my first impressions coming from a Macbook Pro

[beman39]

Welcome back to the Windows Ecosystem.

I absolutely love my Surface Book and it is worth every penny imo. I do have some issues though and they are similar to yours.

I have to say i hate Edge with a passion. I want to use it, i want to like it, i really dont like Google but Chrome just works so much better than Edge in almost all ways. If Edge was up to the level of Chrome i would switch and never look back but i am forced to stay on Chrome because of the issues with Edge.

what issues are you having? I find edge is working fine, even WAY better than IE11... now that has become a disaster!

 

[petvas72]

Today I am on my third day using the Surface Book and I am loving it. My only remaining gripes so far are that it is not as stable on the lap as other laptops, I guess due to its 2 in 1 nature. This is not a problem per se but it is something to consider when getting used to all new things about it. Performance is absolutely amazing, at least for the tasks I need my laptop for. Chrome, Office, Hyper-V and sometimes a bit of video and picture editing, all these tasks work great on the Surface Book.
I haven't played any games yet, and I would like to purchase Civ VI in the next days. We will see.

As far as the Edge browser concerns, it is still not up to the standard of Chrome. It lacks many extensions and has no option to synchronize with Android devices. I agree that Edge looks beautiful, but I prefer Chrome in every way. I hope Microsoft one day catches up.

 

[petvas72]

Regarding the standby issue, I just found out that it is a non issue, it's a feature. It's called connected standby and I am not sure I like it

Anyway, now I know how to disable it if I want too: Disabling Windows Connected Standby | Windows Client content from Windows IT Pro

Update: It seems that connected standby cannot be disabled on the Surface Book. I will have a look into that and post again if I find something.

Overall I am really happy with my Surface Book and I do not miss my Macbook Pro at all.

 

[zerospace-net]

Regarding the standby issue, I just found out that it is a non issue, it's a feature. It's called connected standby and I am not sure I like it

Anyway, now I know how to disable it if I want too: Disabling Windows Connected Standby | Windows Client content from Windows IT Pro

Update: It seems that connected standby cannot be disabled on the Surface Book. I will have a look into that and post again if I find something.

Overall I am really happy with my Surface Book and I do not miss my Macbook Pro at all.

Connected standby is basically sleep mode -- you can "disable" it by telling the machine to hibernate on closing the lid, or just shut it down entirely when not in use. Go into your advanced power options and change the action that occurs when 1) you close the lid, and 2) you press the power button. I did this during the time when sleep was very, very unstable on the Surface Book late last year/early this year. Works fine and less or no power drain in between use.

 

[worwig]

Regarding the standby issue, I just found out that it is a non issue, it's a feature. It's called connected standby and I am not sure I like it

Anyway, now I know how to disable it if I want too: Disabling Windows Connected Standby | Windows Client content from Windows IT Pro

Update: It seems that connected standby cannot be disabled on the Surface Book. I will have a look into that and post again if I find something.

Just change the power setting to Hibernate, instead of sleep.

Once I get the updates 8 months ago my sleep mode has been fine.

 

[petvas72]

If I put my device on standby when not connected to a charger, then it will hibernate automatically after 120 minutes. Of course, I could create a different plan and change this setting. I might actually change it for when connected to a charger. Currently, it never hibernates. Maybe I will set it up so that it automatically hibernates after two hours. I will have to think about it.

Anyway, on a different topic, I am loving the Surface Book every day more and more. I actually I cannot believe I was "framed" in Apple's ecosystem for so many years. Yes, Windows 8 was a disaster (for me), but Windows 10 is pretty good. I feel free again!

 

[petvas72]

Yesterday my surface book started freezing in various occasions. After a lot of troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that I got a lemon
Internet recovery wouldn't connect to my Wi-Fi, system reset didn't work and scanning the disk for errors on startup caused the laptop to freeze and get a blue screen. I tried restoring my backup image, but this also gave me an error. Starting the OS is possible but after a while it freezes.
I am sure there are no viruses. SFC also froze my computer.
Overall very frustrating experience. Today I opened a case with Microsoft and sent them my surface via UPS. I will be getting a replacement unit next week (hopefully). I am really sad as i really liked the experience of using a Surface book.

This reminds me of the first time I got a MacBook. After one day of use the screen gone blank. After two repairs and three months of waiting I got a good unit. I hope that this time I will get a Surface book that works ok much faster.

I believe that my unit has a disk/RAM problem.

 

[Srb Srb]

Besides this, and what was already have been said here, i returned my surface book. when the lid is open i couldnt move my surface on my desk because the lid scratched my desk or whatever surface was on. The battery on clipboard i was getting only 2 hours, and when i put into the base, the base wasn't charge the clipboard, so for me touchscreen was almost useless for me. So it still has a lot of issues after 1 year still. I think the best overall product that comes close to macs are for now the dell xps

 

[zerospace-net]

Both of these sound like bad units. Charging issues are NOT normal. Freezing issues are not normal. I've had a Surface Book from day 1, and I have not had any issues with my machine not charging properly. I have had some random freezing issues, but those are mostly gone. I can't remember the last time I had a total system lockup ... probably at least 2 months ago. BSODs have been gone for a very, very long time as a regular issue on the Surface Book, but they were in fact a problem at one point.

petvas72, your issue sounds like something was wrong with the SSD -- you probably would have had to re-install from a clean, freshly downloaded windows image to avoid the issue recurring if you had a data corruption problem, but getting the unit replaced is a good idea with less headaches involved, hopefully.

Srb srb -- not sure how the lid of the machine (the top) would scratch a desk unless you sit it upside down. That said, metal is metal and if your desk isn't a hard material, metal will scratch it. The edges on the Surface book aren't terribly rounded, either. As far as the battery life -- clipboard is only supposed to get 2-3 hours battery life, but I'm not sure how that compares to a Mac or Dell XPS, neither of which have a detachable touchscreen. Also, the touchscreen can be used if you flip it around and put it on the base backwards, so you have a "notebook" style device that has use of both the dGPU in the base (if your unit has one) and the bigger battery. Many have said since the SB's launch that the tablet only usage isn't the strong suit -- it wasn't designed to be used as a tablet (clipboard) all day. It's a laptop that can be used as a tablet for a very limited time. This is an important distinction that a lot of people fail to make. If you want a long lasting tablet that can be used as a laptop, buy a Surface Pro. If you want a laptop with limited tablet functionality, buy the Surface Book. I still feel that there needs to be something in between these two (a better, more clamshell like keyboard for the Surface Pro maybe?), but until then ... this is our choice.

 

[adesonic]

All of the above is absolutely right, I have had only positive experiences

 

[petvas72]

I am now waiting for a replacement unit. I hope everything will be OK. I really miss the Surface book.

 

[Cane Prevost]

I'm on week 2 of mine. Coming from a Macbook Air. Been pretty good so far. Once I lost my cursor in Chrome. I had a few issues setting everything up. Got those ironed out pretty quickly. Had a hard time connecting an external drive the first time. I had to go in and name the drive apparently. A few minor things like that. It's been stable and pretty great besides. I'm really enjoying it and getting used to the windows 10 interface. Don't miss my Macbook air at all. I don't use the tabled detached but do reverse it for photo editing and use the machine in tent mode at times to watch video.

 

[lardo1]

I don't use the tabled detached but do reverse it for photo editing ....

Have you used the touch screen and pen in photo editing, and if so how has it worked out?

 

[petvas72]

Today I got my replacement Surface Book and so far everything works ok. Things that before didn't work (like restoring an image) are working now. I also have the impression that the display sits much more firm than on my first Surface Book.
Anyway, I hope everything will be ok with this Surface Book.