Windows 10 also does a good job of switching between a touch-friendly mode and one more suited to a keyboard and mouse, especially if you enable it to do so automatically. Switching between using a laptop and straight into a tablet is pretty seamless and apps snap back to their positions when you revert to laptop mode, so you can carry on working without issue.
It’s worth noting here that I’ve run into a number of software issues with the Surface Book. I experienced blue screens on the machine nearly every day. Microsoft tells me this is related to the SSD, and that the company has a fix in place for retail units. I’ve also experienced problems with the trackpad gestures and scrolling failing after I’ve used it in tablet mode and reattached the keyboard. Microsoft’s docking app to control the detaching of the tablet also occasionally crashes. I’ve also been unable to test Windows Hello, a feature that lets you log in with just your face, on the Surface Book as the drivers aren’t ready yet. Together with the software crashes, it feels like Microsoft might be rushing to get the Surface Book ready in time.
Battery life is one of the key parts of a laptop. While the tablet portion should last around 4 hours, Microsoft claims up to 12 hours if you’re using it as a regular laptop. It is true. During a battery test, the Surface Book lasted nearly 13 hours for the base model without the additional GPU. It’s incredibly rare for a Windows laptop to have great battery life that it lasts a full working day. It takes around 2 hours to charge the tablet itself, and around 4 or 5 hours to charge both. Because the keyboard and tablet both use the same Surface connector, you can use a single cable to do both, or just charge them combined in the regular laptop mode.
Is the Surface really the ultimate laptop that Microsoft claims it is? It has a beautiful display, amazing battery life, and the keyboard and trackpad feel great. Microsoft has clearly made a laptop that competes with the MacBook Pro with all the best ingredients, but it just needs to find a better recipe to combine all its innovative hardware. The Surface Book is seriously impressive, and as a hybrid it’s probably the best out there.
