Forum member hands on reviews of the Surface Book

[Nuspieds]

...Negatives:
* Couple of random intel graphics card errors (seem to occur when I was doing a lot of movement around the hinge) not taking the tablet out but laying down in bed while using it...

It took me a week to complete my migration, but I only started to experience this issue by the end of the week. Therefore, it makes me wonder if it is due to some update or the other.

Although it hasn't specifically happened when I changed the angle of the screen, I have experienced other external display issues when re-angling the screen.

In any case, the driver issue continues to happen frequently and it is very annoying.

 

[BearFlag]

I've had my Surface Book (i5 dGPU) for a couple of days now and I really like it.

I was debating between the surface book and the Dell XPS 15 and I finally got to play around with both devices at the MS store. The screen on both devices was nice but I didn't like the keyboard on the XPS 15. I thought the SB keyboard was a lot better so I chose the SB.

Pros:
- Awesome screen. One of the best I've seen.
- Love the 3:2 aspect ratio
- Fantastic keyboard. On par with Thinkpad laptops.
- Great trackpad compared to most Windows laptops, but still not to the level of MBP.
- Like pen input and the fact that you can use it as a clipboard.

Cons:
- Screen wobble. When it's on a lap or in stand mode (screen flipped), the wobble is noticeable and annoying.
- Bottom of laptop does not have enough grip so it slides if it's on an inclined surface

Surprisingly I have no issues with the hinge design itself (aside from wanting it to be firmer) or laptop glitches (though I only had it for two days). I really wish they would have made the hinge firmer though (or had a stand in the back of the screen like the SP) so that the screen did not wobble as much.

 

[serpa4]

First let me start by saying I tried to publish my negative review on the Microsoft website itself, but it was rejected: MS says…“Our staff has read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time!
A quick Google search reviled there are a lot of negative reviews that were rejected by the Microsoft Surface team. No wonder they have a 4.5 star rating on their website.
None the less, here is my story on my TWO surface Books:
My "1st" Surface Book was an i7, dGPU, 8GB, which upon arrival, had 4 open tickets by late evening. 1) It boots repeatedly to the BIOS like screen (boot sources, etc.). There was no way to exit as it would just keep rebooting to the same screen. 2) The computer randomly freezes and the only recovery is a hard power off losing all my work. 3) It will randomly leave the screen on and running when the lid is closed killing the battery and heating the computer. 4) Won't power on sometimes; go figure. After hitting the power button and also by holding it down for thirty seconds, would not power up. Then, letting it sit for a few hours, it would start normally. It also ran at 104 degrees or more just surfing the internet at 50% brightness on battery. I returned in on the second day of ownership back to MS. I purchased a second one from Best Buy the same day I returned the previous one to MS. I really wanted it to work for me as it is a great design.
However, the Best Buy (BB) one was returned the next day also. It would also randomly freeze, 3 times in one day before lunch. A hard reset was the only recovery mode resulting in the loss of my data that was in progress. It also would not run my external 3TB Western Digital "MY Passport" hard drive. It is strange that it will run on my wife's Dell laptop and my Alienware lap top. However, the SB would only copy off the drive, but not back onto it. It would freeze at 1% and never progress. I went to BB to try it on the floor model. It did not work there either, but did work on other laptops on the display floor, and it did work on the BB Geek Squad desktop computer as well. If I cannot access my work on a portable drive (media mostly), this laptop want-to-be, is a complete failure. Sorry MS, trouble shoot on your time, not mine. If you go out and look, there are hundreds of threads on this thing freezing and not working in many numerous ways. Don't be swayed to buy without a lot of research..

 

[Telstar1948]

I decided to buy the i5/8/256/dGPU from Best Buy (they're local and the nearest MS Store is about 2.5 hours away). I looked at quite a few other laptops there a few days before, but the SB just kept calling in so many ways to me. Long story short, I walked in BB and they had one on a truck that was still being unloaded. Someone ordered it & then decided not to take it, so it was available to me. I bought it, the new Dock and a USB 3 hub I figured I would need. I have a SP3 set up in the SP3 Dock, but I knew the SB would require a little different setup on my desk.

Turned the SB on (this was Tuesday evening) but it didn't go through a setup sequence but to a sign-in screen! I've read a couple of other comments about the same thing happening to a few other forum posters. Anyway, couldn't log on so I contacted MS Chat. They led me through a reset, which went without incident. This was on a brand new spanking Surface Book. No idea how this could have happened. This SB was specifically ordered by someone for pickup at Best Buy, and I bought it as they were unloading it from the truck. Strange to say the least. After the reset, I did the setup sequence and let it download a few updates. It didn't hiccup during any of this.

Today's Thursday and I've been migrating software and data from my SP3...still am as a matter of fact (working it in with other responsibilities). Of course I've gotten on the web with it (Edge, Firefox), got OneDrive all set and other miscellaneous chores besides just transferring data and installing software. My point is that my SB hasn't so much as hesitated at anything. As I'm writing this from my SP3, I'm watching my SB download Win10 Pro version 1511, 10586. I've done all the other updates prior to this so we'll see what happens after today's update to Win10.

I'm impressed with my SB. I'm also thankful, so far, that it hasn't been a source of frustration. It just does what it does seemingly flawlessly and smoothly. For whatever reason, this SB hasn't yet exhibited one issue or problem. Like I said, something could come up later, but after two days, it's running like a champion racehorse.

 

[unruledboy]

I decided to buy the i5/8/256/dGPU from Best Buy (they're local and the nearest MS Store is about 2.5 hours away). I looked at quite a few other laptops there a few days before, but the SB just kept calling in so many ways to me. Long story short, I walked in BB and they had one on a truck that was still being unloaded. Someone ordered it & then decided not to take it, so it was available to me. I bought it, the new Dock and a USB 3 hub I figured I would need. I have a SP3 set up in the SP3 Dock, but I knew the SB would require a little different setup on my desk.

Turned the SB on (this was Tuesday evening) but it didn't go through a setup sequence but to a sign-in screen! I've read a couple of other comments about the same thing happening to a few other forum posters. Anyway, couldn't log on so I contacted MS Chat. They led me through a reset, which went without incident. This was on a brand new spanking Surface Book. No idea how this could have happened. This SB was specifically ordered by someone for pickup at Best Buy, and I bought it as they were unloading it from the truck. Strange to say the least. After the reset, I did the setup sequence and let it download a few updates. It didn't hiccup during any of this.

Today's Thursday and I've been migrating software and data from my SP3...still am as a matter of fact (working it in with other responsibilities). Of course I've gotten on the web with it (Edge, Firefox), got OneDrive all set and other miscellaneous chores besides just transferring data and installing software. My point is that my SB hasn't so much as hesitated at anything. As I'm writing this from my SP3, I'm watching my SB download Win10 Pro version 1511, 10586. I've done all the other updates prior to this so we'll see what happens after today's update to Win10.

I'm impressed with my SB. I'm also thankful, so far, that it hasn't been a source of frustration. It just does what it does seemingly flawlessly and smoothly. For whatever reason, this SB hasn't yet exhibited one issue or problem. Like I said, something could come up later, but after two days, it's running like a champion racehorse.

How to reset?

 

[leeshor]

How to reset?

I'm deleting your other thread. It should have been posted here.

 

[Telstar1948]

How to reset?

If you're referring to my comment about resetting the Surface Book, I had to hold down "shift" while restarting. That kicked it into the screen where you can choose whether to reset, refresh etc. From there it just did its thing.

 

[unruledboy]

Finally, went to very first Microsoft flagship store outside North America, which is located in Sydney.

Sunday, rainy, too many people, crowded, had to wait for while to get hands on my beauty surface book.

fall in to straight away.

helped more than 10 customers to explain the details of the surface book and comparison with surface pro 4.

two customers bought the machine on the spot, Microsoft store staffs used Lumia 950XL to make the order right there, nice....

and because I talked too much to the so many customers, the Microsoft staffs shrugged and complained: "dude, where are you from? you are not staff here, but you explained so good, we will lose our job..... "


pros

• stunning screen
• nice keyboard
• clipboard mode nicely done

cons

• buggy dettach/attach, screen may blackout
• surface pen buggy, not responding at all, a few hard reset helped a bit
• touch/pen on screen wobbly
• most of the customers complain it is pricey

 

[surfacebookinuk]

Hey everybody,

So I have had my SB for 4 days now. Honestly, the best laptop I have ever used in my whole life, plus it doubles as a tablet.

It is exactly what I have been looking for, a laptop that I can use as a tablet for watching movies, reading stuff and browsing on a bed/couch etc.
What I really need to say is that many MANY! reviews out there relating to the SB are very misleading. I do not know whether they are subjective, or there are backstage funding issues but I have been reading every review since the day it was introduced to the day I actually got it. I have watched more videos and video reviews than any other product and I have spend countless hours reading through this forum's and reddit's posts.
My conclusion: they are not giving the right impression. Screen awesome, battery life can go all day long, windows 10 amazingly beautiful, sound great, cooling system awesome, typing and trackpad best I have used on a laptop plus I prefer this keyboard than my girlfriend's MacBook pro 13inch.
Only two issues so far:
1) froze once and I needed to hold down the power button for a long time to get it to restart
2) display driver crashes 1-3 times a day and I use it for the whole day from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep (but it does not affect me it just flickers once and says driver etc. that's it no big deal)
3) some apps crash randomly some times but this is purely software issue not SB

I am a postgraduate university law student that uses the laptop to do everything. I have been amazed at how good this is. Not to mention how it changed the way I work and study and take notes. The reviews are very misleading and it is a shame because this has been a great product, probably the best product I have bought in the last 5 years.

 

[unruledboy]

Hey everybody,

So I have had my SB for 4 days now. Honestly, the best laptop I have ever used in my whole life, plus it doubles as a tablet.

It is exactly what I have been looking for, a laptop that I can use as a tablet for watching movies, reading stuff and browsing on a bed/couch etc.
What I really need to say is that many MANY! reviews out there relating to the SB are very misleading. I do not know whether they are subjective, or there are backstage funding issues but I have been reading every review since the day it was introduced to the day I actually got it. I have watched more videos and video reviews than any other product and I have spend countless hours reading through this forum's and reddit's posts.
My conclusion: they are not giving the right impression. Screen awesome, battery life can go all day long, windows 10 amazingly beautiful, sound great, cooling system awesome, typing and trackpad best I have used on a laptop plus I prefer this keyboard than my girlfriend's MacBook pro 13inch.
Only two issues so far:
1) froze once and I needed to hold down the power button for a long time to get it to restart
2) display driver crashes 1-3 times a day and I use it for the whole day from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep (but it does not affect me it just flickers once and says driver etc. that's it no big deal)
3) some apps crash randomly some times but this is purely software issue not SB

I am a postgraduate university law student that uses the laptop to do everything. I have been amazed at how good this is. Not to mention how it changed the way I work and study and take notes. The reviews are very misleading and it is a shame because this has been a great product, probably the best product I have bought in the last 5 years.

Totally agrees, so many negative reviews on SB, and that hold back a lot of people who wanted to buy.

 

[GSprunk]

This was a post I did on another reply. It actually is a review on my new Book so I will repost it here:

I have Surface (2) Pro 3's and (3) 2's in our company as well as normal desktops and just purchased a new Surface Book. I also have a MacBook Pro running Windows 7 in Parallels. I have to say as a user who has Adobe Creative Suite as well as AutoCAD LT and ACT and others I am on the computer constantly for work I hoped this device was the reward for suffering through the Surface Pro 2 small screen and the inability to use the Surface Pro 3 on my lap without a laptop desk, etc. I will say that I love the hardware. I am thrilled with the weight, the functionality, the screen, the keyboard, etc.

I am not happy with the following:

• The trackpad constantly loses the pointer when I detach or wake up from sleeping with the lid closed, etc.
• Cortana is a joke. I wanted to be able to type emails, to have it connect to my Office Exchange account and it does neither. The windows speech recognition does not work at all. Mac is much better. Office does not connect to Cortana unless you have a business 365 account I read and I have only connected it to LinkedIn. Wont even connect to my Hotmail account. Come on. Really?
• Most of the time I have to detach and reattach the screen to get the touchpad to work.
• I ask Cortana to take a note and get an error that says to check back for future updates.

Other than that. I downloaded the newest firmware earlier this week. Will be happy to get these bugs worked out. Cortana is really the most frustrating thing I have run into. Hope they get that to work and that I can write emails, take notes and other issues I should be able to do like I can on the Mac. This device has great promise.[/QUOTE]

Update on 11/19/15:
There have been several firmware updates and even with all of the issues this is a beautiful piece of hardware. I own a SP3 and also MacBook Pro and with the new dock hooked up to an Apple Cinema display this is my device of choice. I use it full time. I hope they keep hanging in there with this product.

 

[Telstar1948]

I agree, wonderful device. I've only noticed a DD now and then, but not often. I thought I'd use Edge today (instead of FireFox) just to see what happens. Cruising these forums this morning and, so far, no slowdowns, DD's or anything else. We'll see how that goes. I don't detach my clipboard much, but I've learned best to do it when not hooked up to my external monitor. When I do it then, seems like it's cranky about re-establishing the link with the external monitor. I think it will take a while to learn its rhythms and ways, but that's been part of the process with every computer I've ever owned.