

On the flip side, that 3:2 aspect ratio makes for a better standalone tablet experience. The best angle for my eyes is the one where I push the panel back as far as possible, though this exacerbates the wobbliness. One way to deal with this was to dip the display slightly forward, but that's not my favorite screen position. Rest assured, the notebook didn't once tumble off my lap, but the base didn't always feel as steady as I would have liked. Compounding matters, the touchscreen wobbles when poked. Though most of the weight is inside the keyboard dock, the 3:2-aspect-ratio screen is taller than most, which makes the machine feel slightly top-heavy when I rest it on my legs.

While I can manage the weight, however, I wish Microsoft would do something about the weight distribution.
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Also, the accompanying power brick is kind of heavy, but at least you can consider leaving it at home, what with the 16-hour battery life and all.įinishing up our tour, there's an 8-megapixel camera around back and a 5-megapixel one up front that supports Windows Hello facial recognition. I don't like how much space the corresponding plug takes up, and I often find that it doesn't stay put the first time I try to click it in.
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I'd also like to point out the proprietary magnetic power connector - the same one used on the last-gen Surface Book, as well as the last couple of Surface Pro tablets. If having a thicker, heavier machine means getting all the ports I need, along with potentially twice the battery life, I'm all in. Whereas the MacBook Pro offers just two or four USB Type-C connections (depending on the configuration), the Surface Book still rocks two full-size USB 3.0 sockets, a Mini DisplayPort, a headphone jack and a full-size SDXC reader. As it turns out, I can forgive the weight, largely because the battery life is so phenomenal (much more on that in a moment).Īlso, getting to test the new MacBook Pro recently has reaffirmed my preference for laptops with actual ports (i.e., ones I can use without an adapter). That's because it is - the second-gen model comes in at 3.68 pounds, up from 3.34 pounds on the original, and a good deal more than, say, the new three-pound MacBook Pro 13.
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If you're going to use a Windows PC in tablet mode, then, it may as well be like this.īut back to the total weight for a minute: The Surface Book feels heavier than I remember. Meanwhile, as it stands, the tablet portion weighs a scant 1.6 pounds, and that's despite having a 13.5-inch screen and Core i7 processor inside. But the answer is obvious: At 3.34 pounds, the Surface Book and dock would make for one heavy tablet. Indeed, I've wondered at times why Microsoft didn't just rip Lenovo's "Yoga" design and go with a 360-degree hinge that allows the screen to flip back into tablet mode. Pressing the button to release the display still makes for a neat party trick, though lining up the docking guides when it's time to reattach it to the base can feel slightly clumsy. From there you can use it as a tablet, or reattach the display facing outward and then fold it back to use as a sort of tabletop surface. But it sure is pretty.Īs ever, there's a button on the function row, right next to the Delete key, that allows you to detach the screen from the keyboard base.

Two generations in, I maintain that the chunky hinge doesn't offer much of a functional advantage over conventional hinges - in fact, it makes the machine look fatter when shut. To its credit, the Surface Book was always a striking piece of machinery, with its solidly built magnesium case, backlit keyboard and snake-like "fulcrum" hinge. In this case, the exterior design is identical to the original, with none of the improvements visible to the naked eye. Like so many other second-generation devices, the refreshed Surface Book isn't so much a "new product" as a refinement of the original that came before it.
