Typing on the Surface Book feels strange at first. There’s not very much key travel, so the keyboard feels a little hard. It takes a few hours to get used to it, and other laptops’ keyboards may feel mushy in comparison. The Surface Book’s keyboard spacing is pretty ideal and the company has done a really good job with its first real laptop keyboard.
Microsoft has opted for premium laptop specifications inside the Surface Book. On the base model there’s 8GB of RAM paired with Intel’s latest Core i5 processor, which is fast. Basic web browsing, a little bit of Photoshop, and regular desktop apps all perform well.
Microsoft has built a little button on the keyboard that unlocks the screen from the base. It’s like one of those crazy buttons you press to enter a secret room, and it lets you pull off the display and use it as a giant tablet. Microsoft has built an entire PC into this display that doubles as a touch screen and supports a stylus. While the base unit and display combine into a laptop that’s not exactly lightweight at 3.34 pounds, the tablet section feels manageable at 1.6 pounds. Because of the 3:2 aspect ratio, it really feels like you’re holding a piece of paper (except, of course, for the weight). Microsoft keeps calling it a “digital clipboard.” You can reattach the base the opposite way around to create a stand, but I never did that because it turns it into an even more bulky tablet.
The new Surface Pen is greatly improved thanks to a more resistive tip, but there’s still a slight lag that will irritate artists who want to draw on this professionally. It’s fine for note taking though, and there’s even an eraser on the top now. The Surface Pen also snaps magnetically to the side.
While the tablet is a fully functional PC when detached, the base is more than just a keyboard and trackpad. There are two USB ports, a full SD card reader, a mini DisplayPort, and an additional Nvidia GPU on some models. It’s a battery dock for the tablet. Once you’re done using it as a tablet, you can simply dock the Surface Book back in and it stays coupled together with magnets and a “muscle wire” lock that secures it firmly in place. It’s a clever piece of engineering, but it relies on battery power to activate. You can remove the display when it’s powered off, but if you drain the battery, you’ll have to wait until it’s at least 10 percent before you can undock it again.
