SURFACE BOOK

MS’ slate st release is part tablet, part pro laptop. the Surface Booki 7 with performance base probably shouldn’ t work, but it really, really does

Microsoft’s cutting-edge laptop is the best of both worlds.

During its short tenure as a hardware maker, Microsoft has become the de-facto trailblazer

for Windows-running devices. It all started with the lofty promise that its Surface tablet could replace your laptop. We were sceptical about it three years ago, but after the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft nearly perfected the formula and showed veteran computer manufacturers how hybrids should be made.

Now, Microsoft introduces the Surface Book as the ‘ultimate laptop’. Like the Surface tablets before it, this laptop takes a unique spin on the notebook format that’s been around for over 40 years. Between the 3:2 aspect ratio, 13.5-inch screen and its practically trademarked ‘dynamic fulcrum’ hinge, and performance- boost base, there isn’t any machine on the planet like the Surface Book – and then, with the touch of a button and a gentle tug, it becomes a tablet.

Milled from two solid blocks of magnesium, the Surface Book feels sturdy and has a mostly minimalistic style unto its own. From the snake-like hinge, the flat design and even the washed-out silver colour, everything about this laptop seems like it came from the future.

The specs are a little more 2017 in nature, inevitably, but nothing to be sniffed at. For the £2,249 base price, you get 8GB of RAM and a 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, which powers it in both tablet and laptop modes. But when the screen is docked to the Surface Book Performance Base, you also get the power of a dedicated graphics chip.

The NVIDIA GTX 965M offers 2GB of video memory, and while it’s not exactly top of the line, it’s really strong for this size of laptop. The 13-inch MacBook Pros only include Intel’s integrated graphics chips, which are nowhere near as powerful. So for games or pro software, including Photoshop, or video editing, the Surface Book gives you extra grunt.

Creative types are also well-served by the 3000 x 2000-pixel display, which is beautifully crisp and clear. The resolution sits at a happy middle

ground of being sharper than most other laptops (including every MacBook in existence) without the troubles that plague 4K screens at smaller sizes. You’ll never see the separation between the pixels, because they’re so tiny, and Windows 10 scales beautifully at 200 per cent.

We even really like the unusual 3:2 aspect ratio. The ability to read more lines of text and not have a Lightroom window that’s vertically squished together more than makes up for the thick black bars that appear when you watch movies. Microsoft fashions its displays after A4 paper, which makes the tablet feel like a natural device for writing and art work, especially with the included Surface Pen, which is accurate. The screen gives just enough to the point where it’s close to the feel of drawing on real paper.

Staying alive

You might think all this would mean the Surface Book struggles for battery life, but it’s quite the contrary, actually: it puts out some of the longest battery life numbers we’ve seen on a laptop this year – hybrid or otherwise. Intense tasks will see the battery disappear in about four hours, but if you’re just playing video it can last nine hours.

At those levels, it even managed to rival the MacBook Pro – generally the top dog of pro battery life. At the prices Microsoft is charging for Surface Book, it’s an appropriate comparison. For this money, you’re looking at the £2,349 entry-level 15-inch MacBook Pro. That gives you a bigger display – though less pixel-rich at a 2880 x 1800 resolution – and twice as much multitasking power from the new MacBook Pro’s quadcore processor and 16GB of RAM for the same price, with roughly equivalent graphics chips. They both have 256GB of SSD storage.

Of course, you’re missing out on an entire tablet for the second half of the actual creating part. Oh, and the fact that Microsoft’s latest release includes a full-size SD card reader, whereas Apple’s doesn’t, works in its favour for some crowds. This is portability and flexibility versus raw power (ironically, a battle that Apple is usually on the opposite side of).

Get what you pay for

Of course, nothing’s 100 per cent perfect (even T3 Platinum Award winners), and there are things that could be better in the Surface Book Pro. We wish it came with 16GB of RAM as standard, instead of 8GB – not exactly an unreasonable ask for a two-grand machine. We’d also like a Thunderbolt 3 port for the pros who need it. But these are pretty minor complaints. Even perennial Windows laptop complaints like nasty keyboards and dodgy trackpads don’t apply here – for once we enjoyed navigating Windows using gestures.

The Surface Book with Performance Base might be damn expensive, but it’s also one of the best, most flexible laptops we’ve ever used, especially for creative work. We love it.