Surface Book

heatlesssun said:
That CPU has to go in the tablet section. That tablet section is basically the weight and thickness of the iPad Pro. A 25W part simply won't work in that kind of package.
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considering they've managed to cool a 15w i7 ulv along with battery and ports in a 8.4 mm chassis. surely they could have managed a 25W quad with all the space available to them considering its a bigger chassis and not crammed with batteries and ports
 
geostation said:
considering they've managed to cool a 15w i7 ulv along with battery and ports in a 8.4 mm chassis. surely they could have managed a 25W quad with all the space available to them considering its a bigger chassis and not crammed with batteries and ports
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Want that 12 hour battery life to be 4 hours? Add 2 useless cores in this sense. I dont know about you but this thing wasnt built to run Battlefield 4 at 120fps. It was built for long life mobility and is purpose built. Want to run games then build a desktop or buy a 12 lb 23 min battery life gaming laptop. Im fine with a dual core i7 if it gives me 12 hours of usefulness. You can only open office 365 so fast anyways. 2 more cores for a machine like this is not a wise or necessary choice. I have a 12 pound gaming laptop and let me tell you, im excited as hell at the Surface Lro 4 and Book. Im thinking more and more about getting the book over the pro.
 
geostation said:
considering they've managed to cool a 15w i7 ulv along with battery and ports in a 8.4 mm chassis. surely they could have managed a 25W quad with all the space available to them considering its a bigger chassis and not crammed with batteries and ports
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With all the space available to them? You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

The clipboard is about 10% thinner than the Surface Pro 4 that cools that 15w i7. They have LESS space to work with. That means less space for cooling, less space for batteries. Any space savings by not having ports (minimal at best) is taken up by needing to support the special keyboard docking mechanism. They basically have no extra space in the unit, if anything they have less. Why you think they should be able to support a processor that is twice as power hungry is beyond ridiculous.
 
Was looking at a video by a Windows guy names Sean Ong who's very good. It looks like the tablet section can be recharged directly with the charger without having to be plugged in.
 
I'm definitely curious, and I have the i5/8GB/256/dGPU version on preorder.. But honestly I think the 3 hour battery life in "clipboard" mode is too little. I think that hurts utility for a lot of use cases. I went ahead and ordered a SP4 with i5/16GB/256 also, and I predict that's what I'll end up with long term.

They did make it tough though, and I've changed my mind a couple times already.
 
brentsg said:
I'm definitely curious, and I have the i5/8GB/256/dGPU version on preorder.. But honestly I think the 3 hour battery life in "clipboard" mode is too little. I think that hurts utility for a lot of use cases. I went ahead and ordered a SP4 with i5/16GB/256 also, and I predict that's what I'll end up with long term.

They did make it tough though, and I've changed my mind a couple times already.
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Sweet! I already have a SP3 so the only thing I would have bought was the Surface Book. The last laptop I bought was four years ago, a convertible Lenovo x220t that's really long in the tooth so a new laptop hybrid works great for me so that's why I preordered the i7/16GB/512GB version.

I think the thing to considers about the Surface Book as a tablet are first, it's freaking huge (I know, that's what she said) and it's not something you're going to hold for hours and hours at a time (again, I know, that's what she said). This is a laptop first and even as a tablet it's going to be used on a surface (no pun intended) so it'll be plugged into the keyboard in those situations. For drawing and note taking purposes I'll be on a desk and now and then it'll be use as stand alone tablet and then placed back into the dock. That's how I see it and that works for me.

I really wished it had a kick stand. I'm hoping the next rev of the Surface line will see a Surface Pro tablet with this kind of dock. I have to figure that Microsoft has thought of this a long time ago but still needs a little more time to get the weight down on the Surface Pro tablet and a few other things.
 
Well for those of you complaining about lack of thunderbolt, looks like Dell has you covered.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...3-and-xps-15-and-debuts-xps-12-tablet-hybrid/

The XPS 12 is a Surface Pro like device, comes with 2 thunderbolt / usb-c ports, optional 4k screen. Also updated their XPS 13 and XPS 15 lines. They actually increased the battery capacity in the 13 from 52WHr to 56WHr and now say it can get 18 hours of battery life :eek:


Good to see some innovation being driven in the Windows portable space.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Good to see some innovation being driven in the Windows portable space.
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I nothing else, it looks like Microsoft is getting people's attention, not only its OEMs but competitors as well. For all of the problems with Windows 8, one huge problem was lack great hardware, particularly of the hybrid nature for which it did well. While Windows 10's touch approach is different, hybrid hardware is still just as important and it looks like this time around that's not going to be a problem. There's a lot of really cool PCs out there with a price range to fit almost any budget. We'll see if people begin to bite.
 
The big public needs features, great design and materials in their products. It looks like the focus is on that for this turn instead of cramming a i7, 16gb of ram and a crappy HDD in a very bad chassis for 1000$. Core M, 8gb Ram, SSD storage with amazingly build hardware is a lot more appealing at 1000 for the general public.
 
Henri108 said:
The big public needs features, great design and materials in their products. It looks like the focus is on that for this turn instead of cramming a i7, 16gb of ram and a crappy HDD in a very bad chassis for 1000$. Core M, 8gb Ram, SSD storage with amazingly build hardware is a lot more appealing at 1000 for the general public.
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Not sure what you mean. The Surface Pro 4 was an incremental improvement over the successful Surface Pro 3. The Surface Book as in response from people asking Microsoft to make a Surface laptop and from initial response they bought the house down. The initial response to the Surface Book is far better than anything I've ever seen Microsoft do before.

Microsoft makes a lot of mistakes. It's hard to see in the product line up from Tuesday where they made any big ones and indeed got far more right than wrong.
 
Wow, this is exactly what I've wanted for so long. Ive even posted about wanting something like this (ie Asus transformer book with more power, bigger screen, better keyboard, and better quality).

I'd love to get that 16/512/i7/GPU model. Hell, I could even play StarCraft II or something on that bad boy if I got the urge.
 
For you service members out there, former and active, the military discount just activated on these, a whopping 10% off! $1,889.10 for the i7/8GB/256GB SSD/dGPU version.
 
-Dragon- said:
For you service members out there, former and active, the military discount just activated on these, a whopping 10% off! $1,889.10 for the i7/8GB/256GB SSD/dGPU version.
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I am a veteran, where do you apply for the discount?

Do they also have a college student discount at MSoft?
 
I always just search for "microsoft military discount" on my favorite web search, I honestly don't remember
 
Jasonx82 said:
THANK YOU!!!
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Yes with my Military Discount a Surface Book I want for 1899 will be 190 off meaning I can get a few accessories basically for free.

I just don't like the fact there is no verification and people that are NOT students or never served in the Miltary get to take advantage of the program.
 
tangoseal said:
I just don't like the fact there is no verification and people that are NOT students or never served in the Miltary get to take advantage of the program.
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Grrr, people who aren't like me get to buy products slightly cheaper too!

Why would you even care? Microsoft would have some sort of verification if this was affecting their bottom line in any recognizable way.
 
Looks like they sold out of preorders on these things, the ones you can still pre-order are all 5-6 week delivery instead of oct 26, and the ones that still say oct 26 are "email when available" instead of preorder.
 
I5 to I7 is same dual core chip minus 200-300mhz clock speed and 1mb cache. Is it worth the 200.00 Premium? :confused:
 
Jasonx82 said:
I5 to I7 is same dual core chip minus 200-300mhz clock speed and 1mb cache. Is it worth the 200.00 Premium? :confused:
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Not worth it.

They've both got the dGPU in the base, so the biggest benefit of the i7, the Iris Pro graphics, would only matter in tablet mode.
 
Kueller said:
Not worth it.

They've both got the dGPU in the base, so the biggest benefit of the i7, the Iris Pro graphics, would only matter in tablet mode.
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The Surface Book doesn't use the Iris Pro but the Intel 520 I believe.
 
It's a beautiful piece of hardware and quite powerful indeed, and yes I wish I could get one but the pricing is simply beyond me at this time. I noted the fully maxed out model is what, $3200+?

And here I was thinking the days of $2000+ laptops were long behind us, go figure. :p
 
Tiberian said:
It's a beautiful piece of hardware and quite powerful indeed, and yes I wish I could get one but the pricing is simply beyond me at this time. I noted the fully maxed out model is what, $3200+?

And here I was thinking the days of $2000+ laptops were long behind us, go figure. :p
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Yeah, the top of the line i7/16 GB/1 TB version is $3199 USD and not even available until 1/22/2016 as of now according to Microsoft's site. But the days of $2000 laptops and PCs in general are pretty long behind us, devices of the Surface Book's price range constitute less that 5% of the PC market, which is one reason why Microsoft is in this line so as not to compete directly with OEMs in the meat of the PC market. However devices like the Surface Book do bring in the best margins and now Microsoft is carving out a niche at this end which has to be a bit troubling to the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. Lenovo made news this week when they made mention of the fact that they turned down Microsoft to sell the Surface line like Dell and HP.

Can't wait for next week, hoping to see my i7/16 GB/512 GB model early next week. Seems a bit odd that no review units seemed to have gone out or there's an NDA in place until next week. Microsoft may have wanted to keep the lid on things as no to discourage early buyers like me with the hint of any problems. For this kind of money I'm expecting excellence, which I'm sure everyone that's buying these things are as well.

My guess is that it will be an excellent device but will get nailed on price, much like the Surface line always has.
 
heatlesssun said:
The Surface Book doesn't use the Iris Pro but the Intel 520 I believe.
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i5's HD 520 has half the execution units (24) of the i7's HD 540 (48), but you're right that neither of them has the Iris Pro graphics.
 
I'm guessing a machine like this is completely un-upgradable?
(RAM or HDD)

I would be perfectly ok with the 256GB SSD and core i5... but I really want 16GB RAM.
(for video editing/photoshop etc)

Unfortunately the cheapest 16GB model is still 2700$
 
Kiri said:
I'm guessing a machine like this is completely un-upgradable?
(RAM or HDD)

I would be perfectly ok with the 256GB SSD and core i5... but I really want 16GB RAM.
(for video editing/photoshop etc)

Unfortunately the cheapest 16GB model is still 2700$
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Agreed. Would prob either go with a SP4 at this point if I had to have pen or the XPS 15 Infinity Display.

Would be more sold if I could add 16gb to a SB that was closer to $2200 or less.
 
Looks like preorders are getting ready to ship, my card was just charged. Tried to get it shipped overnight but there was no option to do so.
 
Kueller said:
i5's HD 520 has half the execution units (24) of the i7's HD 540 (48), but you're right that neither of them has the Iris Pro graphics.
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I think the I5 and I7 on the surface book share the same exact integrated video specs minus some mhz.

Do you guys think he surface book screen is an IPS panel?
 
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I am on the fence on this thing. The Yoga 900 was announced today and it is much cheaper. The typing experience is probably not as good, but man this Surface Book is expensive, it is not up-gradable, it looks a bit fugly.

If I am just doing web surfing, office type work and whatnot, some streaming video, do I need the dedicated GPU? Or do you think the dedicated GPU will speed up the whole system overall?
 
Blackstone said:
I am on the fence on this thing. The Yoga 900 was announced today and it is much cheaper. The typing experience is probably not as good, but man this Surface Book is expensive, it is not up-gradable, it looks a bit fugly.

If I am just doing web surfing, office type work and whatnot, some streaming video, do I need the dedicated GPU? Or do you think the dedicated GPU will speed up the whole system overall?
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The big differences between the Yoga and Surface Book are the convention method, digital pen (none with the Yoga) and some more GPU performance in the Surface Books with discrete GPUs.

A digital pen is a must for me with this kind of device and I prefer a detachable screen. The GPU won't make any impact on the activities you're listing. The Yoga should work for you.

The looks of the Surface Book have been debated a bit, mostly stemming from the hinge and the gap with the device folded up. From comments made from people who've touched one, most are saying the thing is beautiful in person. And that angle in tablet mode is nice in my book.
 
Paima said:
This looks like a jack of trades, master of none.
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This has long been a common criticism of hybrid devices and there some truth to it. But being a jack or all trades is kind of the point. A single device that can be used in many different ways. Such a device doesn't have to be a master of any particular task, it just needs to be able to do those tasks well enough because buying individual devices that would be the masters of all the things a Surface Book can do makes the Surface Book cheap by comparison.
 
heatlesssun said:
This has long been a common criticism of hybrid devices and there some truth to it. But being a jack or all trades is kind of the point. A single device that can be used in many different ways. Such a device doesn't have to be a master of any particular task, it just needs to be able to do those tasks well enough because buying individual devices that would be the masters of all the things a Surface Book can do makes the Surface Book cheap by comparison.
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Not sure what to make of it. It could very well be a master of all trades unless your tablet must use the Apple Ecosystem, which is reasonable. But if not, it seems to me the laptop is solid, the tablet is solid and if you flip the screen around and redock it does what no convertable does, which is the keys facing the right direction, against the back of the screen so they do not intrude, the same base that supports the laptop now supports the tablet like a stand/display, whereas with a Yoga 3 or 900 presentation mode means you have the put the laptop upside down like a tent. It has even more functionality than Yoga.

The only question I have is whether flipping the Yoga into tablet mode or converting the Surface into tablet mode is more ergonomic. It might very well be the Surface is the better transformer. It might be a little more to manage than a regular convertible, but once converted it seems to me having that base supporting the tablet is way cool.

But I am still choking on the price. It is really hard to rationalize when XPS13 and Yoga 900 are so powerful and so cheap.
 
Erasmus354 said:
GTX950m, or even a part slightly underclocked would put the graphics performance at roughly 200% of the Iris 6100 in the MBP 13". This would line up with Microsoft's performance numbers. I am guessing this is an underclocked GTX 950m part.
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Looks like I was a bit optimistic. Latest news is that the GPU is an underclocked 940m from people who were able to run GPU-z on demo units. A bit disappointing that the dGPU is so anemic, but not entirely unexpected.
 
Blackstone said:
The only question I have is whether flipping the Yoga into tablet mode or converting the Surface into tablet mode is more ergonomic.
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What I don't like about the Yoga solution is that keyboard is permanently attached and that the keys are at the bottom of the device in tablet mode. Lenovo has come up with some clever ways to recess the keys in tablet mode to mitigate this. The Surface Book's solution looks much more straight forward. Press a button, take off the screen or flip it around. You only get about 25% of the battery when in "clipboard" mode as Microsoft is calling it when the tablet section is detached. But considering the size of the screen, I don't anticipate holding the screen for long periods of time and I'll be on a desk most of the time for note taking purposes.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Looks like I was a bit optimistic. Latest news is that the GPU is an underclocked 940m from people who were able to run GPU-z on demo units. A bit disappointing that the dGPU is so anemic, but not entirely unexpected.
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Not great but there were probably battery and thermal constraints to deal with. In any case it should deliver a decent graphics punch for this kind of device. I won't really need the GPU for my activities but if it can squeeze in a few more desktop games and drive multiple external monitors well, which should be no problem even for this low power of a GPU, I'm good.
 
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