- I finally got my hands on a 15-inch
new Surface Book 2,
which I'm excited about.
Now, I've always kind of been a fan of the Surface lineup,
the Surface Book,
and, frankly, just what Microsoft is doing
with their hardware lately.
But I've never pulled the trigger on any of them
for the simple fact that none of them have had
a graphics card that is powerful enough
to allow me to edit my footage.
But now, thanks to the 15-inch model having
an NVIDIA GTX 1060 in it,
I can finally give it a try.
So, in this video, I'm gonna do a complete walkthrough.
If you're not familiar with my complete walkthroughs,
they're basically me showing you every single feature
that the device can do and things that it can't do
so that you, if you were looking to buy one,
are fully informed before you go do so.
So, first up, let's start with the hardware.
It's made out of this magnesium
that is lightweight and resembles metal
even if when you tap it, it kind of feels like plastic.
(taps loudly)
Regardless, it's minimalistic
and looks pretty good, in my opinion.
But what makes it so unique on the market
is the fact that it has a screen that houses the CPU
and a base that houses the GPU and an extra battery
that can be disconnected by pushing a button,
turning the screen into a large tablet.
Now, it can even be reconnected backwards to the base
for some other form factors.
I've particularly found that using the pen,
which is sold separately for $100, by the way,
when it's connected in this reverse format and is laid flat,
allows me to use things like Lightroom to edit photos
but still utilize the GPU in the base
for the added performance.
The screen itself is a 15-inch,
3:2 aspect ratio touch screen
with a 3240 by 2160 resolution on this model,
but there's also a 13.5-inch version that has
a 3200 by 2000 resolution.
Now, if you go for the 15-inch model,
you get a set processor, RAM, and GPU,
namely, the Intel 8th Gen i7-8650U quad-core,
16 gigs of 1866 megahertz DDR3 RAM,
and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060.
The 13.5-inch model, on the other hand,
has a choice between the 7th Gen Intel i5-7300U
or the same 8th Gen i7-8650U for the processor,
eight or 16 gigs of RAM,
Intel HD 620 GPU on the i5 model,
or the NVIDIA GTX 1050 GPU on the i7 model.
And both have storage options
of either 256, 512 gigs, or one terabyte.
Now, as far as ports go,
we have two USB 3.1 Gen one ports
and an SD card slot on one side
and the magnetic proprietary power port
and a USB 3.1 Gen one Type-C port,
with USB power delivery, on the other.
We also have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack
in the very odd placement
that is the top right of the screen.
Now, for cameras, we have a five megapixel,
1080p video front-facing camera
and an eight megapixel, 1080p rear-facing camera.
Under that screen,
we have Dolby stereo speakers hidden in the grill
as well as dual microphones.
Software-wise, it's running Windows 10.
So, it's gonna be your normal affair there.
But what I really wanted to know
is how it stacks up against my current laptop,
which is the last previous model of the Razer Blade,
which has a 7th Gen i7 processor, 16 gigs of RAM,
and the same NVIDIA GTX 1060.
Now, as I mentioned, I edit a lot on my laptop,
so the GTX 1060, that graphics card,
was really important to me
'cause I use Premiere, and it has CUDA Cores,
and all that fun stuff.
So, the first test I'd like to do
is take the exact same footage of this
4.6K and 4K cameras that I have
and make the same video on both of these
and then render them both at the same time
and see how that goes.
That was a little surprising, actually, because on paper,
the Surface Book has a better processor
and the same everything else,
so it should, theoretically, do better, right?
But it's actually about 25% slower than my Razer Blade,
which is not a terrible amount, but weird, right?
When I asked Microsoft's reps about this,
they gave me the explanation that
the processors on the Surface Book 2
are at a lower voltage, so that had something to do with it.
Either way, that's kind of just what happened.
And, by the way, this was me actually turning
on best performance settings on the Surface Book.
If I left it on recommended, which it normally is on,
it actually would have taken a lot longer
to do this as well.
Now, finally, the big problem
that I have with the Razer Blade
is that the battery dies so fast.
So, I either bring a different laptop
if I'm gonna go to a cafe and write for a long time
or go somewhere and write for a long time,
compared to if I know I'm gonna be editing,
I can't use that same computer
with the good battery life to edit,
and I can't use the editing computer for good battery life.
So, the Surface Book, to me,
was a nice balance between those two.
So, let's see if that's actually true
and do a battery test between those two computers
and have them both run the same YouTube video
with the screen brightness set all the way up
and see which one dies first.
(light jazz music)
And dead.
Yeah.
Now, I normally leave
my opinion out of these types of videos,
but I just wanna say that with this much more battery life,
honestly, in my opinion,
I would gladly take the 25% slower render times.
Finally, the price starts at $1,499
for the i5 13.5-inch model
and goes up to $3,299 for the one terabyte
15-inch i7 model, which is the one that I have here.
Putting it on par, at least,
with gaming laptops with similar specs,
like the Blade, for example.
There you go guys, hope you enjoyed
this complete walkthrough with
a little bit of opinion sprinkled on at the end.
Sorry.
But yeah, let me know what you think in the comments below
of this type of video, of the laptop,
of anything you feel like.
Just let me know.
Like to hear from you guys.
If you did like this video, though,
please thumbs up or share, it's greatly appreciated.
If you liked it a lot, please subscribe.
That's also greatly appreciated.
As always, though, regardless, thanks for watching.
(techno music)