During my time on the demo floor at the Microsoft Windows 10 event, I managed to get my hands on the Surface Book for a short while, and get a feel for the hardware. I’m sure not many of you would be surprised to hear that it is, in fact, a very impressive machine. When it was first announced, the crowd was speechless – it even garnered a standing ovation from a decent portion of the audience. It’s difficult to get a crowd of tech journalists to get truly excited about a gadget, so this response – along with the hefty crowd itching to get their hands on the Surface Book after the presentation – was impressive to say the least.
The Surface Book sports a beautiful 13.5 inch screen, weighs in at 3.34 lbs, and can have either an i5 or an i7 processor. The Book can even support a Nvidia GeForce graphics card, something that makes it significantly more appealing to users who are interested in playing games. With those specifications, the Surface is definitely one of the more powerful laptops on the market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVfOe5mFbAE
As far as the feel of the device, it’s very similar to the Surface Pro 4. The Surface Book is certainly thicker, but the added horsepower is worth it. If you’ve used a Surface before, then you probably know what to expect from the Surface Book. The device is fast, and its touch screen is accurate. The biggest differences that you’ll notice are the bigger display and the extra couple of pounds added to the device.
Also notable is the fulcrum hinge, which makes the Surface Book truly feel like a laptop, and not just a thicker Surface. The hinge lets you fold the display forward and backwards like you would expect with any standard laptop, but the design avoids the inconvenient in-between space where the keyboard and monitor meet – a place that can often collect dust or otherwise jam up.
All in all, the Surface Book just feels good. Microsoft didn’t intend to reinvent the wheel with this machine – they made a laptop that stuck to what made the Surface work in the first place. With 3 iterations of the Surface behind them, they made the Surface Book elegantly with those same design principles, only enhancing its performance under the hood. Even the Surface Pen, something that could have easily been made sub-par, is a very impressive accessory that truly feels like you’re using a fountain pen.
The Surface Book should satisfy anyone, whether they’re looking for a tablet or a full-on laptop. You can pre-order it here. Stay tuned for our full hands-on review of the Surface Book. Are there any parts of the device you want us to explore in our review?
