
With a 4K and 1080p clip on the timeline, we received playback at about 75% of the proper frame rate. As I mentioned earlier, we edited a few clips on Surface Book using Adobe Première and that ran well enough to get our work done. To misquote Kanye West: What can you do with all that power? Mainly video and design work. So yeah, that’s why it aced our Geekbench 3 benchmark tests with a multi-core score of 7091, which trumps even last year’s top MacBook Pro. Our model came with a super-powerful i7 Intel Core i7-6600U chip and 16GB Ram. In terms of more taxing affairs, the Surface Book isn’t lacking for processing heft. Even though this touchscreen isn’t backed by the same kickstand you’ll find on the Surface Pro, it’s still a treat to veg out with after a long day at the office spent trawling through Reddit when no one’s looking. Robot, while b-roll from Street Fighter V was suitably saturated with visceral shades of neon.


You can see the furrows on Rami Malek’s opiate-fuelled brow in Mr. Something that often happens when you pair cheaper tablets with a Bluetooth keyboard.Īs you’d expect for a display with a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution, video also looks great on the Surface Book. Having spent several hours staring at this Surface, I never felt I was straining my eyes when making an edit.

In particular, its screen is a beauty.Ī 13.5in model that features 267 pixels per inch, text is pin-sharp to read on the tablet when you’re whipping together a document. For a company whose products have been oppressively nerdy at times, the Surface Book is largely a pleasure to use. If you’ve ever seen the video of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer’s dad dancing to the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up, then you’ll know what ‘peak Microsoft’ looks like. ‘You might get a pea stuck in there,’ said another colleague before turning red with embarrassment. So don’t go shoving this Surface in your bag with any loose objects. There’s a wedge-shaped gap between the Book’s display and keyboard that’s about the size of a Bic ballpoint pen at its widest. It’s certainly a superior hybrid solution when compared to the clipboard styling of Google’s Pixel C, but doesn’t allow you to slam this Surface flat shut. That’s all thanks to its corrugated hinge, which holds onto the Book’s display when you don’t want to use it as a tablet. You wouldn’t mistake it for a MacBook or any run-of-the-mill Windows 10 laptop.

The point they’re both flailing towards is that the Surface Book is its own beast. ‘It looks like technology,’ claimed another staff member. ‘It’s something different, isn’t it?’ said someone. Well, I’m not that keen on it but other people have their own opinions. While the Book’s eye-catching design offers plenty in the way of utility, the Stuff office is officially split on whether it’s an attractive piece of premium kit or not.
