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

[TheProfosist]

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.

They mean ultra book I believe and the Razer didn't meet that standard.

[TheProfosist]

@crystal6tak correct if your primary use it tablet the standard surface is a better choice.

[d3sl91]

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 was bummed on the USB port as well. However. 

 

• If I am using this device as a tablet and plugging in a USB device, you are already breaking the "slim, light, fun, portable" nature of a tablet. 
• Plugging in USB uses more battery (device dependent).
• Most devices are available in Bluetooth form. 

 

So, if you need to be plugging in an external HD, a mouse, some other device (In my case, it would be a software-defined radio reciever). Might as well just flip it around on the keyboard.....anyway.  

 

I can see "hey, lets quickly offload my camera's SD card" or "I just wanna use a mini usb dongle for some entertainment sources". Being an issue, although, again, just flip the thing around on the keyboard. At least its not a macbook that requires $70 adapters for everything. just to be able to charge and plug in a dongle...

 

Speaking of adapters. Who knows what accessories will be available for the surface connect port, could end up with a simple small USB/SD card reader adapter?

[GoodBytes]

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....

That is a shame. I guess we have to see a tear down of the device, but based on the video it looks like there is room for larger battery. I guess gen 2 will have larger battery. I wonder if they didn't put a larger battery due to cost increase, as the device is already expensive as it is. Or not step over Surface Pro 4 territory. Or simply, like @crystal6tak said, weight control

[Commander Llama]

Well, the Surface Pro 4 had the tech spec upgrades I thought it would have. Skylake, 16GB RAM option, SSD sizes shifted up by one. No big surprises. And perhaps that's not a bad thing, given the great reception to the SP3.

 

Now there's the Surface Book. I had an honest to goodness LOL watching the livestream. Apple announces the iPad Pro, and now Microsoft announces the Surface Book. These multi-billion dollar megacorps have the naming creativity of 7 year olds, maybe less.

 

The Surface Book itself though... very cool. Like most here, I need more info about that Nvidia GPU in particular before any serious consideration. And hands on, and battery tests. And so on.

 

I didn't need a laptop when the first Surface devices came out, and I decided to hold off on a Surface Pro 3. I waited a whole year, and now I need a note taking programming VMing buddy for January. Surface Pro 4...or Surface Book? Geez, you had to add a new dilemma to my decision, didn't you Microsoft?

 

Edit: Realistically probably SP4. Although the Surface Book looks cool and has many of the things Microsoft learned from the Surface line packed in it, it's technically a new direction and "first gen." I have little confidence in first gen devices. SP4 should be quite refined. Just need to make sure the thing can VM Linux. I hope the i5 processors can do that, the Canadian prices for the i7 processor options are FuckingRidiculous^TM.

[jakinov]

Well, the Surface Pro 4 had the tech spec upgrades I thought it would have. Skylake, 16GB RAM option, SSD sizes shifted up by one. No big surprises. And perhaps that's not a bad thing, given the great reception to the SP3.

 

Now there's the Surface Book. I had an honest to goodness LOL watching the livestream. Apple announces the iPad Pro, and now Microsoft announces the Surface Book. These multi-billion dollar megacorps have the naming creativity of 7 year olds, maybe less.

 

The Surface Book itself though... very cool. Like most here, I need more info about that Nvidia GPU in particular before any serious consideration. And hands on, and battery tests. And so on.

 

I didn't need a laptop when the first Surface devices came out, and I decided to hold off on a Surface Pro 3. I waited a whole year, and now I need a note taking programming VMing buddy for January. Surface Pro 4...or Surface Book? Geez, you had to add a new dilemma to my decision, didn't you Microsoft?

 

Edit: Realistically probably SP4. Although the Surface Book looks cool and has many of the things Microsoft learned from the Surface line packed in it, it's technically a new direction and "first gen." I have little confidence in first gen devices. SP4 should be quite refined.

To be fair Apple has been appending the word "Pro" for product names before the Surface even existed.

[handymanshandle]

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

 

Still 13.1" is kind of small.

[Deletive]

Please, have iris pro options.

[RagnarokDel]

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

til Apple owns the word book. It comes from ultrabook...

[TheProfosist]

Still 13.1" is kind of small.

not really since out side of teh US laptop over 14in basically dont sell. This is especially the case in Asia. i woudl also have to concur as a 15in no matter how thing is still big and bulky.

[TheProfosist]

Please, have iris pro options.

They announced tht for teh Surface Pro 4 and I would assume the Book has it too.

[RH00D]

I found it hilarious reading the comments here and on Ars Technica regarding pricing. Most people here think its overpriced to hell but on Ars a lot of people are impressed with the pricing. Really says a lot about the demographics of each site, where LTT is mostly kids that still think $1500 is a crazy amount of money.

 

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/microsoft-introduces-surface-book-a-laptop-for-surface-fans/?comments=1&start=0

[RagnarokDel]

The releases today by Microsoft were all pretty impressive. I think this is one of the most interesting for me since I'm not a fan of the app ecosystem WP10 offers.

Gorgeous laptop, for sure. I'll wait to see what kind of battery life results we see in the real world but this could very well be my next ultrabook.

 

 

It'd really bother you that much? It's still pretty thin.

Though not as thin as say a Series 9 by Samsung.

I think if the hinge proves to be significantly stronger, it makes sense and is a decent trade off.

 

What, making both?

 

Well, it is a premium piece of kit. It's not going to be super cheap.

I believe it's also aimed more at professionals, to whom that price is nothing.

 

...at least they included the pen this time. You could almost consider that a $100 value add.

Been using windows 10 since launch, didnt use the app store yet.

[RagnarokDel]

Normal? No. It's thin. That's a price premium and hardly qualifies it as normal. If it was 1400 with a half decent GPU and that form factor, then I would be fucking impressed. At this point for 2000+ you can get something like a 970m or 980m if you go for a normal, not "Look at how thin this is!" form factor

I'd rather they not go with a gpu too power angry and instead make sure the cpu doesnt throttle like the macbook.

[Rmusic10891]

I found it hilarious reading the comments here and on Ars Technica regarding pricing. Most people here think its overpriced to hell but on Ars a lot of people are impressed with the pricing. Really says a lot about the demographics of each site, where LTT is mostly kids that still think $1500 is a crazy amount of money.

 

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/microsoft-introduces-surface-book-a-laptop-for-surface-fans/?comments=1&start=0

I will say this, I think both the starting price for the SP4 and Surface Book are fair. Where I think they're kinda doing the Apple thing and screwing the customer is omitting price points that would probably really popular in order to get people to buy the more expensive version. Example I would really like the SP4 with an i5 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD at like $1099. I can't really see myself living with 4GB of RAM, especially long term, but I could easily live with a 128GB SSD considering pretty much all my stuff can be stored in the cloud or on an SD card. I don't really need much more internal storage space than is required to store Windows and a few applications.

 

The Surface Book as the same pricing gaps it seems.  It's all standard in the device world, but it's still annoying that they seem to sit down and go, okay what would be the most popular spec option, then they create one slightly more powerful than that and price it at a $100-$200 premium.

[AlexGoesHigh]

I will say this, I think both the starting price for the SP4 and Surface Book are fair. Where I think they're kinda doing the Apple thing and screwing the customer is omitting price points that would probably really popular in order to get people to buy the more expensive version. Example I would really like the SP4 with an i5 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD at like $1099. I can't really see myself living with 4GB of RAM, especially long term, but I could easily live with a 128GB SSD considering pretty much all my stuff can be stored in the cloud or on an SD card. I don't really need much more internal storage space than is required to store Windows and a few applications.

 

The Surface Book as the same pricing gaps it seems.  It's all standard in the device world, but it's still annoying that they seem to sit down and go, okay what would be the most popular spec option, then they create one slightly more powerful than that and price it at a $100-$200 premium.

You can customize almost all the specs of the SP4 in the MS store page, don't understand why they din't do that for the book though. I'm guessing due to parts availability but hardware wise, the 2 are not that different, expect for the GPU in the book.

 

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Pro-4/productID.325711500

 

Edit: And i just see that you can't order 8GB with 128GB storage...

[RH00D]

For those curious about how it closes and it not closing all the way, this is what it looks like when closed "all the way". It doesn't seem so bad to me personally since it closes fully at the end but make of it what you will.

 

[TheProfosist]

For those curious about how it closes and it not closing all the way, this is what it looks like when closed "all the way". It doesn't seem so bad to me personally since it closes fully at the end but make of it what you will. [emoji14]

en-INTL-L-Atlas-Devices-CR9-00001-RM2-mnco.jpg

Hey you won't etc marks from your keyboard on your screen though.

[Rmusic10891]

You can customize almost all the specs of the SP4 in the MS store page, don't understand why they din't do that for the book though. I'm guessing due to parts availability but hardware wise, the 2 are not that different, expect for the GPU in the book.

 

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Pro-4/productID.325711500

Yeah, but you still can't do what I was talking about. You can get an i3/4GB/128GB ($899)  i5/4GB/128GB($999)  i5/8GB/256GB($1299).   I think an i5/8GB/128GB model would be a sweet spot for a lot of people at $1099 or maybe at $1199.

[AlexGoesHigh]

Yeah, but you still can't do what I was talking about. You can get an i3/4GB/128GB ($899)  i5/4GB/128GB($999)  i5/8GB/256GB($1299).   I think an i5/8GB/128GB model would be a sweet spot for a lot of people at $1099 or maybe at $1199.

Yeah i just saw that.

[Gale]

This! This is what I've waiting for.

[AlexGoesHigh]

For those curious about how it closes and it not closing all the way, this is what it looks like when closed "all the way". It doesn't seem so bad to me personally since it closes fully at the end but make of it what you will.

 

en-INTL-L-Atlas-Devices-CR9-00001-RM2-mnco.jpg

i think it will fine unless the owner is the kind of people that trows everything on the same pocket of a bag.

[atrash]

For those curious about how it closes and it not closing all the way, this is what it looks like when closed "all the way". It doesn't seem so bad to me personally since it closes fully at the end but make of it what you will. [emoji14]

en-INTL-L-Atlas-Devices-CR9-00001-RM2-mnco.jpg

That gap is necessary considering there's the GPU vent above the keyboard. And having the display slightly tilted toward you would make writing and viewing it much more ergonomic.

As others have pointed out, the lack of any rubber feet where the two SB parts meet (& possibly bottom of keyboard too) will surely make the it scratch like crazy.

[Techicolors]

wow, the surface book looks pretty snazzy. but that price tag tho, but it's appropriate considering all that high-end tech. 

 

curious what Geforce GPU it'll use. probably something pretty powerful if it's gonna sport that premium price tag. 

 

the fulcrum hinge thing they have going looks pretty durable. should be anyways if someone likes to interchange throughout the day

 

projected battery is pretty bad. 3hrs in tablet mode? might as well have a permanently-attached screen instead. 

 

i'm really interested in that keyboard. MS says it's silent and has great travel. honestly i can't test that until i try it out for myself

 

 

For those curious about how it closes and it not closing all the way, this is what it looks like when closed "all the way". It doesn't seem so bad to me personally since it closes fully at the end but make of it what you will. 

 

 en-INTL-L-Atlas-Devices-CR9-00001-RM2-mnco.jpg

 

yeah the way the laptop closes is pretty strange. the hinge design looks too thick to let the laptop go all the way

[TheGosuStandard]

Surface Power!

 

Will have to wait a bit longer to replace my SP3, but I'm glad Microsoft is bringing the heat.