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[potatohead]

2 gb vram on a 2400 dollar laptop means it isn't for gaming and is off my radar.

My laptop has 2 gig 860 and ssd and 2 tb hdd for 1300 almost 2 years ago now.

Battery life impressive though.

As an art workstation I see the attraction though. Or for playing pre-2014 pc games

Cost too much though I'd rather sacrifice battery life for beefier GPU really.

 

[Lazaro]

Too bad you cant just connect a eGPU like the Razer laptops.

 

[BigTnaples]

Damn. Was planning on getting the first SB but ended up buying a million other things instead. Glad I waited, but wish they had upgraded the CPU as well.

That said, the CPU is still pretty beast, so I'm not that bothered.


This should be able to run the majority of my Stram Library without issue, and for as portable and sleek as this thing is, that's amazing.

Will be nice because since my PC is connected to my 4K comfy couch setup, I rarely play 4X or RTS games anymore on my dual monitor setup.

It will be nice to play games like Total War, Homeworld, Starcraft and such on the go.

 

[ShdwDrake]

If they had managed to get a 1060 in there i woulda been all over it.

 

[Sakujou]

Costs nearly a grand more than my fully souped up desktop which out-specs this thing. Microsoft, you dun fucked up on a colossal scale.

lol. whats next? comparing your iphone to your 4k-computer?

 

[BigTnaples]

Costs nearly a grand more than my fully souped up desktop which out-specs this thing. Microsoft, you dun fucked up on a colossal scale.

Ridiculous post is ridiculous.

 

[Kayant]

GPU in this is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M btw

 

[……forgetit]

Costs nearly a grand more than my fully souped up desktop which out-specs this thing. Microsoft, you dun fucked up on a colossal scale.

Counting or not counting your monitor?

 

[Greatest Ever]

Also, keep in mind that Surface products were never indended to compete with existing offerings in terms of price, but be a premium alternatives to show what is possible. So if you liked what the Surface Book showed and dediced to go for a Razer Blade because of that (price/performance conciderations) then Microsoft already succeeded in their objective. They want you to buy a Windows laptop, not neccecarily a Surface product.

This is one of my favorite accounts on NeoGAF.

 

[Doffen]

GPU in this is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M btw

It's in the OP.

 

[Kayant]

It's in the OP.

Whew! Guess the blindness as started.

 

[Crazyorloco]

Id would be nice if the older Surface book users could buy the keyboard part for the improved performance.

 

[Herp Derpington]

To be fair, I feel like microsoft shouldnt have mentioned "for the gamer", but I get why they did. But now people are fixated on the gpu of the thing, I feel.

If I got one of these, it would be more expensive than my gtx 1080 gaming pc, but I wouldn't be expecting this to replace it.

Yeah I agree but I think it's one of those buzzwords they can't stay away from.

Oh I agree it's for different applications; I was just giving an example of a laptop that doesn't scream GAM3R. The detachable screen is incredibly useful when required.

Yeah I can agree and it does look good for a gaming laptop. I think though for me the detachable screen trumps gaming ability since I really don't see a scenario where I want to seriously game on my laptop. Maybe some Age of Empires 2 but that's about it.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

As a 15-inch this would be really cool.

 

[dLMN8R]

As a 15-inch this would be really cool.

Remember that the 13.5" display is 3:2 aspect ratio, so it's not directly comparable to most other laptop screens.

The Surface Book's screen is ~11.25" x 7.5"

A normal 15" 16:9 laptop 13.08" x 7.35"

So while the Surface Book is a bit narrower, it's actually taller than an ordinary 15" laptop screen.

 

[Kuosi]

How does that GPU performance compare to 980m or 1080m?

This might become my new work computer. But no numpad... not sure I can live with that (even a virtual one).

the 9xx mobile one compare horribly to pascal mobile ones, 1070m is more than double the grunt against 970m, the pascal mobile ones are actually full fledged with slightly lower performance due lower clocks.
This could be helpful: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-Pascal-for-Notebooks-In-depth-Benchmarks-for-the-Geforce-GTX-1080-SLI-GTX-1070-and-GTX-1060.171566.0.html

 

[Pancakes R Us]

This 16 hour battery life is impressive! Will consider this against a new MBP. Both are pretty expensive though.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Remember that the 13.5" display is 3:2 aspect ratio, so it's not directly comparable to most other laptop screens.

The Surface Book's screen is ~11.25" x 7.5"

A normal 15" 16:9 laptop 13.08" x 7.35"

So while the Surface Book is a bit narrower, it's actually taller than an ordinary 15" laptop screen.

That's a good point!




965m is actually not a slug. According to Notebookcheck we're talking 42 FPS on average on Ultra at 1080p in Battlefield 1: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-965M.134120.0.html

That is damn good. People forget that Maxwell is incredible. 965 is quite a step below 970m but its significant more than 960m.


But I'd have to wonder if a refresh of Surfacebook book will come- Like a silent refresh in 6-8 months where they do a GPU bump?

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I'm hoping we get legit Surface Book 2 in Q1 or Q2 2017. With redesigned hinge and a kickstand.

 

[nahlakhai]

While I think its a bit ambitious for MS to say it targets gamers, if this were the high end MacBook Pro nobody would be saying anything about price. In fact, you get a 965M vs a Radeon 450 in the highest end MBP which is the 'equivalent' of this model.

As an early SB adopter I think the hardware is stride for stride with Apple hardware except you're on Windows and you have an awesome touch screen + pen.

 

[jbug617]

Curious to why they went with Maxwell. Lack of enough Pascal chips by the time they needed them?
Also, 2400$ and only 256GB ssd?...

My guess they wanted something for the Holidays

I'm hoping we get legit Surface Book 2 in Q1 or Q2 2017. With redesigned hinge and a kickstand.

Rumor says those announcements will come in the Spring.

 

[Zedox]

I'm hoping we get legit Surface Book 2 in Q1 or Q2 2017. With redesigned hinge and a kickstand.

We'll get one in spring 2017...but uhm...I can understand the hinge...but the kickstand? For what?

 

[Marty Chinn]

We'll get one in spring 2017...but uhm...I can understand the hinge...but the kickstand? For what?

I assume to prop the tablet up when detached from the keyboard.

Also, are we sure a refresh is coming? I assumed this was the refresh. I'll wait until spring of something else is coming that soon.

 

[andrerobot]

WTF Microsoft!!!?? $2400 dollars for a "gaming" tablet with a keyboard?!


For just $30 I can get so much better:

 

[Onlinehero]

In b4.a get two jobs comment.

If you have the need for this device you likely have a job with decent pay!

I think it's neat. Unrelated to this announcement I was looking at laptops and hybrids yesterday because I have an itch to get away from Mac at work and at home. I already have a 1080 so I won't be gaming on a laptop. Tbh the card is nice but I don't see the need to get this over the old surface book model. A decent processor, 8GB of RAM, SSD and a nice screen seems to be the draw, and those won't be getting upgrades soon. Other than that it's the novelty of the hybrid that just makes a lot of sense, I could use it anywhere for anything (apart from gaming) and never miss a tablet or laptop.

Now if the old model would release in Sweden that'd be neat.

 

[Future]

Since they are setting a precedent that they will not offer interchangeable bases for cheaper upgrades it's getting hard for me to invest in the product. What excited me about surface book was the base providing options and power, thinking you could buy those separately in the future. Kinda dissapointing they aren't going that path.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

We'll get one in spring 2017...but uhm...I can understand the hinge...but the kickstand? For what?

So that the tablet can be propped up without the use of the base.

The base is quite bulky, attaching it backwards won't help if you're in a really cramped space like a jet or something but want it to be propped up. I didn't think it would bother me coming from my old SP2 to my Surface Book, but I actually do miss the functionality a lot.

 

[Doffen]

Since they are setting a precedent that they will not offer interchangeable bases for cheaper upgrades it's getting hard for me to invest in the product. What excited me about surface book was the base providing options and power, thinking you could buy those separately in the future. Kinda dissapointing they aren't going that path.

What made you think that? I can't remember Microsoft ever hinting about such upgrades.

 

[Crazyorloco]

What made you think that? I can't remember Microsoft ever hinting about such upgrades.

The surface 2 & 3, Surface Pro, Pro 2, Pro 3, and Pro 4 all allow us to swap keyboards. I think many people thought we could do it for the Surface book as well.

It would be great. I would love a little spec boost. Now i'm not even considering the Surface Book 2.

 

[Doffen]

The surface 2 & 3, Surface Pro, Pro 2, Pro 3, and Pro 4 all allow us to swap keyboards. I think many people thought we could do it for the Surface book as well.

It would be great. I would love a little spec boost. Now i'm not even considering the Surface Book 2.

The Surface Pro keyboard is officially sold separately. The Surface Book is a complete product from the box when you buy it.

 

[wowbaggerBR]

Damn, it's so sexy but so damn expensive.

 

[CraigerGamer]

I wonder if they will ever try throwing a 1050ti or something along those lines in the next iteration? I'd be all over it if we could get just a bit beefier (read more GBs) GPU. It would be great for work and a quick CS:go, overwatch, rocket league machine for travel.

 

[bomblord1]

I wonder if they will ever try throwing a 1050ti or something along those lines in the next iteration? I'd be all over it if we could get just a bit beefier (read more GBs) GPU. It would be great for work and a quick CS:go, overwatch, rocket league machine for travel.

It should play the listed games fine.

 

[mckmas8808]

For content creators? They better step up a lot of things from the 4 if they really want to sell it that way.

What would they need to improve?

 

[Pancakes R Us]

It looks like this new 16 hour battery life one isn't available in the UK yet. It took a while for the 1TB model to hit here. I really like the look of the SB but may get a low end Surface Pro 4 on sale during this weekend and then think about this one for my next main laptop purchase.

 

[ZeroX03]

I wonder if they will ever try throwing a 1050ti or something along those lines in the next iteration? I'd be all over it if we could get just a bit beefier (read more GBs) GPU. It would be great for work and a quick CS:go, overwatch, rocket league machine for travel.

The 1050/Ti cards for laptops aren't arriving until March. The 965M card is very good.

 

[VanMardigan]

OMG, my job gave me an i7 dGPU 16gb 1TB Surface Book today. I'm overwhelmed, this is awesome. Last piece of kit I got was a Surface 3 (not even the Pro) so I really wasn't expecting much when I got called in to pick up a new device.

Holy Cow, this thing is amazing.

I don't think this is the performance base version, how would I even check that? Either way, this thing is.....wow.....I wasn't going to afford one of these on my own, glad my work came through.

 

[Kambing]

Yeah i don't have the newest surface with 1.9 TF GPU, but i love this device!
Compared to my 2013 15 inch rMBP, i am so much more productive on here.

The biggest feature for my workflow is 'Screen Sketch'. This has literally saved me HOURS.
It takes a screenshot of your screen and you can crop, mark it up as you please.
A lot more effective than saying "on page 19, move "x" to "y". I simply just draw an arrow now lol. Using paint.net and photoshop to do the above was always a lot more cumbersome and slow for me. Oh and the aspect ratio is killer if working with print material... and because it is longer than a typical 16:9 screen, it feels a lot bigger than 13 inches.

What's not so good is the hinge. It does not extend as far back as i would like it to. The battery on my model is also not the greatest... 6 hours.

I would really recommend anyone on the fence to check out the refurbished/outlet section from Microsoft. I got the i5/256GB SSD for $1200!

 

[The Teachinator]

I just received my SurfaceBook with Performance Base today....HOLY SHIT. I have been on Mac laptops since 2003. I have an ipad, iphone, MBP...and jesus I wish Apple had a device like this in their ecosystem but they don't! Being able to use the screen as a tablet and then doc it and have a fully competent laptop is beyond amazing. The pen is amazing. How does the screen avoid fingerprint smudging so much? I have no idea but it is amazing! Being able to throw the machine into a TP and then plug an xbox controller in and play Overwatch AMAZING.

My mind is completely blown and I haven't felt such a technological revelation since the iPhone. Microsoft should be getting more credit for this device it is truly remarkable in what it can do and build quality.

 

[MartyStu]

So sexy.

I think I am going to wait a bit until some more Linux Kernel patches make their way upstream before I make my boss get this for me.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Ha! $2400.00? They are smoking some fine stuff up there in Redmond.