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Surface Book Is Microsoft's Glorious New Laptop - twice as fast as macbook pro

S

SwolBro

Banned
as a life long Mac user but xbox gamer i gotta say... wow windows, wow. they're doing great things right now.

i'm really happy for them. i'll have to wait until these get released to even consider switching out of my glorious mac air.
 
I

IzzyF3

Member
I won't be buying one, but I like how Microsoft is pushing the standard of laptops with this. It's competition like this that makes all other laptops coming from other companies better.
 
I

IvorB

Member
H3XAntiStyle said:
Wait.

You have disks?

Like, an actual disk? That you want to insert into your computer? What for?
Click to expand...

Yes. Spectrasonics's Trillian came on a couple of DVD discs. I would certainly need this installed on any new machine I bought.

FyreWulff said:
The only reason towers near me have optical drives is because I specifically bought one to install it or re-used one from an old tower. And they were pretty much just used to install Windows 7 and never used again.

blu-ray has completely failed to gain anything resembling an actual install base for PC. PC games at retail still ship on DVD if they're available via disc. Some of them are like 10 DVDs.

and over on Mac, Apple has never shipped a blu-ray drive
Click to expand...

Nipo said:
It weights around 1.6 pounds there is no way they'd include a blu-ray drive. This is definitely ultrabook territory
Click to expand...

Durante said:
Basically no one wants optical drives in portable devices. And for good reason, they are a massive waste of space, weight, structural integrity and energy.

And you really don't need them. I don't even have one in my PC (tower).
Click to expand...

ConceptX said:
Most "actual" laptops don't have optical drives either.

Sure you can find them, but optical drives have been ditched for the most part for several years.

Look at the iMac, an "all in one" PC, that doesn't even have an optical drive anymore.
Click to expand...

cakely said:
Yep, this is really where we're at now. Software just doesn't come on DVD anymore, and people stopped using PCs and laptops as DVD/Blu-ray players.

It's like when the first iMacs didn't come with a floppy drive, at first people sort of freaked out but very quickly, no one missed it.
Click to expand...

Well this was a conversation that was happening when I bought my current laptop and I was not convinced and sure enough I had need of an optical drive. I bought expensive specialist software that only came on disc, among other things. I'm all for moving with the times and if optical discs are truly phased out then that's great. But if I'm in a situation where I paid top dollar for a computer with no drive and found myself in need of one then I'd be pretty pissed off. Anyways it's nothing for me freak out about at the moment. May the Gods protect my 2012 MacBook Pro. :)
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
But.. It couldn't be a 930m could it?


Surely 940m is impossible. There is just no way. 940m is what we call modern entry level dedicated GPU, but below that, it's Iris Pro territory.


A 940m is what is featured in some models of Lenovo Yoga 14.


For reference; http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html


940m can get playable frames in GTA5 at 720p. And on a 13-inch screen that is absolutely acceptable due to the small screens. You cant appreciate all the details of maxed out settings. Or at least its not as noticeable.
Does that mean it will be good to game on? Zenbooks with dedicated GPUs get toasty really fast, so I have my worries.



If it features a i7 CPU it has to be the successor to the great i7 U5500; http://ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz the I7-5600U based on broadwell; http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-5600U-Notebook-Processor.127804.0.html

I don't think skylake is out yet in ULV

It's 15 watt and can turbo up to 3,2 Ghz. That's good. We're still in dual core, but ulvs are making waves.


Imagine the second version of this with the skylake version. If it keeps up to date it will be about 100-200 mhz better than this. Then we might look at a 2,8 Ghz - 3,4 Ghz version. That's really fast. That's a completely different ball game than the Core M ones we saw earlier.
 
M

Maintenance

Member
Fraull said:
When Apple does it, too expensive. When its competitors do the same, it's amazing.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
D

Dicer

Banned
Fraull said:
When Apple does it, too expensive. When its competitors do the same, it's amazing.

The laptop is cool, just the double standard is funny.
Click to expand...

The hardware is better therefore the price is better.

No Double Standard and no Apple tax, it's a better value...


I can't believe I'm defending Microsoft
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
laptop sounds great. i might end up buying one sometimes later next year but of course by then a minor revision would have been announced ;D
 
C

ClearData

Member
Looks sexy. I'd love one but it'll be a bit before I can afford an upgrade, plus my Surface Pro 3 is great. I'm in for that new keyboard though! Backwards compatibility FTW!
 
K

kiguel182

Member
Netherscourge said:
Some PRICING info :(

From engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/06/microsofts-surface-book-is-its-first-and-ultimate-laptop/

Pre-orders start tomorrow, October 7th and the product will hit stores on October 26th, starting at $1,499 (for the 128GB / 8GB Core i5, Intel HD graphics configuration) to $2,699.00 (512GB / 16GB, NVIDIA GPU).

$1,500 for 128GB Drive, 8GB Core i5, Intel HD graphics GPU

$2,700 for 512GB Drive, 16GB Core i7 Nvidia GPU

USD

Sorry, too rich.
Click to expand...

So the 2700 version is the one with the dedicated GPU and not the 1500.

It's pretty much the same deal with the Macbook Pro then. Except with tablet mode and Windows. Makes more sense now.
 
M

Maintenance

Member
I just want to know the specs, if the Book is packing a 980m or something similar then I'll understand the 2,7k price tag. 960m or less and it's Microsoft's version of the Apple tax.

Netherscourge said:
Simple question:

My DESKTOP PC has a GTX 770 4GB CPU and a Core i7 920 with a SSD.

Is there a Surface Book Config that bests that STRAIGHT-UP and isn't $2700?

I can play BF4, Witcher 3, WoW, D3, Skyrim, ertc... on my current PC at maxed settings at 1080p at over 50FPS easy. I want to be able to handle all that and anything new in the next year or so without any crazy downscaling of graphic settings.

If one of those Surface Books can beat that, I'm sold.

I wish there were some benchmarks for the various configuration options.
Click to expand...

They didn't mention the specs yet. Just "Skylake i7 and Geforce GPU".
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
Simple question:

My DESKTOP PC has a GTX 770 4GB CPU and a Core i7 920 with a SSD.

Is there a Surface Book Config that bests that STRAIGHT-UP and isn't $2700?

I can play BF4, Witcher 3, WoW, D3, Skyrim, ertc... on my current PC at maxed settings at 1080p at over 50FPS easy. I want to be able to handle all that and anything new in the next year or so without any crazy downscaling of graphic settings.

If one of those Surface Books can beat that, I'm sold. If I can tune down the SB to 1080p for more power, that's fine too,. I don't need crazy high resolution.

I wish there were some benchmarks for the various configuration options.
 
N

Nipo

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
But.. It couldn't be a 930m could it?


Surely 940m is impossible. There is just no way. 940m is what we call modern entry level dedicated GPU, but below that, it's Iris Pro territory.


A 940m is what is featured in some models of Lenovo Yoga 14.


For reference; http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html


940m can get playable frames in GTA5 at 720p. And on a 13-inch screen that is absolutely acceptable due to the small screens. You cant appreciate all the details of maxed out settings. Or at least its not as noticeable.
Does that mean it will be good to game on? Zenbooks with dedicated GPUs get toasty really fast, so I have my worries.



If it features a i7 CPU it has to be the successor to the great i7 U5500; http://ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz the I7-5600U based on broadwell; http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-5600U-Notebook-Processor.127804.0.html

I don't think skylake is out yet in ULV

It's 15 watt and can turbo up to 3,2 Ghz. That's good. We're still in dual core, but ulvs are making waves.


Imagine the second version of this with the skylake version. If it keeps up to date it will be about 100-200 mhz better than this. Then we might look at a 2,8 Ghz - 3,4 Ghz version. That's really fast. That's a completely different ball game than the Core M ones we saw earlier.
Click to expand...

They said it was a sixth generation intel processor. That means it has to be skylake no?
 
ss_lemonade

ss_lemonade

Member
Netherscourge said:
Simple question:

My DESKTOP PC has a GTX 770 4GB CPU and a Core i7 920 with a SSD.

Is there a Surface Book Config that bests that STRAIGHT-UP and isn't $2700?

I can play BF4, Witcher 3, WoW, D3, Skyrim, ertc... on my current PC at maxed settings at 1080p at over 50FPS easy. I want to be able to handle all that and anything new in the next year or so without any crazy downscaling of graphic settings.

If one of those Surface Books can beat that, I'm sold. If I can tune down the SB to 1080p for more power, that's fine too,. I don't need crazy high resolution.

I wish there were some benchmarks for the various configuration options.
Click to expand...
No one even knows what the GPU is. Also, the 1900 option seems to have a GPU as well
 
K

Kuni

Member
I do admit this did catch my eye for a bit. Very interesting form factor. Sadly to get the GPU and 16gb ram it costs an eye watering $2699. I don't even want to imagine the UK price lol. Very nice though, should give the high end macbooks a run for their money.
 
W

Weevilone

Member
I have my finger on the order button for the Book, but I'm perplexed about 2 things.

1. I want 16GB of RAM but don't want to pay a zillion dollars to step up to that config
2. I want, but don't NEED the dGPU.

Hmm..
 
L

leeh

Member
Hoo-doo said:
This legit kills it, sadly. I can't use a windows OS on a laptop.
Click to expand...
Meh, having going from working in an OSX environment, to a Windows, the only thing I miss is a native UNIX terminal. Cygwin is a decent replacement though.

Other than that, Windows takes it.
 
A

Aroll

Member
Since the model with the $2700 price tag is the one with a dedicated GPU...

that's ouch. It basically better be the best GPU and best CPU on the market, but even at that price it will never compare to a desktop rig that is far cheaper.

I dunno, if they were offering an i5 with dedicated at $1500, now we're talking.
 
G

Got the Shakes

Member
Aroll said:
Since the model with the $2700 price tag is the one with a dedicated GPU...

that's ouch. It basically better be the best GPU and best CPU on the market, but even at that price it will never compare to a desktop rig that is far cheaper.

I dunno, if they were offering an i5 with dedicated at $1500, now we're talking.
Click to expand...

They have an $1899 version with the i5 and the dGPU.
 
J

JJD

Member
How's the trackpad?

Does it support touch gestures? Depending on this I might ditch my 2014 15 inch macbook pro for one of these.

I tried going back to windows 2 years ago with a top of the line Asus notebook but I couldn't stand how clunky it was to use the damn thing. Specially the trackpad. It was so awful.
 
D

dracula_x

Member
Dicer said:
The hardware is better therefore the price is better.

No Double Standard and no Apple tax, it's a better value...


I can't believe I'm defending Microsoft
Click to expand...

But it's not.

Let's compare:

Surface Book
$1,500 for 128GB Drive, 8GB Core i5, Intel HD graphics GPU

MacBook Pro
$1,500 for 256GB SSD, 8GB, 2.7GHz dual-core (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) Intel Core i5, Intel Iris Graphics 6100
Click to expand...

and then you see this:
CQpN7hUVAAAhI4p.png:orig
Click to expand...

Well played MS, well played :)
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Well the good model is freaking too expensive for a 13" laptop, and I say that as 15" RMBP owner :\

Have anyone figured out which MBP are they talking about here saying this is 2x as fast?
 
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