A Beefed-Up Followup To The Original Surface Book

The second-generation Surface Book is a beefed-up followup to Microsoft’s inaugural Editors’ Choice–winning flagship 2-in-1, with a more powerful Intel Core i7 processor, discrete graphics, plentiful storage and RAM, longer battery life, and increased performance.

- Juan Martinez, Matthew Buzzi

The Surface Book is a capable, versatile system that can be used as either a laptop or a Windows tablet. Although it’s a pricey incremental upgrade to last year’s model, the Surface Book remains our Editors’ Choice for high-end detachable-hybrid tablets. It’s easily among the best laptops, tablets, and hybrids you can buy for business or personal use, given its sheer power and graphics prowess.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

Given that its upgrades are component-focused, you’d be hard pressed to distinguish the new version of the Surface Book from the original. When you examine the two side by side, however, you’ll notice some slight differences. The new version is 0.9 inch tall at its thickest point, tapering down to 0.51 inch at the front, and it’s 12.3 inches wide and 9.14 inches deep. These dimensions are identical to the original’s, but the new Surface Book is slightly heavier thanks to additional batteries: 3.63 pounds with the included Performance Base keyboard attached, compared with 3.34 pounds. On the original Surface Book, the angular design leaves a gap between the lid and cover when closed. The gap is still there because of the shape, but the lip where the keyboard meets the hinge is raised, minimizing much of the open space. The keyboard itself is comfortable, with good key travel and bright-white backlighting.

Last year’s Performance Base had a flat design. This year’s is curved at the edges, a change that adds a minuscule lift (just a few millimeters) to the edges of the keyboard, but that doesn’t alter how the device closes or performs. Another plus of this Performance Base is that it’s completely interchangeable with last year’s, so if you purchased Surface Books for your business last year, you’re covered.