Microsoft Surface Book

WHAT IS THE SURFACE BOOK?

Microsoft’s Surface range of tablets has steadily been growing a huge following since the US powerhouse started shipping the devices in 2012. And for reasons that go beyond monstrous amounts of marketing and product placement.
The 2015 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 offered top-end specifications within a neat portable design and is, in my opinion, the ultimate productivity tablet at the moment. However, its usability as a laptop is marred by its lack of a dedicated GPU and bundled keyboard – the Type Cover keyboard accessory still costs over £100 extra.
The Surface Book, on paper, fixes these flaws, and is being marketed by Microsoft as a laptop first and a tablet second. But with pricing for the most basic version starting at £1,300, can it justify its hefty upfront cost?

 SURFACE BOOK – DESIGN
Since the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft’s really come into its own on the design front, which is why I’m pleased it hasn’t rocked the boat too much with the Surface Book.
From a distance you’d be forgiven for mistaking the tablet section of the Surface Book for the Surface Pro 4. The device’s chassis is built of the same grey magnesium, with the only obvious design feature being a shiny Windows logo on its back.
Up close, however, you’ll notice a few key changes. For starters, it's a little larger than the Pro 4, measuring in at 7.7mm thick and 312 mm wide – dimensions that place it in roughly the same size bracket as a 13-inch Macbook.
Microsoft’s also ditched the Pro 4’s kickstand to make way for the Surface Book’s biggest feature – its detachable keyboard dock. Unlike past Surface models, the Book comes bundled with a full-on physical keyboard, not relying on an optional Type Cover.

The keyboard houses the Surface Book’s most interesting feature: an optional secondary NVIDIA GeForce GPU. The GPU activates when the tablet section is docked in the keyboard, and in theory will radically improve performance. When undocked the Surface Book’s tablet section runs using the lower-power Intel HD graphics.
The dock also houses the Surface Book’s primary battery and the lion’s share of its ports – a point that further emphasises the focus on being a laptop first, tablet second. Ports-wise, the Surface Book is pretty well stocked when you consider its tiny dimensions. Along the dock’s sides you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, a Mini DisplayPort, a headphone jack and a proprietary charging socket.
The sleak dimensions and wealth of connectivity options make the Surface Book feel unashamedly premium and, in my mind, one of the nicest-looking convertibles around.

he 6,377K colour temperature I recorded is less than 200K away from the 6,500K ideal – meaning colours don’t look overcooked or too cool to the naked eye. The Surface Book’s 0.19 Delta E is stellar – any score floating around or below 1.0 indicates excellent colour accuracy. The screen’s 94.3% sRGB colour gamut coverage is above average, and more than wide enough to meet general users' needs.
My only issue with the Surface Book’s screen is its average coverage of the Adobe RGB colour gamut. For non-techie folks, the Adobe RGB is a standard used by many creative professionals that dictates the range of colours a screen can accurately display. As a rule of thumb any serious art or photography display should cover 90% or above of the Adobe RGB. The Surface Book only covers 67.6% of the Adobe RGB.
Being fair, Microsoft’s never made any claims about the Surface Book’s Adobe RGB coverage, but when you consider the fact that it’s marketing the device as “ideal for creatives” I’m still a little disappointed. Hopefully Microsoft will fix this issue with its next wave of Surfaces.

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