Hello, it’s me, Canoopsy. And I'm BACK AT IT AGAIN with a new video. So I am just
getting over a cold, but I have been using
Microsoft's Surface Book for the last little while,
and Microsoft calls it the ultimate laptop,
as it has ability to completely convert
from powerhouse laptop, to tablet
within seconds. So is it as good as
Microsoft says it is? Let's find out.
The model I have has the sixth generation dual core Intel Core i7 processor which runs
a 2.6 gigahertz. There's also a 512GB
SSD, 16GB of RAM and the custom
discrete GPU. So this model is sort of
the mid-range to high-end Surface Book,
and it retails for $2699 and the
cheapest one costs $1,499, and the most
expensive at $3199, so overall pretty expensive as laptops come.
Opening the laptop with one hand is
impossible, so I wish Microsoft made it a
bit easier to open, but it's still fine.
The ever so famous hinge is still super
cool to this day, and is almost hypnotizing and
mesmerizing to watch.
However it also feels a bit looser than how it was when I first started using it, and it makes this sort
of weird peeling sounded whenever I move the display up and down, but this could just be
my unit. The design is one of most stand out parts of the Surface Book. It's simple and beautiful
the magnesium casing both looks and
feels great, and the attention to detail is
outstanding.
The keyboard feels amazing and for those switching from a MacBook Pro you'll love it.
The glass trackpad is phenomenal and
comparing it to the trackpad of a MacBook Pro
again, it's also very similar. Scrolling tracking and clicking is perfect
and I felt no need to grab a mouse at all, except for gaming. For ports you'll find two
USB 3 ports and SD card reader, charging
port, mini DisplayPort and the headphone jack
in an unfortunate place for laptop mode,
but in a good place for tablet mode. The
display or top portion is very
impressive. The display is a 13.5 inch Pixel Sense
3,000 x 2000 resolution touchscreen display and it is outstanding
The colors, sharpness, contrast, brightness and viewing angles are all absolutely
excellent. Touch response is also perfect
and there's really no problems there at all, but
But when tapping the display there is a bit of screen wobble but that's very common
amongst all laptops, but perhaps on the
Surface Book 2, a stiffer hinge portion
would be nice.
Near the top the display are the two
front-facing speakers which sound good,
but at higher volumes they crackle and
distort. Right above the display is a
5MP webcam which does the job
well, and like Microsoft's latest Lumias
it will log you in by simply looking
at it, which is perfect. No long passwords
no fussing with fingerprint scanners,
it's awesome. And on the back, there's an
8MP camera whichI really don't want to
see you using in public please, and trust me I
have seen this before. People using
laptops for photography in public and it
looks ridiculous, but this camera actually takes some pretty decent shots overall. The
display portion separates from the rest
of the body with Microsoft's awesome
detachable system by hitting a key on
the keyboard or on screen. At first I was
experiencing quite a few glitches with the
tablet portion not working or turning
off, but through software updates, Microsoft seems to have really fix that completely.
As a tablet, it feels great in the hand and
is good for tasks like browsing the web
or watching YouTube videos. When you do disconnected it, you lose out on the discrete GPU, which in
turn, limits some programs, and you're left with the Intel HD520 integrated graphics. But
more importantly, you lose a lot of
battery life.
Before seeing how much battery life you get in tablet mode, let's briefly discuss battery life
for the whole system. The
Surface Book essentially has two
batteries one in the tablet portion and one in the keyboard portion. Using the laptop
for a day on full brightness, playing
games, doing some photoshop work and
watching videos, gave me about five hours of total battery life, while other
sources claim about seven to ten hours
maximum throughout their full day of usage.
And Microsoft says about 12 hours of
"video playback". Standby used to be
horrible. I'd leave the laptop on sleep overnight and it'd be dead in the morning. But now it seems to
do a much better job. Tablet battery
life is quite weak. It only lasts about two to three hours
which is understandable, since it is
running a full version of Windows 10,
has to power other laptop grade specs and a very sharp display. But now that is removed,
you can also re-dock it into tent mode,
presentation mode, or Clippard mode which
is like tablet mode, but with more
battery life and more bulk. Now let's
talk performance. Real-world usage is
important to me over everything else but
for those looking for benchmark scores,
here they are. Doing daily tasks, the computer
stays quiet and fans only come on under
intensive load, and are not very loud at
all. The computer only gets hot near the hinge and in the tablet portion but it's
noticeable at all during use. For gaming, Counter Strike Global Offensive at
maximum settings is not too smooth, and is much better when the settings are turned
down. And Minecraft the highest settings
is very smooth and enjoyable and it's great
for games like these but for anything super graphically intensive this is really not
the best choice.
Adobe's apps like Photoshop and
Illustrator are apps that I use daily for
thumbnails and other work, and they
perform excellently on the Surface Book.
Especially with the addition of the
included Surface Pen, makes for using
graphic design apps, awesome. And speaking of the Surface Pen, it's excellent. It sticks to the
left side of the tablet for storage, and it
feels great in the hand. The top has an
eraser and doubles as a function button,
and the actual nib itself is a dream to
use. Latency is outstanding and makes
drawing extremely fun on the Surface
Book. Compared to something like the
Apple Pencil they have quite a different feel when
drawing or writing. The Surface Pen
feels softer, and the Apple Pencil feels
more rigid on the displays of the
respective devices. After using this laptop
for a long period of time, I've really
fallen in love with it each day. But more so,
the concept. The concept of two devices
in one, and it makes me look forward to the future of the Surface
Book, but also future of laptops in
general. So is this the ultimate laptop?
Just about. Still to this day it's an excellent machine, and I think when the tablet
battery life improves and the price is
able to decrease, this is going to be an
absolutely excellent product. What do you think of the Surface Book? Leave a
comment below with your thoughts. Like
the video if you liked it, and subscribe
if you haven't already. Thank you, for
watching.
