Microsoft builds a better laptop
Impressive laptop should give Apple’s MacBook Pro a run for its money
Surface Book could give Apple run for its money,
When was the last time you lusted after a product from Microsoft? With apologies to Xbox fans, if the next time is the first time, you’re not alone.
Yet I expect lots of folks to drool over the beautiful and fast, new Microsoft Surface Book, the company’s powerhouse of a notebook that aims to give Apple’s MacBook Pro a run for its money. It’s the first full-fledged notebook Microsoft has ever built.
Apparently, plenty of people are already voting for Surface Book with their wallets, judging by the presale demand.
At Microsoftstore.com, you learn that the company isn’t likely to ship the entry-level $1,499 Surface Book configuration (Intel Core i5, 128GB of storage, 8GB of memory) for four to five weeks. And the top-of-the-line $3,199 model (Intel Core i7, 1 terabyte, 16GB) won’t get shipped until late January.
Surface Book shares certain traits with its highly regarded siblings, the Surface hybrid tablet computers of which there’s now a brand-new Surface Pro 4. Both Surface Book and Surface Pro make use of a pressure-sensitive pen. Both run Windows 10 software. And both can perform double duty as a laptop and tablet.
But you should consider Sur- face Book first and foremost as a laptop — and a darn impressive one — while Surface Pro 4 is more of a hybrid tablet. Indeed, to truly employ Surface Pro 4 as a laptop, you’ll want to purchase the optional keyboard cover accessory, lest you otherwise have to rely full time on an onscreen keyboard.
The physical keyboard on Surface Book is an integral part of the machine, of course, just as it is on any laptop. It is absolutely first-rate, with backlit keys that are a genuine pleasure to type on. The trackpad is also really nice.
If you didn’t know better, you wouldn’t know the keyboard and gorgeous 13.5-inch touch-screen can be detached from each another, which transforms Surface Book into a large-display clipboard or slate that I suspect will invite comparisons to Apple’s yetto-be-released iPad Pro.
Separated from the rest of the computer in tablet mode, the Surface Book weighs a mere 1.6 pounds, or a little less than half the weight of the machine when the keyboard is connected to the screen. When tethered, Surface Book is in the same weight class as Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro, which means it’s a bit heavy.
This clipboard/tablet functionality is kind of a bonus: Use it to show off a presentation, jot down notes or even do some browsing. I found it perfectly natural to write on the display with the special Surface Pen, which Microsoft says has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Microsoft says you’ll get about three hours of battery life when using Surface Book as a clipboard but up to 12 hours when everything is reattached. I found the battery life to be excellent.
It is, of course, in this reattached mode in which you’ll turn to Surface Book as your primetime Windows 10 laptop.
According to Microsoft, you’ll be able to exploit the new Windows Hello feature in Windows 10 and “unlock” the computer by having the front-facing, 5-megapixel high-definition camera recognize your mug. (There’s also a rear-facing, 8-megapixel HD camera.) But the feature was not enabled in time for this review.
Windows 10 itself represents a marked improvement over Windows 8. The presence of Cortana is a major plus, with Microsoft’s answer to Siri able to help you with search, manage your calendar, even sing a tune.
Microsoft claims Surface Book is up to twice as fast as the MacBook Pro. While I’ll leave it to others to conduct comparative tests, I can tell you the Surface Book feels plenty snappy.
I do have quibbles. There’s no kickstand on Surface Book as on the Surface Pro, and you can’t push back the screen beyond a certain angle. In its closed position as a laptop, there’s a visible gap on the side that looks a little strange.
The decision of whether you want Surface Book or Apple’s premium laptop ultimately boils down to another important factor — do you buy into Windows or favor Apple’s Mac OS X operating system? If you decide on Windows, the Surface Book is a computer worth gushing about.