Microsoft Surface Book announced at Microsoft 2015 Hardware Event - NVIDIA GPU, Lastest Intel Chips

[pk-man]

the surface book looks interesting but at that price point it better be damn good. Let's hope the battery life won't suck.

[jos]

Based on a doc file which is aimed for teh press

http://news.microsoft.com/download/presskits/surface/docs/surfacebookfs.docx

The Nvidia GPU has only 1GB of memory (will use the system memory for more). If it uses DDR4 memory on the system, then it will help, if true. So the Nvidia GPU can be a low end one, or a higher end one, but limited system memory due to device space constraints.

In one of the slide it was written GDDR5.. but size was not specified..

[Yurr]

Microsoft says it has 12 hour battery life.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/devices/surface-book#techspec-block

[TheProfosist]

Now that is a nice system!

I agree and am thinking that's what might replace my ThinkPad T420 finally.

[TheProfosist]

models:

128GB/i5/8GB- 1499

256GB/i5/8GB- 1699

256GB/i5/8GB/nVidia- 1899

256GB/i7/8GB/nVidia- 2099

512GB/i7/16GB/nVidia- 2699

1TB/i7/16GB/nVidia- Not Found, But mentioned in livestream.

Resolution: 3000x2000, 13.5inch, touch, Palm Block technology and 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity

weight: 728grams (got to be wrong...Some mistake by Microsoft.. How is it possible??)

Two full-size USB 3.0

Full-size SD card reader

Surface Connect

Headset jack

Mini DisplayPort

5.0 megapixel front-facing camera

8.0 megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, with 1080p HD video recording

Dual Microphones, front and rear facing

Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby audio

I wasnt 16GB of ram with a 256GB ssd...

[TheProfosist]

worst part is the 600 premium jump for 512gb and 16gb of ram, also there should be a 256gb 16gb ram i7 in between that 600$ price gap

Exactly!

[Dabombinable]

MacBook...surfacebook... This is blatant copying of apple's naming scheme. They couldn't be bothered to come up with anything else?

Apple is the king of copying......

[GoodBytes]

I agree and am thinking that's what might replace my ThinkPad T420 finally.

The only downside that I can see of this device, is that it is in magnesium. I old Dell laptop was in magnesium, my Surface Pro 2 is in magnesium.

I can tell you it requires special care, because magnesium is not dyed, but rather painted. So Anything will scratch, even a peace of paper rubbing on the surface will harm the paint finish. Now it is silver and not black so it will show less, but it means that it still requires special care, expect scratches around USB ports and such, and you need to shop around for a sleeve that has a soft fabric inside. If you take care of the device, it will look nice for 3 years easy (like new, even), possibly more.

[Doobeedoo]

Great portable machine indeed. Being laptop with dedicated GPU and keyboard when docked. 
Can't wait for review

[AlexGoesHigh]

Nvidia gave a response to PC per about the SB GPU, they say is maxwell based and is not comparable to the standard 900M series of GPU's, which is as close to a confirmation well see that it using a custom maxwell chip

http://www.pcper.com/news/Mobile/Microsoft-Surface-Book-2-1-Skylake-NVIDIA-Discrete-GPU-Announced

[d3sl91]

The fact I got chills from this is so weird. 

 

[AlexGoesHigh]

The fact I got chills from this is so weird. 

 

snip

TBF, that is IMO one of the best product showcase video i have ever seen, from start to finish is just so epic.

[GoodBytes]

Nvidia gave a response to PC per about the SB GPU, they say is maxwell based and is not comparable to the standard 900M series of GPU's, which is as close to a confirmation well see that it using a custom maxwell chip

http://www.pcper.com/news/Mobile/Microsoft-Surface-Book-2-1-Skylake-NVIDIA-Discrete-GPU-Announced

I am wondering if it means that it is a older GPU, or a part way Pascal GPU. What I mean it is that it isn't the full nice fancy Pascal GPU we will get in the future, but rather what Pascal initially was supposed to be before Nvidia delays Volta, which is Maxwell 2.0. A more power efficient and a bit faster GPU.

[crystal6tak]

Read a few things on it and I'd like to mention a few things.

 

Firstly, apparently the battery is split into two parts. One in the tablet itself and the other in the keyboard. This might annoy some people if they primarily use it as a tablet as essentially you'll have half, or, 6 hours of battery life. Probably a reason why Surface Pro 4 is heavier than the Book cause in SP4 the entire battery is in the tablet.

 

Secondly, no USB port in the tablet, dafuq? So if I'm using it as a tablet, and someone hands me a USB to give me files, I have to take out my keyboard, fumble around to connect them (apparently connecting the two is not as straightforward as SP, like it doesn't just snap on, you'll have to slide it in at a certain angle), just to get the USB ports?

 

Thirdly, there's a button that has to be pressed to disengage the tablet from the keyboard. Probably to disconnect the battery and dGPU I understand but still, if not well implemented, there might be situations where the SB refuses to disconnected. I don't know. It's possible.

 

But yea, a really awesome one of a kind product! I like it! Honestly cramming the dGPU in the keyboard is effin genius, gj MS.

[handymanshandle]

Nah, not worth the price. I'm not saying MacBook Pro's are any more worth their price tag but honestly at least they're not trying too hard to be more than just one thing.

[GoodBytes]

Read a few things on it and I'd like to mention a few things.

 

Firstly, apparently the battery is split into two parts. One in the tablet itself and the other in the keyboard. This might annoy some people if they primarily use it as a tablet as essentially you'll have half, or, 6 hours of battery life. Probably a reason why Surface Pro 4 is heavier than the Book cause in SP4 the entire battery is in the tablet.

 

Secondly, no USB port in the tablet, dafuq? So if I'm using it as a tablet, and someone hands me a USB to give me files, I have to take out my keyboard, fumble around to connect them (apparently connecting the two is not as straightforward as SP, like it doesn't just snap on, you'll have to slide it in at a certain angle), just to get the USB ports?

 

Thirdly, there's a button that has to be pressed to disengage the tablet from the keyboard. Probably to disconnect the battery and dGPU I understand but still, if not well implemented, there might be situations where the SB refuses to disconnected. I don't know. It's possible.

 

But yea, a really awesome one of a kind product! I like it! Honestly cramming the dGPU in the keyboard is effin genius, gj MS.

You'll probably get 9h of battery life in terms of writing notes. What I find interesting is looking at the video when they show the internals of the system itself, you can see plenty of free space. They could put a larger battery or even USB port. Maybe they needed something for Surface Book 2?

[razor767]

It's.......interesting to say the least. 

[GoodBytes]

Nah, not worth the price. I'm not saying MacBook Pro's are any more worth their price tag but honestly at least they're not trying too hard to be more than just one thing.

While I would normally agree with you, and used to back in the days of pre-Surface products. But Microsoft has showed that time and time again that it can be done with near flawless execution. I mean the swamp system between laptop and tablet. What i am excited to see, is that since the original Surface Pro, at every product iteration, they greatly improved the device. I mean in terms of power efficiency, even smarter designs to improve the product experience, stuff like firmware upgrade system is improved and so on. They really show that they are learning from their previous product mistakes/issues. I hope they continue with this new line of product and Surface Pro gen 4.

[handymanshandle]

While I would normally agree with you, and used to back in the days of pre-Surface products. But Microsoft has showed that time and time again that it can be done with near flawless execution. I mean the swamp system between laptop and tablet. What i am excited to see, is that since the original Surface Pro, at every product iteration, they greatly improved the device. I mean in terms of power efficiency, even smarter designs to improve the product experience, stuff like firmware upgrade system is improved and so on. They really show that they are learning from their previous product mistakes/issues. I hope they continue with this new line of product and Surface Pro gen 4.

I suppose... Though if someone is buying a Surface Book/SP4 they're probably not going to need whatever extra performance the dGPU gives them I guess maybe there might be a niché that will actually benefit from the dGPU but 13.1" is kind of small to game on. 14" or 15" is going to be much more enjoyable.

[jos]

Read a few things on it and I'd like to mention a few things.

 

Firstly, apparently the battery is split into two parts. One in the tablet itself and the other in the keyboard. This might annoy some people if they primarily use it as a tablet as essentially you'll have half, or, 6 hours of battery life. Probably a reason why Surface Pro 4 is heavier than the Book cause in SP4 the entire battery is in the tablet.

 

Secondly, no USB port in the tablet, dafuq? So if I'm using it as a tablet, and someone hands me a USB to give me files, I have to take out my keyboard, fumble around to connect them (apparently connecting the two is not as straightforward as SP, like it doesn't just snap on, you'll have to slide it in at a certain angle), just to get the USB ports?

 

Thirdly, there's a button that has to be pressed to disengage the tablet from the keyboard. Probably to disconnect the battery and dGPU I understand but still, if not well implemented, there might be situations where the SB refuses to disconnected. I don't know. It's possible.

 

But yea, a really awesome one of a kind product! I like it! Honestly cramming the dGPU in the keyboard is effin genius, gj MS.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/462470-microsoft-surface-book-announced-at-microsoft-2015-hardware-event-nvidia-gpu-lastest-intel-chips/?p=6206784

Battery is just 3 hours on tab....

[atrash]

The fact I got chills from this is so weird.

https://youtu.be/XVfOe5mFbAE

I dropped my jaw watching it during the live stream. When Panos said watch the video closer.

Imagine if Microsoft provide an upgrade to better dgpu in future,just by changing the base/keyboard. How cool would that be?

[AlexGoesHigh]

You'll probably get 9h of battery life in terms of writing notes. What I find interesting is looking at the video when they show the internals of the system itself, you can see plenty of free space. They could put a larger battery or even USB port. Maybe they needed something for Surface Book 2?

i'm guessing that has more to do that its very light, every hands on i have read said that the tablet portion is the lightest hardware of that size they have ever used. Like you said SB2 needs to fill that space, hopefully with even more battery.

[crystal6tak]

You'll probably get 9h of battery life in terms of writing notes. What I find interesting is looking at the video when they show the internals of the system itself, you can see plenty of free space. They could put a larger battery or even USB port. Maybe they needed something for Surface Book 2?

That's true, why the eff is there so much free space? Even heatsinks won't be that big, i think? Or is it the magnet that holds the pen could interfere so they could't put stuff there and to make weight even they had to not put stuff on the other side as well? Actually is battery effected by magnets? I have no idea.

 

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/462470-microsoft-surface-book-announced-at-microsoft-2015-hardware-event-nvidia-gpu-lastest-intel-chips/?p=6206784

Battery is just 3 hours on tab....

wow lol ok. Add to the lack of USB, it's almost as if ms DON'T want you to use it primarily as a tablet. Guess that's why the SP4 exists.

[Ekpyrosis]

The claim that this is the fastest 13'' laptop seems highly dubitable to me. Alienware, for example, has a 13'' laptop configurable to an i7 (probably even the same SKU), 16GB RAM and a 960M with 2GB of VRAM and likely more thermal dissipation for higher turbo and gpu boost frequencies. I'm not saying that the two devices are comparable, but if they make such a claim, it should be substantiated.

[TheProfosist]

The only downside that I can see of this device, is that it is in magnesium. I old Dell laptop was in magnesium, my Surface Pro 2 is in magnesium.

I can tell you it requires special care, because magnesium is not dyed, but rather painted. So Anything will scratch, even a peace of paper rubbing on the surface will harm the paint finish. Now it is silver and not black so it will show less, but it means that it still requires special care, expect scratches around USB ports and such, and you need to shop around for a sleeve that has a soft fabric inside. If you take care of the device, it will look nice for 3 years easy (like new, even), possibly more.

Or I could just not care and use it since it'll probably never leave my possession. As long as it's physically sturdier could care less about looks.

Also this actually sounds like some what of a good use for a dbrand skin for once.

I suppose... Though if someone is buying a Surface Book/SP4 they're probably not going to need whatever extra performance the dGPU gives them I guess maybe there might be a niché that will actually benefit from the dGPU but 13.1" is kind of small to game on. 14" or 15" is going to be much more enjoyable.

Basically everything someone who is going to pay for the dedicated gpu can in some way be accelerated by it.