- [Speaker] I've seldom been as irritated
with a product announcement as I was with
Apple's unveiling of its new MacBook
which it continues to call Pro,
despite removing features professionals use
all the time.
An SD card slot, full sized USB ports,
and a magnetic charging cable
that saves the thing from certain destruction
when you trip over the cord.
So when I went to buy the new MacBook Pro,
my fingers faltered at the Buy Now button
and I started wondering if any other computers
offered these features
and then I remembered there is.
In fact, I was at the launch even for it.
It's Microsoft's new Surface Book with performance base
and this is part one of the Mr. Mobile review.
(upbeat music)
It's just part one because I've only used
the new Surface Book for about 48 hours.
I still need a few more days to get a better sense
of battery life and to give time for those inevitable
post-honeymoon bugs to appear
but even after two days,
there's plenty to cover.
This year's Surface Book uses the same two-in-one design
as the launch model in 2015.
That means all the machine's vital guts are in the top half
which Microsoft calls the clipboard
and is unchanged from earlier in the year.
The processor driving it is the older Skylake Core i7
rather than one of Intel's newer Cabia Light chips
but given the performance I've seen thus far,
I'm not too worried about a lack of power here.
Similarly, the 16 Gigs of RAM and one terabyte hard drive
offer plenty of space to spread out in.
The display has a three to two aspect ratio
which makes it look bigger
than its 13.5 inch diagonal
and it's got excellent color saturation
and contrast.
It's also overlaid with a digitizer
that makes the included surface pen work.
I don't often find room for a pen in my workflow
but I love how this one gives you an eraser
to undo your doodles
and a magnetic strip to latch on to when you're done.
But like I say,
this is all old news.
The 2016 doesn't show up until you drop the Tablet
on to the new performance dock.
Magnets help you out with the last inch or so
and an electrical charge causes something called
muscle wire inside the mechanism to contract,
bonding the two halves so tightly
that you'd never know that they were separate.
The new performance dock bucks the trend
of slimmer, lighter hardware.
It's actually thicker and heavier than last year's dock
but for good reason.
There are bigger batteries in this one.
Microsoft tells me the battery's between Tablet
and dock now total out to 81.4 watt-hours.
That's about 18 percent more capacity
than the launch model
and there's also a new cooling assembly
with double the fans for more efficient thermal control.
Most important for the pros?
An updated graphics processor in the dock
with double the graphics RAM of last year.
The Surface Book automatically uses this GPU when docked
and won't let you separate the Tablet if you're running
a program that needs it.
All this adds up to a machine that exudes power
in ways both expected and not.
On the not side,
I was unprepared for the three and a half pounds
of this device coming out of the box.
It looks so futuristic
with the white silver paint job on the magnesium
and dynamic fulcrum hinge that I guess I expected
space-age weightlessness as well.
Still it's a full pound lighter than the Mac Book Pro 15
I've been schlepping all over for years.
So there's that.
On the less surprising side of things,
Windows 10 sings on this machine.
I made a conscious decision not to baby
the Surface Book, to use my preferred programs
right from the start.
The means Chrome instead of Edge,
Spotify instead of Groove
and lots of skipping back and forth between
many open programs.
Now this absolutely destroys the battery life of course.
Microsoft claims 16 hours of use on a charge
but on a typical day of this I guess reckless usage,
I only got five hours out of it.
I'll test it more conservatively in the days ahead
and get back to you in part two
with a final battery verdict.
On the plus side though,
the only slow downs I've seen from the Surface Book so far
have been the occasional slips and stutters in
Adobe Premiere, a resource-heavy video editing program
and the simple act of using the machine
is very comfortable.
Windows Hello which reads your eyeballs to log you in
really is a more convenient security measure
than a password or fingerprint.
The track pad is large and responsive
with smooth scrolling and gesture response
and the keys have great travel with nice chunky feedback.
After two days,
I could absolutely see using the new Surface Book
as my daily machine.
The real test will come once the honeymoon phase is up.
In the next and final installment of this review,
we'll average out a few full to empty runs
and see how well the Surface Book holds up
in both reckless and power-sipping modes,
we'll find out how older Surface Book owners
like their devices after a year
and I'll compare the machine's sizable price tag
to some other laptops
and tell you whether it makes sense
for someone like you.
If you're one of those older Surface Book owners
or you want to know something specific about it in part two,
drop a comment wherever you're watching this
and if it's on YouTube,
subscribe so you don't miss more mobile tech media
from Mr. Mobile.
Until next time,
thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.
(soft music)