[Motor_Mouth]

I picked up my Core i7 Surface Book with 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb of PCI-e storage the day they opened the new shop in Sydney. It was an awful experience, queuing up for hours in the hot sun, even in the VIP line, but I was completely sure it would be worth it. And initially it was pretty good, until I actually started using it as my daily driver. Once I started using it to browse the internet, huge holes opened up to swallow my user experience whole. The display driver crashed and recovered three or four times an hour and if I was stupid enough to try and watch a few videos back-to-back, then I was guaranteed of a crash in Edge or a BSOD if I was using IE.

OK, teething trouble, I thought, all will be fixed in a few weeks. So I dutifully installed all the updates and, for a time, it did improve slightly. Once I realised that Microsoft's own browsers were causing most of the problems, installing Firefox made the most significant difference yet.

Sadly, that just meant I could use it enough for all the other problems to become more obvious. It loses the keyboard/trackpad several times a day now, requiring me to detach and re-attach the Clipboard. Unfortunately, all that extra attaching and detaching has taken it's toll and I can now no longer detach the Clipboard at all, as the left clamp is stuck. So now I have to take it back to be fixed and be without a laptop for who knows how long. I've never had to take a computer back to be fixed in the 21 years I have owned PCs. Worse, though, is that I know when I get it back, only one of the several problems I have will be fixed and I'll still have to put up with the others until Microsoft gets around to fixing them properly.

In the past, I'd have cut Microsoft some slack because their OS has to work with millions of different configurations but this is their OS running on their hardware. If they can't make this work, what hope does anyone else have of a half-decent experience. I am now seriously considering selling the Surface Book when it gets fixed and buying a new laptop that I can run with Windows 8 and no problems. I'll probably lose a grand or more on my folly but I suppose that's a lesson learned.

[Dratwister]

Just being curious, but can't you ask for refund?

[Lethal_NFS]

Ya that sucks man. The Surface Book has giving me more issues than any PC I have ever bought as well. So many people try to bail out Microsoft by saying "its new hardware" or, "its so light" yadda, yadda, yadda. But that does not change the overall experience of the issues.

Wobbly screen
OS errors
Detaching screen even causes issues at times

This laptop is too damn expensive to be having all these issues. I do not give a flying rats *** if the laptop is light as a damn feather. Sometimes it works as well as feather unfortunately.

[Motor_Mouth]

I have not experienced the "wobbly screen" at all. Quite the opposite, mine is actually perfect in that regard, better than any other laptop I've used. I can tap it with my finger or with the pen and it sits there really well.

[Motor_Mouth]

Just being curious, but can't you ask for refund?

Maybe after a couple of weeks but it's getting close to a couple of months now.

[Because Racecar]

This is an upsetting thread. I really wanted it to be good. Crossing this one off the list for now.

[Jazmac]

Are there MS stores in Sidney?

[Lethal_NFS]

I have not experienced the "wobbly screen" at all. Quite the opposite, mine is actually perfect in that regard, better than any other laptop I've used. I can tap it with my finger or with the pen and it sits there really well.

That is impossible. Every screen wobbles the same. It is not sturdy and in all the reviews ever made. That is something that is pointed out. Many people have their laptops in the vehicle and you can see the screen bouncing as the car is moving.

The screen wobble does not bother me because I do not touch my screen and the laptop stays on a table, but the wobble is there whether I see it or not.

[jlzimmerman]

Return the product, demand your money back, explain why, and contact MS through other means to also explain why. Making them feel the pain is the only way to get companies like MS to get it right the next go-around. It's ridiculous when premium money is spent on a "premium" product and it fails, regardless of which company made the thing.

[dakranii]

Maybe after a couple of weeks but it's getting close to a couple of months now.

I would think you'd be okay in this regard at a Microsoft store. I was having issues with my Surface months after purchase and they replaced it for me quite easily.

[Krystianpants]

Get a refund and go for the new Lenovo that is being released with the gold buttons and awesome hinges. Lenovo hinges are great as they will stay in place no matter what angle. I noticed in the store that the surface book screen will drop a bit at some angles. Which is odd because when I detach the damn tablet portion is so light, you would think it would be able to handle it easily. It's first gen so likely surface book 2 will be much better. But Lenovo will likely cost you less too. The biggest advantage to the surface is the GPU that's in the base. It's quite a great engineering design feat and the base can be updated in the future without paying for the whole thing again. At least that's what MS said.

MS doesn't have 100% focus on these units like lenovo would on theirs. MS has way too much going on right now trying to fix all these variants of hardware. If you do get it exchanged at least I hope you get a newer firmware/bios on it from the get go. Intel already released a new bios fix for skylake issues so that has to go out to units as well.

Look how beautiful the new lenovo 2-in-1 is.

Lenovo announces Yoga 900S and Yoga 900 BE - NotebookCheck.net News

[Dush Ku]

That's disturbing that a lot of attaching and detaching broke the clamp in just two months. Yikes.

[ctk4949]

That is impossible. Every screen wobbles the same. It is not sturdy and in all the reviews ever made. That is something that is pointed out. Many people have their laptops in the vehicle and you can see the screen bouncing as the car is moving.

The screen wobble does not bother me because I do not touch my screen and the laptop stays on a table, but the wobble is there whether I see it or not.

Why are many ppl using their laptops in their cars?!?! That is probably worst than using ur cell phone in the car!!

[Because Racecar]

Why are many ppl using their laptops in their cars?!?! That is probably worst than using ur cell phone in the car!!

I'm hoping he meant passengers!!!

[Lethal_NFS]

Why are many ppl using their laptops in their cars?!?! That is probably worst than using ur cell phone in the car!!

Because some people work from their cars. Traveling a lot. Even cops have a laptop in their car when working.

The laptops are often used for GPS as well as tracking their miles and the ability to quickly access websites related to their job.

[tdf2001]

I agree. It has been a terrible experience and it continues to be far from perfect. I still cannot get two screen reliably to turn on every time I connect to the dock. However, things have improved over the last 60 days. This leads me to believe that most issues will be addressed sooner or later. Still hardly acceptable given that this is supposed to be the prime Win10 device and bring serious competition to Apple.

[Because Racecar]

I agree. It has been a terrible experience and it continues to be far from perfect. I still cannot get two screen reliably to turn on every time I connect to the dock. However, things have improved over the last 60 days. This leads me to believe that most issues will be addressed sooner or later. Still hardly acceptable given that this is supposed to be the prime Win10 device and bring serious competition to Apple.

You should have experienced the abysmal MacBook Air V1. Oi!

[Lethal_NFS]

As problematic as this laptop has been. I am eagerly waiting for the Surface Book 2 now. I assume Microsoft will learn from this one. I also hope they offer some sort of nice buy back or something.

[Because Racecar]

As problematic as this laptop has been. I am eagerly waiting for the Surface Book 2 now. I assume Microsoft will learn from this one. I also hope they offer some sort of nice buy back or something.

I'm positive the used market will be strong, as it is with the Surface line.

[zerospace-net]

As problematic as this laptop has been. I am eagerly waiting for the Surface Book 2 now. I assume Microsoft will learn from this one. I also hope they offer some sort of nice buy back or something.

Well, they have done some decent trade-in/up deals in the past on other Surface models, so it's not an unreasonable thing to hope for (though some of the guys at my local MS store were hoping for something like that for the Pro 3 to Pro 4 or Surface Book jump, too, and so far I haven't seen anything). I agree, though, I think the 2nd generation Surface Book will be even better, so I'm prepared to trade-up when the time comes. Of course, this unit might actually be pretty stable by then, too (the Pro 3 got to the point where it was ridiculously stable & solid for me). I'm hoping for an even beefier dGPU in the next version (which might very well be a pipedream).

[Lethal_NFS]

Ya I may end up giving this one to my wife and I will grab a Surface Book 2 this fall. I am assuming it will roll out in Fall.

[Because Racecar]

Ya I may end up giving this one to my wife and I will grab a Surface Book 2 this fall. I am assuming it will roll out in Fall.

Or you could give it to me. I'd be very grateful. Heh!

I was looking to the book as a laptop replacement, but the one with the dedicated graphics is just ouch...

[zerospace-net]

Ya I may end up giving this one to my wife and I will grab a Surface Book 2 this fall. I am assuming it will roll out in Fall.

Something tells me that my husband (who already installed his beloved Mechwarrior Online game on my SB) will gladly take mine when I trade up to the 2nd gen, provided it has a better dGPU. I imagine that fall would make the most sense for launching an updated Surface Book, since that's been the track record for Surface units (SP3 was a late summer launch, but close enough). I love the design of the SB, and the ability to do some mid-range/casual gaming along with work, and all in a nice, slim, lightweight, sexy package. I just wish the bugs would get squashed sooner rather than later. I appreciate that the skylake CPU does seem to run cooler than its predecessors (I get fan noise a LOT less on the SB than I did with the SP3), but the driver leaves a lot to be desired still (in my use case).

[Because Racecar]

Do you have a sense that the driver issues are due to MS using "non-standard" hardware in the SB, something that wasn't built and tested by an OEM? Just seems off that they didn't get that right, even worse than for the surface IMO.

[savagelizards]

I suspect a lot of this is because the Skylake was delayed, and they rushed to get it to market in time for the holiday season before all of the firmware and drivers were updated. They has a choice between two bad options, but I think they underestimated how long it would take them to develop software fixes for the book.

Instead of these issues being corrected when only a handful of early adapters were affected (who might be more willing to live with a few crashes to be the first with bleeding edge tech), they fell behind the curve and now everyone who purchased or received a book during the holiday season is busy swapping theirs out, consuming lots of extra stock, and leaving everyone unhappy.

I think it was telling that Daniel Rubino revealed on another thread that he is on his 3rd surface book.



If there's any light at the end of the tunnel, we should hear about it this week when Rubino's review is published.