Si x ways to get more from your su rface book 2

brightn Drop th e ess

Okay, we’ve gone on at great length about the brilliance of Dell’s InfinityEdge display. Step that brightness down a little and you’ll pull a bit more extra battery life out of your machine – perfect if you’re browsing the web on your lap.

02 Take a pen to it

Using an active pen – Lenovo includes one with its machine, while it’s an optional add-on (for a cost) from Microsoft and Dell – means having a much greater tablet-mode drawing experience. It’s not just a case of having pinpoint accuracy. An active pen means that you have pressure sensitivity, giving your strokes a sense of weight and helping the whole experience feel more like pen on paper.

03 Flip it round

If you’re getting all arty, turning your tablet so that the keyboard is facing away from you with the screen facing forward is the perfect way to draw on-screen. Just don’t push too hard because you could overcome the force of the hinge.

04 Dock it

So this is one for the Surface Book 2 in particular… In our time with the machine, we grew fond of running it in tablet mode with the screen docked in the base back to front. The extra battery and extra power is nothing to sniff at, and while it’s a touch heavier, the extra weight definitely makes it feel more significant.

05 Keep it lapt op

Don’t forget that these machines are, for all intents and purposes, proper laptops too. So don’t force yourself to use a touchscreen if it doesn’t make sense – poking at your screen all day is a good way to end up with an aggravated shoulder.

06 Use tab let mode

It might be tempting to keep it raw, but opting in to Windows 10’s Tablet Mode makes sense. No more pecking at dialogue boxes with your fingertips!