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[The Verge] Microsoft 2nd gen Surface Book with 16-hour battery life, for $2,399

4K views 86 replies 36 participants last post by  spinFX 
#1 ·
Source

specs and pre-order link
Quote:
Microsoft just showed off an updated version of its Surface Book laptop that comes with 30 percent more battery life and double the graphics performance of the most powerful Surface Book currently available. Microsoft says the updated Surface Book is the most powerful version it's ever produced, featuring latest Intel i7 processor, a redesigned cooling system with an additional fan to keep those processors running at full strength, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPU pushing 1.9 teraflops of graphics performance, and 16 hours of battery life.

All of those improvements are shoved into the existing Surface Book frame, with which was announced one year ago to the day. The upgraded Surface Book is slightly heavier than its predecessor - likely due to the bigger battery - weighing in at 3.63lbs compared to 3.48lbs for the original version.

THE NEW SURFACE BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE ON NOVEMBER 10TH

The Surface Book will be available with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations for $2,399, $2,799, and $3,299 respectively. Microsoft says the new Surface Book will be available on November 10th, but you can pre-order the laptop today from Microsoft.com.
Yeah, not at that price Microsoft. The original Surfacebook at $1499 was hard enough to justify against XPS 15( I waffled both ways for 6 month then bought XPS 15 because it have quad core, 960M vs 950M and better battery life), Now you just jacked up price another $900 just for 965M(why couldn't you source any 1060 which is better in everyway???), Kaby Sky lake dual core and battery life improvement, no thanks.

p.s $2.4K laptop and you couldn't fit ONE usb-3.1/thunderbolt port.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by allan871 View Post

I think if you are looking for a pure laptop then there's no way you can justify buying a surface book. However surface book is in its own league and that's why it can charge whatever it can.
Surface book does have its own niche community but microsoft probably just alienated a big portion of it with a 60% price increase.

If MS want to charge super premium price for it, the least they could do is NOT use last year's hardware like 965M when 1060 was available. To make it worse, I re-checked spec sheet and found it is still using 6th gen Skylake CPU when Kabylake is avaliable, so it is entirely possible the Tablet/Top unit is totally the same and only changes are in the base/keyboard unit.
 
#4 ·
I bought a used surface book i5 dgpu 256gb 8gb memory with the surface dock and arc mouse for $1200 and its the best laptop / total setup ever. (Im coming from a macbook and 5 other windows laptops ive owned over the past 2 years from work / home us) Its the FIRST windows computer that ive owned where the touch pad does not completely suck (owed dell xps 15", hp 15" omen pro, a few lenova models, and a cyberpower pc laptop). The touch pad is actually comparable to a macs, you have one magnetic connector to hook up to your home desk monitor/mouse/keyboard/hard drives/speakers/etc...., the build quality is on par with apple products, screen is excellent .

Now the msrp is ridiculous, but if you shop these products used, you won't be disappointed with what you get.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azuti View Post

I bought a used surface book i5 dgpu 256gb 8gb memory with the surface dock and arc mouse for $1200 and its the best laptop / total setup ever. (Im coming from a macbook and 5 other windows laptops ive owned over the past 2 years from work / home us) Its the FIRST windows computer that ive owned where the touch pad does not completely suck (owed dell xps 15", hp 15" omen pro, a few lenova models, and a cyberpower pc laptop). The touch pad is actually comparable to a macs, you have one magnetic connector to hook up to your home desk monitor/mouse/keyboard/hard drives/speakers/etc...., the build quality is on par with apple products, screen is excellent .

Now the msrp is ridiculous, but if you shop these products used, you won't be disappointed with what you get.
Interested in which XPS 15 you used, as the touchpad on my XPS15 2015 is mac level good and certainly don't suck. The surface connector thing is proprietary and would be much better off if it were a usb-c/thunderbolt3 port
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

Surface book does have its own niche community but microsoft probably just alienated a big portion of it with a 60% price increase.

If MS want to charge super premium price for it, the least they could do is NOT use last year's hardware like 965M when 1060 was available. To make it worse, I re-checked spec sheet and found it is still using 6th gen Skylake CPU when Kabylake is avaliable, so it is entirely possible the Tablet/Top unit is totally the same and only changes are in the base/keyboard unit.
You're speaking to the wrong demographic. MS is targeting the Mac book users, which has similar price points. They are also trying to one up the OEM's so they stop making junk looking laptops, which seems to be working. They aren't making a device that everyone will buy or would even consider.
 
#7 ·
I think its a bit too expensive considering its USD which is basically the best deal while in other countries you even more. Not sure why they did not use a 10 Series GPU.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

Interested in which XPS 15 you used, as the touchpad on my XPS15 2015 is mac level good and certainly don't suck. The surface connector thing is proprietary and would be much better off if it were a usb-c/thunderbolt3 port
Well maybe I got a dud or at the time of buying mine the drivers sucked. Besides the touchpad I really liked my Dell xps. Almost forgot I never was able to fix my driver issue with my 15" xps graphics card causing my computer to randomly shut down.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dieanotherday View Post

At this price point it's worth it to get a high end macbook
Engineering software is still mostly windows based and booting a mac with windows is not a good experience... programs run sooo slow
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azuti View Post

Well maybe I got a dud or at the time of buying mine the drivers sucked. Besides the touchpad I really liked my Dell xps.
Engineering software is still mostly windows based and booting a mac with windows is not a good experience... programs run sooo slow
I bought my XPS 15 this April and it have been flawless, touchpad included.
Quote:
Originally Posted by starliner View Post

You're speaking to the wrong demographic. MS is targeting the Mac book users, which has similar price points. They are also trying to one up the OEM's so they stop making junk looking laptops, which seems to be working. They aren't making a device that everyone will buy or would even consider.
Last time I check the latest Macbook don't use outdated hardware at time of release, MS is trying to charge Macbook price for Skylake and 965M in late 2016, when Kabylake and 1060 are available. Later this week Macbook with Kabylake and Polaris(I think AMD won the bidding this time around) comes out and Microsoft will look like proper fools
wink.gif
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

Surface book does have its own niche community but microsoft probably just alienated a big portion of it with a 60% price increase.

If MS want to charge super premium price for it, the least they could do is NOT use last year's hardware like 965M when 1060 was available. To make it worse, I re-checked spec sheet and found it is still using 6th gen Skylake CPU when Kabylake is avaliable, so it is entirely possible the Tablet/Top unit is totally the same and only changes are in the base/keyboard unit.
This was always going to just be a minor refresh if anything with the focus mainly on Windows at this event. All they did was update the highest end leaving the lower end models as they were. The rumors for a very long time have pointed to new surfaces with kaby in spring 2017.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kpzero View Post

This was always going to just be a minor refresh if anything with the focus mainly on Windows at this event. All they did was update the highest end leaving the lower end models as they were. The rumors for a very long time have pointed to new surfaces with kaby in spring 2017.
Then don't time yourself one day ahead of new Macs with Kaby and Polaris come out with your product at the same price point with 1+ year older internals
rolleyes.gif
and above all don't charge $300+ more for a minor refresh(same i7/8/256 model last year goes for $2399.)
 
#15 ·
They also released a AIO called Studio.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

I bought my XPS 15 this April and it have been flawless, touchpad included.
Last time I check the latest Macbook don't use outdated hardware at time of release, MS is trying to charge Macbook price for Skylake and 965M in late 2016, when Kabylake and 1060 are available. Later this week Macbook with Kabylake and Polaris(I think AMD won the bidding this time around) comes out and Microsoft will look like proper fools
wink.gif
Simple really 1060 uses more power and obviously they are pushing the battery life angle.

965m is plenty strong though, even I would happy with it as a primary medium for my games and such.

Plus the 1060 laptops mostly had to be redesigned because Nvidia seemingly ditched the mxm standard, if this is a refresh then it's no surprise again that there is no 1060 option.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

Then don't time yourself one day ahead of new Macs with Kaby and Polaris come out with your product at the same price point with 1+ year older internals
rolleyes.gif
[/B]
Honestly, I dont think that they are truly the same customers. Most Mac users wouldnt really consider a Surface and vice versa.

Personally, I wouldnt have bothered with greenlighting this model and just waited for the next actual model but it is what it is(an extra choice for those that wanted more and cant wait). I would guess they didnt want to spend too much redesigning if there really is a new model waiting in the wings but it would have been so much better with a 1060.

The real baffling decision was the gpu for the AIO. It would be an amazing device if they had just put a low clocked 1080/70 in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

and above all don't charge $300+ more for a minor refresh(same i7/8/256 model last year goes for $2399.)
It is actually i7/8/512 with bigger battery and gpu.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sLowEnd View Post

The decision to forgo a Pascal GPU is strange, especially at such a high MSRP.
Probably got 965s for much cheaper and if they do go pascal now they probably cant upgrade it next year.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er View Post

Probably got 965s for much cheaper and if they do go pascal now they probably cant upgrade it next year.
1060 uses more power and they are advertising battery life...comparable to 970m which iirc is 100w

If battery life was the first priority then they just took it a step down towards the 965m, being cheaper might have also been a natural plus as well.

That being said, I find this product stupid anyways
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheReciever View Post

1060 uses more power and they are advertising battery life...comparable to 970m which iirc is 100w

If battery life was the first priority then they just took it a step down towards the 965m, being cheaper might have also been a natural plus as well.

That being said, I find this product stupid anyways
Is Pascal not more power efficient? They could have used GTX1050 Ti and it would been better then GTX965M.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er View Post

Is Pascal not more power efficient? They could have used GTX1050 Ti and it would been better then GTX965M.
Pascal is similar to the 970m in power consumption, these are merely underclocked desktop counterparts and not cut down versions tailored for MXM 3.0b like we are used to seeing.

1050Ti hasnt been implemented into the mobile market so it doesnt exist yet, though I agree it would probably be better off but they would need to change the name probably, most of these devices are going striaght to board of directors or executive management from what I have seen. They just want something that works but throwing a gaming tinge to it might provide some detractors.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherlock View Post

I bought my XPS 15 this April and it have been flawless, touchpad included.
Last time I check the latest Macbook don't use outdated hardware at time of release, MS is trying to charge Macbook price for Skylake and 965M in late 2016, when Kabylake and 1060 are available. Later this week Macbook with Kabylake and Polaris(I think AMD won the bidding this time around) comes out and Microsoft will look like proper fools
wink.gif
Sure, but they do take their sweet time in releasing updated models
wink.gif
. Not saying MS is right is what they are doing, just pointing out their target demographics and strategy.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azuti View Post

Well maybe I got a dud or at the time of buying mine the drivers sucked. Besides the touchpad I really liked my Dell xps. Almost forgot I never was able to fix my driver issue with my 15" xps graphics card causing my computer to randomly shut down.
Engineering software is still mostly windows based and booting a mac with windows is not a good experience... programs run sooo slow
Windows runs great on mac esp with the fast storage.
 
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