Engadget
89
Engadget Review
The refreshed Surface Book has very few flaws, with a well-crafted chassis, comfortable keyboard, vibrant screen, fast performance and even longer battery life than on last year's model. As ever, you'll pay dearly for the privilege of owning it, and the relatively heavy weight and imbalanced weight distribution make it less portable than lighter systems. What you accept in heft, though, you'll make up for in both battery life and port selection.
Pros
- Distinctive, well-constructed design
- Impressively light as a tablet
- Gorgeous screen
- Pen input works well
- Comfortable keyboard
- Fast performance
- Best-in-class battery life in laptop mode
Cons
- Expensive
- Even heavier than last year's model
- "Fulcrum" hinge makes the laptop appear fatter when shut
- Screen wobbles a bit in laptop mode
- Slightly top heavy when you use it in your lap
Score Breakdown
The design remains mostly unchanged, but PC power users will like the extra power and battery life on the updated 2016 version of the Surface Book.
The new Microsoft Surface Book may only be a simple iteration of last year's beloved tablet newcomer, but it packs some powerful upgrades and fantastic battery life, making the very good even better. It's just a lot more expensive.
While the Surface Book brings many technological innovations to the laptop space, its greatest strength is that it's just an all-around terrific device.
The new Surface Book i7 sticks with the original's one-of-a-kindness, and ups the graphics power gloriously.
If the Surface Pro is the tablet that can replace your laptop, the Surface Book is the laptop that can replace your tablet.
What's not easy is to create a package that has the functionality, that has the flexibility of specifications and put it all in a stunning design that is practical, eye-catching and desirable. The Surface Book manages that with ease.
If you can’t wait, and you’re looking for the ultimate Windows laptop, it’s hard to look past Microsoft’s latest Surface Book.
Today's top detachable 2-in-1, Microsoft's updated Surface Book is a stunner, packing improved graphics, a Core i7 CPU, and longer battery life. It's great for getting work done, but you'll need to work a bunch to pay for it: It starts at $2,399.
Now offering even better performance and twice the graphics power, the Surface Book with Performance Base is the clear choice for demanding creative pros.
Using almost exactly the same frame as the 2015 Surface Book, the Surface team was able to cram several new components. It’s likely that experience will help inform the team’s future products, devices that will be more affordable to the average consumer.