Microsoft’s Surface family has spawned its first ever laptop, the Surface Book, which the company claims is the ‘fastest 13-inch laptop on any planet.’ The laptop brings us not-new but trending features like a detachable screen to transform it into a clipboard for making notes, sketching, browsing among many other uses.
The provocative claim was made by Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Panos Panay at New York during the revelation of Microsoft HoloLens for developers, Surface Pro 4, the Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and Microsoft’s fitness Band 2. Note that all these items (except the last) have the capability to run Windows 10, so it was a part showcase for the latest OS, which according to the company is now powering 8 million PCs.
The world’s largest tech company recently launched Windows 10, which requires a high processing configuration on the part of the device. The Surface Book is Microsoft’s own presentation to lead the list of high-speed laptops that can flawlessly run the latest OS. Of course, Surface Pro tablet series was a huge hit, but Microsoft needed something more specific to Windows 10.
The Surface Book series is housing Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, while buyers can also choose to add a discrete graphic processing unit (GPU) for enhanced graphical performance and fast 3D rendering. A very appealing customization offer for 3D designers, animators, gamers and game developers, which will unleash splendid results on its 13.5-inch touchscreen display, bearing a high pixel density of 267 pixels per square inch.
The keyboard is compact with a very smooth application, made possible through an optimized depression of 1.6mm and dynamic fulcrum hinge; users will feel more like taping than typing. The keyboard serves as an attachment that can be separated to turn the Surface Book into a tablet, which is based on the idea of A4 piece of paper to highlight its clipboard-ing purpose.
The detached tablet screen without keyboard measures just 7.7mm in thickness and weighs 1.6lbs. It has been revitalized to work effortlessly with Microsoft’s new stylus, Surface Pen. Since the GPU is situated in the base of the device, the user must plug it back to benefit from it. Fortunately, the screen can be attached back-to-front as well, thus keeping the display upward when the lid is closed down.
In comparison to Macbook Pro, the Microsoft’s Surface Book has an advantage of discreet GPU power along with 2 extra processors, which makes it 2 times faster than Apple’s product. Boasting up to 12 hours of battery life, Surface Book is also a top-running candidate in the arena of mileage. Buyers can get all this fire power for the price of $1,499, which seems ‘low-ish’ considering it is the fastest 13-incher.
During the launch, Mr Panay described how Surface Book is going to be a prodigy among other laptops, but perhaps he went too far when he said, “this is the fastest 13-inch laptop ever made, anywhere, on any planet.” Well, he should have better let the users be the judge of that, for all we can agree on now is that Surface Book is a beautifully designed laptop with great potential.
