Looking to maybe buy a SurfaceBook - have some initial questions

[maflynn]

I'm kicking around the idea of getting a SurfaceBook but I have some basic questions, as I try to vet out whether its a good choice for me.

Any rumors, or opinions of when we might possibly see a SB2? Perhaps this spring? I'd hate to buy the Surface Book in August and they roll out a new version next month.

What chipset is the SB running on, Broadwell, Skylake? What is the iGPU being used?

Screen size, I own a surface pro 3, and its a good machine, can be a tad poky when running lightroom, but overall, it does everything I ask of it, but the screen is a tad small which is noticeable when I use GotoMyPc to remote into my work computer. I have an old (from 2012), 15" MBP and that's a bit better on my 50+ old eyes, but the SP3 beats the MBP mobility wise. How's the screen compared the SP3, do I have more screen real estate. I understand I get an inch more, but the resolution is higher then that of my SP3. I'd like to hear some opinions on this.

This will be strictly a secondary machine, I own a nice 5k iMac and it's a great machine, but I do enjoy using Windows, and I have some mobility needs, with that said, I'm thinking of getting the model that does not include the dGPU. .

I'm looking at the 256GB/i5 model at $1,529 (edu pricing), which is close to the mid level 13" MBP pricing. Any prospect of having more incentives as we get closer to school time?

My usages is mostly business apps, i.e., office, RDP, skype, etc. I'll also be using Lightroom, but just for images I shoot while I'm away, I'll then upload them to my iMac. Maybe a little photoshop, nothing major. Since I'm doing that on my SP3 now, I think the SB will be that much faster.

Thoughts/opinions?

 

[zerospace-net]

All of the rumors I've heard point to the Surface Book's successor not arriving until next year (2017) coinciding with both the new intel kaby lake processors (which were delayed) and Redstone 2 (next major Win10 build). So, I wouldn't be overly concerned about buying a SB in August only to have a new one released a month later -- that's probably not going to happen.

I have the SB model you're looking at -- i5/256/dGPU. The platform is skylake. The dGPU is nvidia, and its custom. It's been compared to being somewhere around the 950M I think. It's decent enough, especially considering that it's driving a high DPI display, where most gamers are driving standard HD displays with higher end cards. I can't say I'm disappointed in the performance of the extra GPU.

Comparison to the SP3 screen wise: you get quite a bit more screen real estate. I came to the SB from an SP3, myself. The screen feels much larger than I expected. The SB performance is significantly better for stuff like Photoshop than the SP3, for obvious reasons (real GPU driving it, rather than the Intel built-in GPU).

My advice would be to buy the SB from Microsoft so you have the 30 days to return it for a full refund -- the machine is much more stable now than it was at launch, but if you're in any way unhappy or disappointed with its performance, at least you can easily return it and wait for the successor.

This is, of course, all just my opinion... biased as it is.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks,
I'm thinking of the model w/o the dGPU and I'm wondering how PS and LR will run on the integrated GPU

 

[zerospace-net]

Thanks,
I'm thinking of the model w/o the dGPU and I'm wondering how PS and LR will run on the integrated GPU

It should be similar to the SP3's performance with Photoshop, which was good enough for me, in my opinion. I ran PS CS4 on the integrated graphics in the SP3 for quite awhile without any serious issues. It was less smooth and a little slower than what I get with the nvidia graphics on the SB, but performed fine with the 8GB of RAM (I wouldn't have chosen a 4GB option, but luckily, all SB models have 8GB).