[QUOTE]NEW YORK CITY—In addition to the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft has unveiled another brand-new PC today. The Microsoft Surface Book is Microsoft's first-ever convertible laptop, and it looks like it's aimed at people who are intrigued by the Surface Pro 4 but aren't interested in a tablet.
The laptop includes a 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen with 6 million pixels, and it includes an Intel Skylake processor and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory. It's also got PCI Express-connected solid-state storage. Microsoft claims it's the "fastest 13-inch laptop anywhere on any planet," a statement which we don't have the means to confirm, and that's it's "two times more powerful" than the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The Surface Book's screen detaches from the base to function as a standalone tablet, and like the Surface Pro 4 it works with a Surface Pen that can be docked magnetically along the top of the screen. The dedicated GPU is in the base of the Book, and it will switch to the Skylake integrated GPU when the screen is detached—if you want all of the GPU power, you'll have to have the laptop docked.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/microsoft-introduces-surface-book-a-laptop-for-surface-fans/[/url]
Starts at $1500.
[QUOTE=MrTwicks;48840985][IMG]http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/surfacebook-640x400.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.techdigest.tv/Macbook%20pro.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Have you gone shopping for a laptop at any point within the past few years? It's impossible to find one that isn't "inspired" by the macbook.
[QUOTE=Pw0nageXD;48841028]Have you gone shopping for a laptop at any point within the past few years? It's impossible to find one that isn't "inspired" by the macbook.[/QUOTE]
To be fair, it is the absolute best-designed laptop available. I've never seen another laptop that matches how it feels or performs exactly (in terms of case design. In that it doesn't feel plasticky or cheap.)
Live event in an hour.
[QUOTE=woolio1;48841045]To be fair, it is the absolute best-designed laptop available. I've never seen another laptop that matches how it feels or performs exactly (in terms of case design. In that it doesn't feel plasticky or cheap.)[/QUOTE]
I dunno, every time I touch one it fells like I'm going to break it since it's so thin.
I really like how the screen detaches electronically with a keyboard button
[editline]6th October 2015[/editline]
[t]http://syllabus.vox-cdn.com/uploads/photo/image/21625/microsoft_0340.jpg[/t]
bleh
More devices that blow all the competition out of the water. I love these events.
The Surface Pro sure has evolved into one hell of a tablet, and arguably the best tablet on the market. The iPad is so useless in comparison.
[QUOTE=redBadger;48841101]More devices that blow all the competition out of the water. I love these events.
The Surface Pro sure has evolved into one hell of a tablet, and arguably the best tablet on the market. The iPad is so useless in comparison.[/QUOTE]
Even the Surface 3 non-pro is a better pick than an iPad. I own one and it's incredible to be able to write code on it, play a few lightweight PC games, but then go home and crash on the couch and surf the web as a tablet.
Well I guess I know what laptop I'm getting as an upgrade next year.
The one thing I've always disliked about Surfaces is that there has never been any hinged keyboard option so you can plop the thing down on random surfaces but I guess there's no excuse now.
Also, if anything, it resembles the Aspire Switch 10 more than any MacBook.
[t]http://imgkk.com/i/axle.png[/t]
(Which just flips around instead of having a complicated hinge)
Do we have specs yet? Screen res, CPU, and what specific discrete GPU it has?
I am really interested in the surface book. I want a laptop to do some programming on and a tablet is a nice added feature.
I have also come to love Microsoft products with their practically perfect connection between all devices.
[QUOTE=redBadger;48841101]More devices that blow all the competition out of the water. I love these events.
The Surface Pro sure has evolved into one hell of a tablet, and arguably the best tablet on the market. The iPad is so useless in comparison.[/QUOTE]
[vid]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos_h264high/C11AACD8081253450653838229504_SW_WEBM_1441820135052f0763b4d6d.mp4?versionId=tFfhUVXP6qvg0VoeLuBM9FKwN7zjU_SI[/vid]
a step behind
or multiple
It has a dedicated GPU in the keyboard. Pretty cool idea, so you can have great battery in tablet mode or power with the keyboard
That hinge is so bad why couldn't they make it close all the way?
oh man those even numbers in screen resolution
can't wait for ifixit to give the surface book a repairability score of 0 though
that 1-year limited warranty isn't particularly confidence inspiring for a design that looks 20 times harder to service than a MBP (especially with the surface pro 1, 2, and 3 all netting an excellent 1 out of 10 repairability score)
Going to have to wait for the reviews to see how durable this device is (hinge). Otherwise it's the laptop I've always dreamed of that Lenovo has been unable to provide.
It might have to do with me being a big guy but I am not able to use anything that fucking tiny for anything else but browsing web and maybe making some plaintext notes. Tiny, low placed screen, shitty shallow keyboard, touchpad, completely useless.
Somewhere around 16 inches screen is the bare minimum I deem necessary for [I]actual work[/I] and I don't see the point of having an i7 processor in something that's a pain in ass for me to interface with.
And if I am meant to use an external screen and keyboard and mouse for actual work, then it means I am not able to carry all of it with me, and it means that actual physical tower workstation plus separate cheap affordable small "carry" thing is infinitely more scalable and comfortable solution for pretty much any situation I can imagine.
Maybe if it turns out Head Mounted Displays are something one will be able to operate with for extendensive amount of time without his brain leaking out through his eyeholes, and if somebody figures out an input method that could match a mechanical keyboard, I will then become interested in purchasing a "compact" yet "powerful" computing device. Until then all these things are nothing but toys to me.
[QUOTE=Protocol7;48841124]Even the Surface 3 non-pro is a better pick than an iPad. I own one and it's incredible to be able to write code on it, play a few lightweight PC games, but then go home and crash on the couch and surf the web as a tablet.[/QUOTE]
Apart from the weakish pen the Surface is fucking b0ss.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48841411]It might have to do with me being a big guy but I am not able to use anything that fucking tiny for anything else but browsing web and maybe making some plaintext notes. Tiny, low placed screen, shitty shallow keyboard, touchpad, completely useless.
Somewhere around 16 inches screen is the bare minimum I deem necessary for [I]actual work[/I] and I don't see the point of having an i7 processor in something that's a pain in ass for me to interface with.
And if I am meant to use an external screen and keyboard and mouse for actual work, then it means I am not able to carry all of it with me, and it means that actual physical tower workstation plus separate cheap affordable small "carry" thing is infinitely more scalable and comfortable solution for pretty much any situation I can imagine.
Maybe if it turns out Head Mounted Displays are something one will be able to operate with for extendensive amount of time without his brain leaking out through his eyeholes, and if somebody figures out an input method that could match a mechanical keyboard, I will then become interested in purchasing a "compact" yet "powerful" computing device. Until then all these things are nothing but toys to me.[/QUOTE]
I've been using a Sony Vaio Pro 13" ultrabook for my programming and web development work for the past 2 years, and it has probably been the best thing I've ever purchased. Not once have I had a problem with the size of the keyboard, the mouse or the screen. They can be great products for work but it depends on what kind of person you are.
[QUOTE=icemaz;48841533]I've been using a Sony Vaio Pro 13" ultrabook for my programming and web development work for the past 2 years, and it has probably been the best thing I've ever purchased. Not once have I had a problem with the size of the keyboard, the mouse or the screen. They can be great products for work but it depends on what kind of person you are.[/QUOTE]
I have an old trusty 15.5" or whatever "gaming notebook", it's a massive fucking cow (with an i5 and a 460M GPU, so it still decently pulls it's weight) and I can't stand doing anything serious on it for more than a while.
The (full sized) keyboard makes my fingers hurt because it's still shallow-drop, the screen is too small for the distance my eyes are comfortable with, and most importantly low placed. I use it whenever I go to the cottage for the weekend and it's [I]okay[/I] for some rudimentary schoolwork, coding, I have edited some very basic graphics on it... and I am never going to throw so much money into a computer as small, ever again.
It might have to do with me being a +190cm, 100kg heap, but whenever I am not in front of my 24" screen, I just never feel really comfortable with anything I am doing.
[editline]6th October 2015[/editline]
And on an off remark, you couldn't do programming and web development on something that doesn't cost like a functional used car?
[QUOTE=woolio1;48841045]To be fair, it is the absolute best-designed laptop available. I've never seen another laptop that matches how it feels or performs exactly (in terms of case design. In that it doesn't feel plasticky or cheap.)[/QUOTE]
The problem with Apple is that their stuff is usually about 20% better, but 200% more expensive.
Their price-to-superiority balance is way off, always has and always will be
[QUOTE=proch;48841630]The problem with Apple is that their stuff is usually about 20% better, but 200% more expensive.
Their price-to-superiority balance is way off[/QUOTE]
Depends hugely on the product, and even then it's false. Some of their products are better, some are worse, some have good value, some have bad. So basically like every other manufacturer at this point.
The GPU in the keyboard unit? Honestly, I never would have thought of that.
I mean - of [i]course[/i] that's where it is on an actual laptop, but I don't think I've ever seen a tablet employ that idea with its keyboard attachment. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48841593]I have an old trusty 15.5" or whatever "gaming notebook", it's a massive fucking cow (with an i5 and a 460M GPU, so it still decently pulls it's weight) and I can't stand doing anything serious on it for more than a while.
The (full sized) keyboard makes my fingers hurt because it's still shallow-drop, the screen is too small for the distance my eyes are comfortable with, and most importantly low placed. I use it whenever I go to the cottage for the weekend and it's [I]okay[/I] for some rudimentary schoolwork, coding, I have edited some very basic graphics on it... and I am never going to throw so much money into a computer as small, ever again.
It might have to do with me being a +190cm, 100kg heap, but whenever I am not in front of my 24" screen, I just never feel really comfortable with anything I am doing.
[editline]6th October 2015[/editline]
And on an off remark, you couldn't do programming and web development on something that doesn't cost like a functional used car?[/QUOTE]
I have a Surface 3 with a 10.8" screen and it is perfectly fine for web browsing and note taking - e.g. what it was designed to do. It is by no means a desktop replacement.
I have a 15.6" "gaming" laptop which I just can't honestly use for anything at this point, though. Any mobile anything I have to do is usually easy (and, frankly, better) on the Surface. I take notes in lectures for about half of my waking hours so the pen is excellent, so much so that no-electronics professors have never rejected me asking to use it in their class. If I lugged in the 15.6" laptop, though, it'd just be too bulky to bother. (I'm way bigger than you, as well.)
I have been able to do work on the 15.6" with a wireless mouse, but the dual-screen desktop at home is really invaluable when working with Excel + reference material, so I just put off any serious work until I return. The Surface isn't designed at all to do that (outside light editing). I doubt the Surface Book will change that at all.
It's, in essence, a convertible Windows Macbook. The people worried about convertibility probably don't do enough hardcore work on it to care that it's powerful, while the people who lust for a Macbook but can't afford the price + the uselessness of OS X in a professional setting now have the Book (but probably at least briefly considered the Surface Pro anyway).
It's kind of a weird gap filler and I expect they're going to see a lot of cannibalization simply because it's not really different from the Surface Pro aside from being a bit bigger.
[QUOTE=VinLAURiA;48841664]The GPU in the keyboard unit? Honestly, I never would have thought of that.
I mean - of [i]course[/i] that's where it is on an actual laptop, but I don't think I've ever seen a tablet employ that idea with its keyboard attachment. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.[/QUOTE]
This would be the first for a detachable keyboard (commercially).
The Surface Pro/2/Pro2 had the option of a type cover with an extended battery that increased runtime by around 60% iirc, as well. Apple never did it with the iPad but there were some third-party covers that did, I think. It's just difficult to justify when the built-in battery alone will last you a whole workday no problem.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48841593]I have an old trusty 15.5" or whatever "gaming notebook", it's a massive fucking cow (with an i5 and a 460M GPU, so it still decently pulls it's weight) and I can't stand doing anything serious on it for more than a while.
The (full sized) keyboard makes my fingers hurt because it's still shallow-drop, the screen is too small for the distance my eyes are comfortable with, and most importantly low placed. I use it whenever I go to the cottage for the weekend and it's [I]okay[/I] for some rudimentary schoolwork, coding, I have edited some very basic graphics on it... and I am never going to throw so much money into a computer as small, ever again.
It might have to do with me being a +190cm, 100kg heap, but whenever I am not in front of my 24" screen, I just never feel really comfortable with anything I am doing.
[editline]6th October 2015[/editline]
And on an off remark, you couldn't do programming and web development on something that doesn't cost like a functional used car?[/QUOTE]
Ah fair, it just suits how I do work much better. I like the enclosed space, and I don't have much problem with the 13 inch keyboards.
You could, but the Vaio has a really great 1080p screen for web and graphic design, and I suffer from back problems and in the past I've had to lug a 3kg laptop in a shoulder bag around which wasn't great for me. Now with my work I often have to go to places and work there for the day. Finding something small, light, with a good screen and powerful enough to do android dev compiling/Web IDE with photoshop running at the same time runs at a cost.
So what happens if you pull the keyboard off while you're using GPU
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