Microsoft Surface Book (2015)

[Ginsu]

I know I'm late to the party on this, but I got my Surface Book a couple months ago, just before the new one was announced. Yes, I knew it was coming, but these things happen, and I got a pretty serious deal on this thing.
 

As I said, I've had mine for a couple months now, which I believe to be the same trim level Linus reviewed (i7/16GB/512GB/dGPU).
 

I bought it because I'm in college, and I really wanted one device that could meet the arbitrary whims of different professors' technology policies (I shit ye not, this semester alone I had one class where anything goes, so I used it as a laptop; one class where tech was verboten, so it had to stay in my bag; and two where tablets were ok, but not laptops). So this just looked like it would do a better job of being all things to all classes (well, 3/4 isn't bad).
 

So I've spent a fair amount of time with it as both a laptop, and as a tablet, and here are my thoughts:

I fucking love this thing. Not only is it epic in either mode, but the performance well exceeds my expectations on a regular basis.

• Battery: Forgot to charge it after I got home and didn't realize it til the next day when running off to class? No problem. Its standby battery life is absurd given its specs. My Chromebook, which used to live in my bag for note-taking purposes, is now gathering dust.
• Gaming? I installed Hearthstone simply because I imagined playing on a touchscreen this big would kick ass (and it does) but then, while I had Battle.net there, anyway, I thought "lol, let's see what WoW looks like at 3FPS".....but it doesn't run at 3FPS. No, running at the settings optimized by GeForce Experience (which, also, "holy shit, what?" runs on this thing) it pulls a consistent ~40FPS, with highs in the 60s when not running dungeons, raids, or world boss encounters with several dozen other players. I recently bought the latest Razer Naga for my gaming rig, as my old one was over 4 years old, but after this fun discovery, the old one now lives in my bag. I can easily play WoW on the go, without anything I'd consider a "compromise," unless you'd count not having my 30-inch 4K with me everywhere I go. I guess this 13.5" 3000x2000 will just have to suffice (#firstworldproblems). My fiancee now has the ROG laptop I used to carry, and I don't miss it.
• Pen? I really wasn't sure how much of a pain in the ass the pen would be, but like Linus says, it sticks to that edge like glue. As memory serves, for all the times I've pulled it out of my bag, the pen has only stayed behind twice. In two months. And as for actually using it....I really don't have anything to compare it to. I've owned a Wacom before, but never a Cintiq, so writing/drawing directly on-screen is new for me. I can't believe how well it works, especially with no calibration options to be found. The only issues I've had with it involve occasional stupidity about the eraser-clicks (once for OneNote, twice for screenshots) not working properly after waking from sleep. Cycling Bluetooth off and back on usually fixes this, and it's a minor annoyance, as the pen doesn't fail to write/draw or erase when this happens.
• Converting: Switching between laptop and tablet modes is one of those things you just have to remember you can do, and then I found I got used to it very quickly. Unless something is using the dGPU, holding that second button from the right on the top row and listening for the click became something I could do without looking. When using it as a "tablet," I most often detach the screen, turn it around, and fold it down like in the image below, because the slight angle is actually convenient, and because it allows it to use that battery, and the dGPU. I'm no artist, but I've dicked around in Photoshop CC, and I'm impressed. I wish like hell I'd had this back when I was editing photos for a living.

(Yay, Logic proofs....)

 

I'm sure the new one performs even better, with even better battery life, but I just have to say....the old one's no slouch.

If anyone has any questions I didn't answer in this, I'd be more than happy to answer.

 

Additional terrible "glamour" shots, as requested by dizmo:

And one I'm not embarrassed of:

Edited December 13, 2016 by Ginsu
added pictures for dizmo

[Guest]

What do you study in college?

[Ginsu]

1 minute ago, sharfaraz_ifaz said:

What do you study in college?

Political Science/Pre-Law, with a minor in Philosophy.

Which is to say....I write. A fuckton.

[dizmo]

You should take your own pictures, and lots of them
IMO that's what makes a review complete.

[Ginsu]

Just now, dizmo said:

You should take your own pictures, and lots of them
IMO that's what makes a review complete.

 

I've got my Pixel XL handy....any particular shots you'd care to see?

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, Ginsu said:

I've got my Pixel XL handy....any particular shots you'd care to see?

Nothing in particular, just a bunch of glamour shots.

Maybe one of the base separated from the screen?

[Ginsu]

Just now, dizmo said:

Nothing in particular, just a bunch of glamour shots.

Maybe one of the base separated from the screen?

 

I wish I could find my white screen....any pictures I take of this thing are going to look like crap, but if you insist.....

[Sniperfox47]

The only difference with the new one is the keyboard part. The new one has a higher end GPU, amother fan, and a bigger battery in the keyboard. That's it. On games, CAD, high end Photoshop, rendering, and other tasks like that it will help, but daily stuff like browsing the web and watching movies they perform identical.

 

Con side the new one's keyboard is thicker.

 

If you got the performance base seperayely and stuck it onto your version, you'd literally have the new one.

[Ginsu]

1 minute ago, Sniperfox47 said:

The only difference with the new one is the keyboard part. The new one has a higher end GPU, amother fan, and a bigger battery in the keyboard. That's it. On games, CAD, high end Photoshop, rendering, and other tasks like that it will help, but daily stuff like browsing the web and watching movies they perform identical.

 

Con side the new one's keyboard is thicker.

 

If you got the performance base seperayely and stuck it onto your version, you'd literally have the new one.

 

Yeah, I get that. Honestly, I wouldn't mind it being thicker. The keyboard is only thick enough to have USB ports on this one.

Also, I'd *love* to just slam my "clipboard"^*cringe* onto the new "Performance Base,"^*cringe* but they don't sell these things separately.

[Ginsu]

24 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Nothing in particular, just a bunch of glamour shots.

Maybe one of the base separated from the screen?

 

OP updated with crappy pictures, just for you, lol

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, Ginsu said:

OP updated with crappy pictures, just for you, lol

Excellent. Much better! Haha. How do you find it is in tablet only mode? I bought an 8" tablet and a 10" tablet to see which I liked better, and after trying th e8" I didn't even bother unwrapping the 10". It'd have been way too big. I can't even imagine a 12" or larger.

[WkdPaul]

moved to Member reviews

[Ginsu]

Just now, dizmo said:

Excellent. Much better! Haha. How do you find it is in tablet only mode? I bought an 8" tablet and a 10" tablet to see which I liked better, and after trying th e8" I didn't even bother unwrapping the 10". It'd have been way too big. I can't even imagine a 12" or larger.

 

I never use it "by itself," if you get what I'm saying. When I'm using primarily touch or pen for input, I either have it set up as in my Logic proofs picture or in the first picture at the end. I never really hold it in my hands....that would be kinda ridiculous. Having a touchscreen this big is nice for all sorts of stuff, though, from writing to Hearthstone.
 

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Ginsu said:

I never use it "by itself," if you get what I'm saying. When I'm using primarily touch or pen for input, I either have it set up as in my Logic proofs picture or in the first picture at the end. I never really hold it in my hands....that would be kinda ridiculous. Having a touchscreen this big is nice for all sorts of stuff, though, from writing to Hearthstone.
 

Yeah, I've often wondered if my next laptop would be touch screen or not. Tough decision. It's definitely needing a replacement though. 4GB of RAM isn't enough with the amount of tabs I use.

[Ginsu]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Yeah, I've often wondered if my next laptop would be touch screen or not. Tough decision. It's definitely needing a replacement though. 4GB of RAM isn't enough with the amount of tabs I use.

 

I really don't think I'd like a standard laptop with a touchscreen. I almost never reach up and touch it while in "standard laptop" configuration. It just doesn't feel right. Say what you will about Jobs, but I think he had a point there.

As for RAM, I had 8GB in my Chromebook, and 16GB in the ROG I was using, and....yeah, if you use Chrome, you're gunna want at least 16. I love it, but it's such a RAM hog.

That's not to excuse shitty fringe cases like a former roommate of mine that hadn't closed a tab in like 8 years, though.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Ginsu said:

I really don't think I'd like a standard laptop with a touchscreen. I almost never reach up and touch it while in "standard laptop" configuration. It just doesn't feel right. Say what you will about Jobs, but I think he had a point there.

As for RAM, I had 8GB in my Chromebook, and 16GB in the ROG I was using, and....yeah, if you use Chrome, you're gunna want at least 16. I love it, but it's such a RAM hog.

That's not to excuse shitty fringe cases like a former roommate of mine that hadn't closed a tab in like 8 years, though.

How would it be any different than what you have now?

Or do you generally use it in that folded over mode?

 

I actually find Firefox to be a bigger resource hog. It also continuously freezes and crashes. A problem I've had on both my laptop and desktop (with the desktop having 16GB of RAM). It pins my CPU to 100% and RAM to 98% until I force close it.

 

Haha, I'm bad with tabs. I usually have 5 or 6 windows with 10 or 11 tabs open at any given time.

[Ginsu]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

How would it be any different than what you have now?

Or do you generally use it in that folded over mode?

 

I actually find Firefox to be a bigger resource hog. It also continuously freezes and crashes. A problem I've had on both my laptop and desktop (with the desktop having 16GB of RAM). It pins my CPU to 100% and RAM to 98% until I force close it.

 

Haha, I'm bad with tabs. I usually have 5 or 6 windows with 10 or 11 tabs open at any given time.

 

Yeah, it would be different in that, as I said, I only really "touch" it when it's "folded over." I suppose something like the Yoga with its absurd range of motion would accomplish largely the same thing, though it wouldn't provide the nice little angle towards me when it's laying flat, and I don't know what its pen support is like, but I'm gunna take a stab in the dark and guess it's not better than this.

I quit Firefox like 10 years ago, and didn't have my opinion of it changed by having to support end users that insisted on using it no matter how awful it was (right up til I quit IT to go back to school, lol). As soon as Chrome existed, I saw no need for Firefox's bloat anymore......of course, Chrome has bloated right the hell up, but I take some of the responsibility, as I'm running approximately 24223237541257181 X 10²³⁸ extensions at any given time.

[dizmo]

19 minutes ago, Ginsu said:

Yeah, it would be different in that, as I said, I only really "touch" it when it's "folded over." I suppose something like the Yoga with its absurd range of motion would accomplish largely the same thing, though it wouldn't provide the nice little angle towards me when it's laying flat, and I don't know what its pen support is like, but I'm gunna take a stab in the dark and guess it's not better than this.

I quit Firefox like 10 years ago, and didn't have my opinion of it changed by having to support end users that insisted on using it no matter how awful it was (right up til I quit IT to go back to school, lol). As soon as Chrome existed, I saw no need for Firefox's bloat anymore......of course, Chrome has bloated right the hell up, but I take some of the responsibility, as I'm running approximately 24223237541257181 X 10²³⁸ extensions at any given time.

Haha yeah the only reason I use Firefox is it has all of my bookmarks. I really should get around to swapping them over.

[DocSwag]

I really want a surface book so I'll probably get one next year. I want to have a laptop that can also convert into a tablet for writing notes and the surface book doesn't require a kickstand which is nice.