4 ms·

I always look at the Surface Book and want it to be my next laptop, but I feel like it is a jack of all trades that doesn't really excel in any one area - and t

by sylens 6y ago

I always look at the Surface Book and want it to be my next laptop, but I feel like it is a jack of all trades that doesn't really excel in any one area - and therefore, I have a hard time justifying it over other machines. Most powerful Surface ever? Sure, but the Macbook Pro 16" can give me double the cores at a similar pricepoint. Gaming-class GPU? Yeah, but if I wanted a gaming laptop I'd probably want something with an RTX card in it. And if I didn't care about form factor, I'd build a desktop. Detachable tablet? Interesting idea, but this feels highly impractical with the 15" version, which is the model I would get for maximum performance. I think if I was a college student, this would be a fantastic device. A little bit of everything and the ability to type notes in OneNote or handwrite them when necessary. But as my daily driver for productivity, I think there are better options at a similar price point.

filoleg 6y ago
I used the original Surface Book (13in) as a college student for a year, and I think you are spot-on. For me, as a student, it was a beautiful device. For that academic year, my notes were more impeccable and organized than I could have ever imagined my notes to be. OneNote is a pleasure to work with. Writing on Surface Book feels great. Downloading lecture pdfs/powerpoints and highlighting/annotating stuff on top of them was very useful. The machine ran fast enough for me to actually write code and use it as a normal machine too, with no limitations. As a daily driver, it was great. But all the cons you listed were true as well. My current daily driver is a newer MBP, but I still eye Surface line all the time, hoping that one day it will get to the point where I would want to pick it up again as my daily driver.
- sylens 6y ago
  I think it will take a hardware redesign at this point, which I hope comes with USB4 that allows them to break dock compatibility as well. The 15 inch version doesn't need to detach. Just let it flip around like a ThinkPad X1 Yoga, therefore allowing you to put all of the compute stuff in the base as well. Go for 8 cores and give me the best mobile video card on the market and I'll buy one so fast.
  - filoleg 6y ago
    Great point about flipping around vs. detaching. During my year with a surface book, at no point I just detached the tablet and used it on its own. When I wanted a "tablet" mode, I would usually disconnect the tablet, turn it around, attach it, and then close. Which essentially flips it around and puts in the same position as X1 Yoga.

by sylens 6y ago

filoleg 6y ago

I used the original Surface Book (13in) as a college student for a year, and I think you are spot-on. For me, as a student, it was a beautiful device. For that academic year, my notes were more impeccable and organized than I could have ever imagined my notes to be. OneNote is a pleasure to work with. Writing on Surface Book feels great. Downloading lecture pdfs/powerpoints and highlighting/annotating stuff on top of them was very useful. The machine ran fast enough for me to actually write code and use it as a normal machine too, with no limitations. As a daily driver, it was great. But all the cons you listed were true as well. My current daily driver is a newer MBP, but I still eye Surface line all the time, hoping that one day it will get to the point where I would want to pick it up again as my daily driver.

sylens 6y ago
I think it will take a hardware redesign at this point, which I hope comes with USB4 that allows them to break dock compatibility as well. The 15 inch version doesn't need to detach. Just let it flip around like a ThinkPad X1 Yoga, therefore allowing you to put all of the compute stuff in the base as well. Go for 8 cores and give me the best mobile video card on the market and I'll buy one so fast.
- filoleg 6y ago
  Great point about flipping around vs. detaching. During my year with a surface book, at no point I just detached the tablet and used it on its own. When I wanted a "tablet" mode, I would usually disconnect the tablet, turn it around, attach it, and then close. Which essentially flips it around and puts in the same position as X1 Yoga.