Is a Surface Book review coming soon?

Daniel Rubino

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Couple of things:

  1. Holidays
  2. CES for last week
  3. Ours broke, had to get it replaced then had to replace the replacement
Going to try and finish this week.
 

Motor_Mouth

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Here's mine - don't buy it! I've had mine for about six weeks now and it is the worst PC experience of my life. At first it was crashing all the time, until I realised it was always when browsing the 'net. So I installed Firefox and it improved a lot - far more than when Microsoft updated the firmware. But it still crashes occasionally and I have other problems with it, too. Worst is that it loses the keyboard/trackpad when attached so I have to detach the Clipboard and re-attach it to get them back. But now I have a worse problem because now I can't get it to detach or re-attach properly. It seems the clip on the left side of the keyboard is stuck so it won't completely detach now at all. At least I can pull it out far enough that it resets, which is something. That means I am going to have to take it in for repairs and be without a computer for a few days. Normally that wouldn't be the end of the world, except that I am on a tight deadline so I will just have to put up with it for another week.

Don't get me wrong, this thing has a lot of potential and when Microsoft finally get around to fixing all the problems it will be absolutely awesome. Right now, though, it is very unreliable and unbelievably frustrating. I can only recommend you stay well away from it.
 

ctk4949

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Here's mine - don't buy it! I've had mine for about six weeks now and it is the worst PC experience of my life. At first it was crashing all the time, until I realised it was always when browsing the 'net. So I installed Firefox and it improved a lot - far more than when Microsoft updated the firmware. But it still crashes occasionally and I have other problems with it, too. Worst is that it loses the keyboard/trackpad when attached so I have to detach the Clipboard and re-attach it to get them back. But now I have a worse problem because now I can't get it to detach or re-attach properly. It seems the clip on the left side of the keyboard is stuck so it won't completely detach now at all. At least I can pull it out far enough that it resets, which is something. That means I am going to have to take it in for repairs and be without a computer for a few days. Normally that wouldn't be the end of the world, except that I am on a tight deadline so I will just have to put up with it for another week.

Don't get me wrong, this thing has a lot of potential and when Microsoft finally get around to fixing all the problems it will be absolutely awesome. Right now, though, it is very unreliable and unbelievably frustrating. I can only recommend you stay well away from it.

MINE HAS BEEN WORKING GREAT!!

Sounds like you have a bad one. WHY DIDNT YOU EXCHANGE IT FOR ANOTHER ONE!?!? Why do ppl just settle for a bad unit and complain about it for weeks/months, instead of taking it back?!?! Geeeeeeeeeeeeez!!
 

Christopher Lindsay

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I have the i7, 16gb, 512ssd configuration. I'm going to keep it short and just say this. It's worth buying but not right now. Wait to see if Microsoft irons out the kinks. I really like my surface book when it works but when it doesn't work properly I want to punch the entire Microsoft corporation in the face.
 

Motor_Mouth

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I'd agree with that sentiment. The problem is, it's impossible to know when it will be OK to buy one. They've had months to get it all working, they've issued fixes and still there are too many problems. I mean, look at Daniel's reasons for not having done a review - they've had the review machine replaced twice! That alone has to tell you that there are serious issues that maybe Microsoft don't know how to fix.

MINE HAS BEEN WORKING GREAT!!
Sounds like you have a bad one. WHY DIDNT YOU EXCHANGE IT FOR ANOTHER ONE!?!? Why do ppl just settle for a bad unit and complain about it for weeks/months, instead of taking it back?!?! Geeeeeeeeeeeeez!!
Because EVERYBODY except you has had all the same problems and they are clearly 90% or more in the software/firmware, not in the hardware. If you haven't had any of these problems yet, it's because you haven't been using it the same as most of us. What do you use yours for?

Even if I do take it back and get a new one, it will still rate as the worst PC experience of my life because I have never had to do that before. Ever. And I often buy brand new models as soon as they hit the market. Also, if I have to exchange it, it will mean backing everything up again and spending hours setting up a new one. If I am going to have to go through that, I'd rather do it with a different machine that I have a little more confidence in.
 

Christopher Lindsay

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I'd agree with that sentiment. The problem is, it's impossible to know when it will be OK to buy one. They've had months to get it all working, they've issued fixes and still there are too many problems. I mean, look at Daniel's reasons for not having done a review - they've had the review machine replaced twice! That alone has to tell you that there are serious issues that maybe Microsoft don't know how to fix.


Because EVERYBODY except you has had all the same problems and they are clearly 90% or more in the software/firmware, not in the hardware. If you haven't had any of these problems yet, it's because you haven't been using it the same as most of us. What do you use yours for?

Even if I do take it back and get a new one, it will still rate as the worst PC experience of my life because I have never had to do that before. Ever. And I often buy brand new models as soon as they hit the market. Also, if I have to exchange it, it will mean backing everything up again and spending hours setting up a new one. If I am going to have to go through that, I'd rather do it with a different machine that I have a little more confidence in.


I feel your pain. I had to completely restore my surface book to factory twice within the first 3 weeks. I easily would agree to rating the quality of the firmware, software as the worst I've had to deal with for any piece of tech. As of right now I have no clue when the problems will be fixed. I can only say that if I were someone on the market for one right now, I'd wait or buy something else. And that's a shame to say about what should be an incredible laptop. Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves for releasing such amazing hardware with so many software issues. This is their first hardware of this type but they're a software company first and have no excuse for software this bad.
 

orlbuckeye

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I haven't had any issues. I use it to watch movies and videos, I use Office to manage my budget. I browse the web and have both pop and imap email accounts.
 

zerospace-net

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I have enough issues with my Surface Book, despite my wanting to keep it, that I'd agree with the sentiment that I'd like to punch the entire MS corp in the face when it crashes/hangs/screws up in just about any way. I have NEVER had a software experience this bad since oh, gee... like the Windows 98 era. Anyone else remember the BSODs and needing to increase the paging file size constantly? HA! It's almost like that.

It's a love-hate thing. I love enough about the SB and mine is stable enough to hang onto it until MS fixes these issues (mine seem to be mostly related to the Intel driver and occasionally the nvidia driver). I use it as my daily driver, and provided I just use it as a laptop most of the time, it's very stable. Its when I start really using the 2-in-1 functionality a LOT that the bugs rear their ugly heads.

There's just no denying the issues, guys -- those of you who are issue-free probably just don't use your SB in a way that triggers the problems (or perhaps it is related specifically to some installed software), but it doesn't mean they aren't there. The Surface Book is an amazing device, but it is still, much like Windows 10 at the moment, a large, public beta test.
 

ctk4949

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I'd agree with that sentiment. The problem is, it's impossible to know when it will be OK to buy one. They've had months to get it all working, they've issued fixes and still there are too many problems. I mean, look at Daniel's reasons for not having done a review - they've had the review machine replaced twice! That alone has to tell you that there are serious issues that maybe Microsoft don't know how to fix.


Because EVERYBODY except you has had all the same problems and they are clearly 90% or more in the software/firmware, not in the hardware. If you haven't had any of these problems yet, it's because you haven't been using it the same as most of us. What do you use yours for?

Even if I do take it back and get a new one, it will still rate as the worst PC experience of my life because I have never had to do that before. Ever. And I often buy brand new models as soon as they hit the market. Also, if I have to exchange it, it will mean backing everything up again and spending hours setting up a new one. If I am going to have to go through that, I'd rather do it with a different machine that I have a little more confidence in.

Cant be EVERYBODY!! LOL!!

So why didnt you just RETURN IT AND GET YOUR MONEY BACK?!?!?!
 

Motor_Mouth

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Orlbuckeye, do you watch videos in a browser or through a dedicated app/application like VLC? If it is a browser, which one? Most my software/firmware problems seem to revolve aroudn watching videos in Edge or IE.
 

Christopher Lindsay

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Orlbuckeye, do you watch videos in a browser or through a dedicated app/application like VLC? If it is a browser, which one? Most my software/firmware problems seem to revolve aroudn watching videos in Edge or IE.


I'm trying so hard to like edge but there are just so many things out fails at. As of right now I have no third party browsers but it's like pulling teeth with edge. Just a few obvious things about it... Sites that don't load correctly. The pdf bar in the viewer in it blocks it's own scroll bar (how did Microsoft not see that). The dark theme blocks out the minimize, maximize options (face palm). And it uses ridiculous amounts of resources doing nothing at all.
 

Daniel Rubino

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Oh OK, but didnt it come out in October??

We reviewed Surface Pro 4, Lumia 950, Microsoft Band 2, Elite Wireless Controller plus how to-'s, Windows 10 stuff, and more since then. It's been busy for us and we do not have much staff. Also my SB having to be replaced twice did not help at all.
 

savagelizards

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If the problems the book is having are hardware related, then it's a design flaw, and not quality control. I hung in there for three weeks, but last weekend I swapped out both the book and the surface dock, then proceeded to start re-installing all my software. I still don't have all of my applications re-installed yet, and guess what? I solved none of my problems with the swap.

In fact, with the latest cumulative update for Windows 10, my book got WORSE. I have experienced even more graphics drivers related problems, and my external hard drives still pop in and out when docked (with the error message "the last USB device you connected is not recognized").

Microsoft clearly has driver issues. Major ones. I think the delay in getting skylake hurt them. I wish they would have delayed going to market until they build a product that was solid out of the box. The build quality itself is excellent, but when my laptop doesn't work when I want it to, the solid feel of the device isn't noticeable.

Twice this week I was making presentations and had to stop what I was doing and re-start my device. For a $799 laptop to fail to play a short video, that would be frustrating. For a $2100 device to fail, that's unconscionable.

Daniel Rubino may not want to say so, but I am sure he and Microsoft would both like his review to be about a device that had these issues corrected, rather than a review that says stay clear of the surface book. If even Dan is on his third device, Microsoft definitely does not have a fix yet, and that's not good news - especially when there's about a $500 premium to buy hardware that's custom designed for the Windows 10 OS.

My return window closes on January 31st, and I can't see keeping this device if it continues to perform like this. I'm considering the Dell XPS 15 with the QHD. I can get 16gb of ram and a better gpu for less money that I dropped on the book.
 
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savagelizards

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Couple of things:

  1. Holidays
  2. CES for last week
  3. Ours broke, had to get it replaced then had to replace the replacement
Going to try and finish this week.

Was there ever a Windows Central Surface Book review? I don't remember seeing it yet, but it was promised over a month ago. Did I miss it?
 

le_pie

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Yeah, keep expecting to see it in the RSS, never seems to show up.

Is it going to be like Anandtech with their iPad Pro review? That was also enormously late.

I'm expecting quite the saga from WC at this point.
 

Christopher Lindsay

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At this point it's safe to guess the review will be pretty much on par with what the rest of us think of our surface books. Its biggest selling point is that there is really nothing like it at all on the market. Because of that we love it. It's also riddled with issues and design inconsistencies and flaws that you would think microsoft would've fixed 4 months after being released. I'm all about Windows and overall I like my Surface Book but with the level of satisfaction I feel with my purchase I can say that had Apple actually created a legit competing product I would've returned my Surface Book and purchased my first apple computer instead playing this waiting game with Microsoft.
 

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