Microsoft Surface Book With Performance Base Review

All the power in the world.

After nearly two years of service, the time has finally come to retire my trusty Surface Pro 3. Scratched, dinged, and worn, that tablet has been hammered though some tough loads and unfortunately it's rampant near meltdown levels of heat and noise got to the point where I had to downclock the CPU to stop it from running the fans on full while browsing Wikipedia. I originally opted to replace it with a current generation Surface Pro since I still love how versatile the thing was but I decided instead that I wanted something with a little more of a conventional touch this time. So I picked up what Microsoft considers to be the end all, be all of laptops, the Surface Book.

Just as versatile, but a little less weird.

The Surface Book is basically Microsoft's flagship portable computer and unlike the Surface Pro, it's geared primarily to be more of a laptop than a tablet. However they still opted to try and cram as much of the same versatility that made the Surface Pro great into this new laptop body, and it's kind of a marvel how it all ties in together. This also puts the Surface Book into an interesting position like the Surface Pro where it's actually competing against two of it's main market rivals, the Apple iPad Pro and MacBook Pro and as I've seen with the Pro 3, there's the potential to kill these two birds with one stone. Let's see if the Book is any better at it.

The Books looks and feels the business.

Out of the box, the first thing I have to say about the Surface Book is how damn good this thing looks. Seriously, Microsoft has really been sticking it to Apple in the design department and the result is this magnesium clad, almost space age looking clamshell with one of the craziest hinge mechanisms I've ever seen on a laptop. The Book just looks the business and it feels rock solid however with just how pretty this thing is, I am actually more concerned about cosmetic damage with this computer, especially considering it's cost. You see with metal bodied computers, I find cosmetic damage on them is far more jarring than say a plastic bodied machine and sometimes easier. Plus considering how some of these things are built nowadays, the cost of replacing these parts is not cheap. I'd invest in a cheap laptop sleeve to keep your Book protected, and for another good reason.

Compared to a 17-inch Unibody MacBook Pro.

When the laptop is closed, the crazy hinge actually gives way to a pretty sizable gap between the keyboard and the display. This would leave me a bit nervous of loose objects, in a bag for instance getting into that gap and potentially doing damage to the glass. However my Surface Book is actually a model fitted with the optional Performance Base and while there is much more to it, the Performance Base actually fills in that gap normally found on the regular Surface Book by being a good bit thicker, making for a much better seal against the display half. What's nice is the bigger base doesn't actually change the outside form factor of the machine and it's actually a bit lighter than the current 15-inch MacBook Pro, despite being considerably thicker. This slightly weird form factor though all makes more sense once you start delving into the Book's array of party tricks.

The keyboard and trackpad are very nice. That's all there is to say about them really.

Now I never had any major qualms with the Pro 3's input arrangement on the Type Cover although I did find the trackpad to be too small and the keyboard keys to lack a bit more travel than I would normally like but this was understandable due to the size constraints. The Book, being an actual laptop has a much nicer keyboard with a comfortable amount of travel and a bigger, much smoother trackpad. I will say the keys feel light years better than those on the current MacBook Pro but the trackpad is kind of open to debate. I find the trackpad on the MBP to be a bit too large to my liking and it doesn't have much definite click travel, but it is just butter smooth to use. It's pretty much down to personal preferences here.

Type-C may be the future but Type-A is still very much the standard.

For your ports you get two USB 3.0, a full sized SD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Mini DisplayPort, and Microsoft's proprietary MagSafe like charging port. A pretty solid array of ports and substantially more practical than... I don't know, replacing everything with four Thunderbolt 3 ports? Who the hell would do that? The lack of Type-C might be a little annoying for some users but luckily the newer Surface Book 2 replaces the Mini DisplayPort for a Type-C 3.1 slot, y'know for those who care. That being said, there's plenty of ports to cover most user's bases but if you do need more outputs for say, running multiple monitors, the Surface dock is an option.

This camera won't step near any of the flagship smartphones out today but in good lighting, it's not that bad.

As for other additional equipment, you get a pair of stereo speakers that actually sound better than you would expect, Bluetooth connectivity, and front and rear cameras with built in microphones. Honestly the 5MP front camera is perfectly fine by any standard and you can now unlock your computer with facial recognition, but the 8MP rear camera is still kind of silly, more so on a device that is now primarily a laptop. That being said though, this camera is a drastic step up from that on the Pro 3 and it actually takes pretty decent pictures for something so ill suited for the task. I don't know, maybe somebody will find a use for it but the device is still so massive that I'd be afraid of hefting it around for photos opposed to my DSLR or phone. It was a surprise really, and I'm actually kind of glad it exists in the end.

The screen on the book is pretty damn awesome.

The display in the the Book is a 13.5" 3000 x 2000 resolution LCD with a 267 pixels per inch. That makes it a wee bit sharper than the MacBook Pro's LED Retina display and the bump in screen size actually feels very generous jumping from a Surface Pro. The real kicker behind this screen is it's touch screen capability which has been a staple of Surface products since the line's inception. However as much crap can be said about Apple's silly Touch Bar on the MBP, touch screens on regular ass laptops don't really make a tremendous amount of sense unless your device is capable of doing crazy things like this right here.

It's broken! Oh wait... 

Hold down the detach button on the keyboard and you can pop the whole display off and tote it around as a standalone tablet or you can dock it on backwards and use the base as a highly adjustable stand, and the transition is totally seamless. This makes a whole world of difference as it makes things like stylus input very practical and the Surface Pen is a pretty damn good one to boot. I've done some very elaborate sketches and loads of note taking on my Pro 3 and this feels no different although I will say the Pro 3's kickstand makes for a much sturdier base when you're trying to write at certain display angles. While I won't go into detail on Windows 10, it's pretty decent in tablet mode and while I'd imagine most people will use the device in laptop configuration most of the time, it's nice that Windows now actively supports touch screens.

Using the Pen feels very intuitive and natural.

The way this all works is actually pretty neat and it differentiates the Book from other conversion laptops. The Book actually has two batteries, one in the display and one in the base, both of which charge and discharge simultaneously when paired but can also be charged separately. As for the hardware, all of the machine's guts, the Intel Core i7-6600U, 16GB of RAM, and the 512GB SSD are all housed in the display. When the display is running standalone as a tablet, the device runs off the on-board Intel HD Graphics unit. However, when the display is docked the Book switches to a powerhouse Nvidia GeForce GTX-965M built into the Performance Base which helps to explain the thicker form factor. As a result the Performance Base model can pull around 9 to 12 hours of battery life on mixed use, bit short of Microsoft's claimed 16 hours on video playback, and the thing can totally game.

Gaming on the Book? Yup.

The Book was able to churn through basic processes with ease and I honestly wouldn't expect anything less from it. Photoshop editing is a piece of cake, especially with the full sized SD slot, and programs like Solidworks run without any sort of issues. I haven't tested very many games but it ran NBA 2K17 on mainly high settings at a solid frame rate, although I will mention that this game isn't an ideal benchmark for this since it is a console port with no shortage of issues on PC. I'll have to try something more taxing like Elite Dangerous in the future but hey, good quality games on a laptop that doesn't weigh fifty bazillion pounds. I will also mention that this thing is smart enough to know not to let you detach the display while it's operating off the 965M, that's a very good thing.

Pop the display on backwards. Because you can.

I'm not an uber-hardcore computer user so I'm hardly concerned about things like benchmark tests down to the closest millisecond or whatever and mainly want something that works, and does what I intend for it to do. The Surface Book basically fit every bill I was hoping it would in being my Surface Pro 3 replacement yet also blew my expectations away in other aspects. I raved about the Pro 3's versatility and the Book just takes that idea to a whole new level. I've never found this level of versatility on any laptop I've used in the past and the only glaring issues I have with it are pretty much just products of Windows 10 itself. There are plenty of things that Microsoft can do better with the OS to make it a better experience on not just the Book or touch screens, but any hardware in general. That just made me ever so curious so see what Apple's equivalent with their pedigree of refinement looks like but that's the thing, they don't make one.

Where Microsoft made a genuinely innovative machine that took the best of two concepts and merged them into one, Apple is still stuck with a regular laptop and a regular tablet. They've tried pushing the iPad Pro as a possible computer replacement; it can be, depending on your uses but for more intensive purposes iOS just isn't anywhere near as fleshed out as Windows or even macOS. The MacBook Pro despite it's undeniable high points unfortunately feels like a mess of bad compromises in an attempt to keep users locked in under two very expensive devices, as opposed to one that can do everything the pair can. For what people actually use their devices for, this argument is totally debatable but in general I feel that while it may not be quite as refined as anything Cupertino churns out, the Surface Book just in concept alone makes the separate laptop and tablet pair feel redundant.

So in conclusion, the Surface Book is a one hell of a laptop, or tablet, whatever you want it to be. It's got oodles of power, but remains practical enough to not be a burden, and versatile enough to suit the needs of almost everyone. The biggest issues I have with it is while Windows 10 has improved over leaps and bounds, it still needs some tweaks and oh yeah, the price. Holy crap the Surface Book is expensive, specifically this model with the Performance Base retails at $2500. I know this model is on the way out since the Book 2 has hit the shelves but those equivalents to this model are still monstrously expensive. Luckily there are plenty of lower tier models for those who don't need so much firepower and/or want to save a good chunk of change. Overall I feel like Microsoft did something really special with the Surface Book and it goes to show how for they've come in the hardware business. It's definitely worth considering if you're in the market for a really good laptop.

The Surface Book with Performance Base is now discontinued but can still be found for $2499.99 or less at various retail locations.

Summary

• Looks great, feels great.
• Ample selection of ports and connectivity options.
• The display looks totally fantastic and is great with the Pen.
• The camera ended up being unexpectedly good.
• Laptop to tablet and back again, the possibilities are endless.
• Enough power to run games... like legit, high quality games.
• Windows 10 is great but not quite perfected.
• Say a prayer for your wallet. It's gonna need it.

Is It Better Than?

Apple iPad Pro- Yes, seriously? Well thanks to Apple's goofy marking campaign there's a whole mess of people who think the iPad Pro is a legit laptop replacement. If you plan on word processing, making keynote presentations, and doing a bit of art, sure. Most stuff beyond that this thing can't even touch and holy shit the optional keyboard is terrible feeling. No matter how good iOS is, it just isn't as capable as macOS or Windows 10 when it comes to just about anything, well except touch support in macOS's case. The biggest thing the iPad Pro has going for it is absolute refinement and convenience, but ask it to do anything terribly complicated and the MacBook Pro and Surface Book will kick it's face in. It's very good, but it's still just a tablet.

Apple MacBook Pro 13"- Yes, this one is actually more of tough call because the MBP still packs some of the best guts in the business despite it honestly having been botched in several other aspects. This one costs the same as the Surface Book but packs newer, a 7th-gen i7 CPU that has a solid leg up on the Book's 6th-gen unit and macOS ties everything together into one rather brilliant package. The problem is that the MBP lacks ports, which to this day is still practically criminal on a laptop that caters to productivity and the Touch Bar feels like a gimmicky compromise for refusing to put a touch screen on the thing. The Book is overall a far most versatile unit that has Windows dominant backing but if you don't mind missing out on a few features, the MBP is still a solid choice. I'm so serious though, if Apple made a legitimate Surface Book competitor, it would probably be damn near perfect.

Microsoft Surface Pro(2017)- Depends, while this is two whole generations ahead of my old Pro 3, really not too much has changed here. It looks about the same, functions pretty much the same, but the main difference is the obvious performance bump that according to Microsoft, is 2.5 times more powerful than the Pro 3. Some may be a bigger fan of the the MBP or the Book's more conventional laptop body but the Pro's seriously compact form factor can make it highly appealing for a vast amount of users. This is really a tablet that can replace your PC.