Should I go for a Surface Book 2?

[Ballanca]

Hello,

I found a Surface Book 2 13.5' for 1250 US$. Specs: Gtx 1050 (2GB), i7-8650U, 8 GB of Ram and 250 GB of NVMe SSD. 
Should I go for it ?

I intend to use it primarily for writing (I want a well build machine with a good battery life, that's why I am considering this) and minor light gaming on games such as Civ V.

Thnx in advance to anyone who might give his/her opinion. 
 

[Akira Shimazu]

writing with 1250$? have you check like Lenovo Yoga or Zenbook probably?

[LukeLinusFanFic]

Writing as in typing? It's not the most optimized machine, but from my experience with the surface pro, the surface lineup is very high end and very premium.

Personally, I'd go for the dell xps or any optimized ultrabook.

Also, you have to be sure 8 gigs of ram is enough for you, as it cannot be upgraded down the line.

 

Unless you mean digital writing and I completely misunderstood. In that case, sure. Go for it. It's probably very well optimized for what you're looking for (light gaming machine + great typing experience.

 

1 minute ago, Wolfycapt said:

writing with 1250$? have you check like Lenovo Yoga or Zenbook probably?

From my experience with the Zenbook and Yoga pen and digital notetaking, they are inferior to that of the surface.

[Ballanca]

10 minutes ago, LukeLinusFanFic said:

Writing as in typing? It's not the most optimized machine, but from my experience with the surface pro, the surface lineup is very high end and very premium.

Personally, I'd go for the dell xps or any optimized ultrabook.

Also, you have to be sure 8 gigs of ram is enough for you, as it cannot be upgraded down the line.

 

Unless you mean digital writing and I completely misunderstood. In that case, sure. Go for it. It's probably very well optimized for what you're looking for (light gaming machine + great typing experience.

 

From my experience with the Zenbook and Yoga pen and digital notetaking, they are inferior to that of the surface.

Yeah typing, tried different keyboards (Mac as well) and I'd like to have a good typing experience. Currently my laptop has 8 gigs and I believe I will be more than fine with that amount. Thank you for your reply :D. 

[Ballanca]

15 minutes ago, Wolfycapt said:

writing with 1250$? have you check like Lenovo Yoga or Zenbook probably?

Thnx for your reply. I am looking for quality above all, ditching the plastic. Might check for a Zenbook option as well, as for the Lenovo, I have heard that they have improved their quality a lot in the recent years, but still, they can't compare with what Microsoft is bringing to the table. 

[5x5]

Just now, Ballanca said:

Thnx for your reply. I am looking for quality above all, ditching the plastic. Might check for a Zenbook option as well, as for the Lenovo, I have heard that they have improved their quality a lot in the recent years, but still, they can't compare with what Microsoft is bringing to the table. 

If you are looking for the best keyboard on the market, get a ThinkPad. It's far more durable than consumer devices like the XPS or Surface, offers the best typing experience possible and military spec standards. Maybe a X1 Carbon or T490

[Ballanca]

2 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

If you are looking for the best keyboard on the market, get a ThinkPad. It's far more durable than consumer devices like the XPS or Surface, offers the best typing experience possible and military spec standards. Maybe a X1 Carbon or T490

How is their graphics performance? Many have recommended the ThinkPad and I saw a few models, though it gets confusing cause there are to many options to choose from. Thanks for your comment. 

[5x5]

1 minute ago, Ballanca said:

How is their graphics performance? Many have recommended the ThinkPad and I saw a few models, though it gets confusing cause there are to many options to choose from. Thanks for your comment. 

Look for a modwl with a GPU if you need graphics performance. The T480 should have MX250 options and the E490 comes with a 550X. If you need more power than that X1 Extreme comes with a 1050Ti or 1650

[Kisai]

33 minutes ago, Ballanca said:

Hello,

I found a Surface Book 2 13.5' for 1250 US$. Specs: Gtx 1050 (2GB), i7-8650U, 8 GB of Ram and 250 GB of NVMe SSD. 
Should I go for it ?

I intend to use it primarily for writing (I want a well build machine with a good battery life, that's why I am considering this) and minor light gaming on games such as Civ V.

Thnx in advance to anyone who might give his/her opinion. 
 

Don't game on devices designed as tablet's as you won't be happy with the result. You can, but the form-factor will throttle the CPU and GPU. Usually devices that are tablet/convertable/ultrabook are designed for light-usage/travel. Load a computationally expensive game on it, and you'll probably get 10 minutes out of it before it's 1/4 of the expected speed. There ARE games you can play on such devices with little or no issue, but they're of the mobile-variety.

 

A gaming laptop needs to be one of the 1" thick monsters to be sufficient-enough cooled to actually play any game for any significant amount of time, and ones with weaker parts will sound like a jet engine taking off the second you load the game.

 

My recommendation would be either a Legion Y540  or a Dell G5 15 if you're going to buy something explicitly for gaming-capable while still being a reasonable business laptop.

 

[Ballanca]

2 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Don't game on devices designed as tablet's as you won't be happy with the result. You can, but the form-factor will throttle the CPU and GPU. Usually devices that are tablet/convertable/ultrabook are designed for light-usage/travel. Load a computationally expensive game on it, and you'll probably get 10 minutes out of it before it's 1/4 of the expected speed. There ARE games you can play on such devices with little or no issue, but they're of the mobile-variety.

 

A gaming laptop needs to be one of the 1" thick monsters to be sufficient-enough cooled to actually play any game for any significant amount of time, and ones with weaker parts will sound like a jet engine taking off the second you load the game.

 

My recommendation would be either a Legion Y540  or a Dell G5 15 if you're going to buy something explicitly for gaming-capable while still being a reasonable business laptop.

 

Thnx for your reply. Gaming is second (or even third). Might just play a few hours here and there every month, so I wasn't looking for any model specifically designed for gaming, but it is definitely a bonus. Thnx for your suggestions as well. 

[5x5]

9 minutes ago, Ballanca said:

Thnx for your reply. Gaming is second (or even third). Might just play a few hours here and there every month, so I wasn't looking for any model specifically designed for gaming, but it is definitely a bonus. Thnx for your suggestions as well. 

I would disagree with my coforumer. Gaming on a thin and light IS possibly assuming you do some undervolting, some tweaking of the power options and you buy a device with reasonable cooling and firmware. The T480/490 for example

[Akira Shimazu]

9 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

I would disagree with my coforumer. Gaming on a thin and light IS possibly assuming you do some undervolting, some tweaking of the power options and you buy a device with reasonable cooling and firmware. The T480/490 for example

yeah Thinkpad is like balance between all. nice keyboard too

[Akira Shimazu]

The thinkpad X1 has better design actually and of course less cooling comapre to the T480. thickness cant lie. but in your preference i guess you could go X1 since its thinner and has that ultrabook vibes.

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, Ballanca said:

they can't compare with what Microsoft is bringing to the table

Surface has bad quality actually