, the integrated graphics are used.
While neither Microsoft nor Nvidia have specifically stated what GPU is inside the Surface Book, it’s pretty clear from inspection that it’s a variant of the Nvidia GeForce 940M. The GPU packs 384 shader cores, 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and clock speeds of 954 MHz with a boost up to 993 MHz. It’s paired with 1 GB of dedicated GDDR5 frame buffer.
All in all, there are six models of the Surface Book, which are as follows:
- Core i5-6300U – 8 GB RAM – 128 GB SSD - $1499
- Core i5-6300U – 8 GB RAM – 256 GB SSD - $1699
- Core i5-6300U – GeForce 940M - 8 GB RAM – 256 GB SSD - $1899
- Core i7-6600U – GeForce 940M - 8 GB RAM – 256 GB SSD - $2099
- Core i7-6600U – GeForce 940M - 16 GB RAM – 512 GB SSD - $2699 - (reviewed here)
- Core i7-6600U – GeForce 940M - 16 GB RAM – 1 TB SSD - $3199
I’ll start with some positive experiences of using the Core i7 model with 16 GB of RAM and the integrated Nvidia GPU. There’s no doubting that this is a fast device, whether you use it in laptop or tablet mode. Compared to other tablets, the Surface Book really doesn’t have a match at this size class, and simply crushes basic tasks like web browsing, video watching, and document editing.
Compared to my daily driver, a Dell XPS 13 powered by an Intel Core i5-5200U, in basic tasks the Surface Book doesn’t feel considerably faster, although the XPS does have the advantage of packing a lower display resolution (1080p vs 3000 x 2000). If you’re just planning on web browsing and light productivity tasks, any Skylake Core i5 laptop will suffice, and that includes the lower-spec models of the Surface Book.
The real advantage to having a Surface Book loaded up with a Core i7 CPU and dedicated GPU is the performance it provides in more intensive workloads. Editing photos in Lightroom was noticeably faster on the Surface Book than the XPS 13, as was editing photos in Photoshop. The Nvidia GPU doesn’t make a huge difference in this sort of app, but the faster CPU and SSD certainly does.
Microsoft claims the Book is suitable for use in Adobe Premiere Pro as well as in AutoCAD. It’s in these two applications, among others, that the Nvidia GPU provides an advantage over integrated graphics. I personally tested Premiere on the Surface Book, which I use for editing videos on a workstation, and the extra performance of the 940M gives a decent performance bump when applying GPU-accelerated effects to your timeline.
On the flip side, the Surface Book is not equivalent to a good desktop PC with even a modest Intel CPU and dedicated GPU. My personal rig is equipped with a modest Intel Core i5-3570K CPU, and for video encoding it understandably crushes the Surface Book. The Surface Book is capable of editing 1080p videos on the go, but you can basically forget 4K editing with the performance it provides.
In other words, the Surface Book is a great device to complement a workstation when you’re away from your desk, but it’s not meant to replace it.
In intensive workloads, particularly in Premiere Pro, Photoshop and in games, the Surface Book is not quiet. The fans in the tablet spin up under moderate load, and when the CPU really needs to kick into gear, the high-pitched fan tone can become obnoxious. It’s audible over audio at a reasonable volume, and in general the laptop is louder (and runs hotter) than my XPS 13.
While I didn’t have issues detaching the display, and I didn’t experience screen flickering or general instability, I did have some issues getting applications to use the dedicated Nvidia GPU. 3DMark, for example, refused to use the 940M unless I specifically set the “preferred graphics processor” to the Nvidia GPU; setting only 3DMark to prefer the Nvidia GPU didn’t work, and automatic selection didn’t work either.
Considering automatic GPU selection didn’t work for 3DMark (and some other apps), it’s hard to know whether when you fire up Creative Cloud apps that the Nvidia GPU is being selected as it should be. You can check this within the app, but when I was using the Surface Book, I was never confident that the software would appropriately choose which GPU to use. I haven’t had the same problem on laptops with both integrated and dedicated GPUs – automatic selection has worked well in the past – but on the Surface, users might need to manually select the Nvidia GPU to get the best performance.
The Surface Book has a combined 70 Wh battery, which is above average for this class of laptop. The battery is split between an 18 Wh unit in the tablet, and a 52 Wh unit in the base. Naturally, the tablet’s battery life is not great and you’ll only manage a couple of hours of web browsing before needing to plug it in to the base.
However, the battery life from the laptop as a whole is excellent. When I used the Surface Book as my workstation for a couple of days, I could pretty much go the entire day (8-10 hours) of moderate to intensive use without needing to charge the unit. I’ve heard reports that the Core i7 unit doesn’t deliver as good battery life as the Core i5 models, but I was still very impressed with what it delivered.
Unfortunately, the Surface Book is still plagued with an issue where the system might not enter a sleep state properly when the lid is shut. This doesn’t sound like a significant issue, but there were times when I’d put down the Surface Book overnight without plugging it in, only to discover it was dead the next morning. This isn’t something I’ve experienced with similar laptops, and considering I can occasionally hear the fan with the lid shut, it’s clear the Book doesn’t always sleep when it should.
Not Perfect, but Microsoft is on to Something
The Surface Book is an early glimpse into the future of hybrid computing devices. What Microsoft has produced in 2015 isn’t perfect – in fact there are some glaring issues which might turn people away – but I’m convinced that Microsoft is on to something with the design of this product.
The best part of the Surface Book is how it incorporates a tablet and a laptop into the one device without heavily compromising the laptop experience. With most hybrid devices, I’ve used them as laptops far more than tablets, so for me, it’s crucial that the device is usable as a laptop first and foremost. Unlike with the Surface Pro line, which is a tablet paired with a kickstand and keyboard cover, the Surface Book is an excellent productivity tool that is truly usable as a laptop.
There are several reasons why the Book is a great laptop. The display is fantastic, packing a huge resolution, accurate color reproduction, and an unconventional aspect ratio that’s great for everyday usage. Microsoft has realized that 16:9 only has significant advantages in this form factor for media consumption, and that’s not something the Surface Book is designed for.
The performance of the Surface Book is also great, despite most of the hardware residing in the removable tablet. The Core i7-660U in the model I reviewed is powerful enough for some heavier productivity tools like Photoshop, AutoCAD and Premiere, and although it’s not fast enough to replace a decent workstation, the Surface Book could be a great companion for a creative professional that’s not on his desk.
The Nvidia GPU in the keyboard base is particularly interesting. While this is a discrete GPU, the GeForce 940M-equivalent hardware isn’t hugely fast, and won’t turn the Surface Book into a gaming machine. It does, however, complement creative apps that support GPU acceleration better than the integrated graphics could, and that’s exactly what Microsoft was trying to achieve.
The Surface Book isn’t as great as a tablet. The 13.5-inch screen makes it a little too large to hold comfortably for extended periods, despite Microsoft trying their hardest to make it thin and light. There’s also no useful ports on the tablet, so you can’t really take it away from the keyboard for extended periods, and the internal battery is clearly not suited for hours of extended use. It can be handy to remove the tablet for showing documents or videos to others, but I primarily found myself using the Book as a laptop, like with many other hybrids.
There are some notable issues with the Surface Book too, which in the few months since its release, haven’t been resolved.
Windows 10 is a great operating system for this sort of device, but the drivers and software developed specifically for the Surface Book still feel incomplete after all this time. Granted, I didn’t run into as many problems as early adopters, but issues like the Nvidia GPU not being used where it should, and the device continuing to run when the lid is shut, should have been fixed by now.
Unfortunately, the issues aren’t just restricted to the software. The hinge is a novel way to deal with the weight of the tablet, but it doesn’t close properly, which looks weird. The design also does nothing to stop the laptop from feeling top heavy, though I’m not sure how Microsoft could adequately address this issue.
As the tablet is so thin, the cooling solution for the CPU isn’t great, so the fans run during any moderate-intensity workloads, and their high-pitched audio profile can be annoyingly audible. The tablet can also run very hot when encoding video, something that Microsoft suggests you should do on the Book.
The inclusion of appropriate hardware for Windows Hello is great to see, as it’s easily the fastest and most accurate facial recognition system I’ve used. The all-metal exterior of the entire Book adds a premium look and feel, and the battery life while in laptop mode is generally pretty good. Microsoft also includes the Surface Pen in the box, which is a great, responsive writing tool that adds to the overall package.
So would I
buy the Surface Book to replace my Dell XPS 13? Probably not. The concept is great, and Microsoft have created the most compelling productivity-ready hybrid device to date, but it feels very much like a very well-rounded prototype that will become so much better in its second iteration. There are just a few too many compromises and software issues for me to recommend the device over a standalone laptop, especially considering the price difference between the Surface Book and its competitors.
I decidedly applaud Microsoft for their creativity and innovation in the Surface Book’s design, but anyone considering this hybrid should probably wait for the Surface Book 2.
