Some Trusted Reviews of the new Surface Book and Surface Pro 4

October 21, 2015 [updated Oct 22, 2015]

Microsoft’s new PC hardware is extremely important to productivity users because they highlight the new Windows 10 productivity features, and many of you may be ready for a laptop or tablet upgrade.

So I am very interested in the reviews about this hardware—should productivity users invest in them? I read hardware reviews with a lot of care, mostly because they are too often slanted by the whims of the reviewers. So I try to find writers I trust when I recommend a review to my readers. Here are a number of writers I trust and their reviews of the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4. I am emphasizing the Surface Book reviews since it is such a new design.   

Surface Book Reviews

I am a fan of Mary Jo Foley’s articles about Microsoft products. She seems to be appropriately harsh when deserved and supportive also when deserved. So I read her review of the Surface Book with great interest:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-surface-book-a-nice-laptop-but-still-not-my-ultimate-pc/

You’ll see she’s not a huge fan. I had high hopes for the Surface Book, so keep that in mind when I say that her complaints are in areas I am not that concerned about. For example, I am happy to hear she loves the keyboard and track pad. But her complaints about its relatively heavy weight and odd balance takes the shine off the product a bit.

Dan Ackerman at CNET is another trusted reviewer, and he just released his review of Surface Book here:

http://www.cnet.com/products/microsoft-surface-book/

His conclusion? Similar to Mary’s:

If Microsoft sticks with it, the Surface Book could evolve into a best-in-class product. Right now, it offers strong performance and useful, even unique, features, but also a handful of quirks and omissions that make it feel more like the first draft of an ultimate laptop.

He gave it an 8.2 overall score, which is pretty good. But his main complaints seems to be its heavy weight and the large gap or “hole” near the hinge when the unit is folded closed that makes the laptop very thick there, even hard to hold.

So it looks like current reviewers are happy but not delighted with the Surface Book. There are no show-stoppers—everyone says the laptop is a great computer—it’s just not quite perfect yet (and pretty expensive).

So should we be looking at other Windows 10 laptops? For example the Lenovo Yoga 900 just came out and it is a ton less expensive than the Surface book (and lighter). Well, I am still concerned about the ability of other manufacturers (Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, etc.) to keep up with the rapidly evolving Windows 10 at this early stage of its release, and so I am still leaning toward Microsoft hardware. I relayed in an earlier post that I got burned on a Lenovo tablet when Lenovo took 7 months to respond to a Windows 8 update, making the tablet almost unusable in the meantime. So if you can wait, my take is to watch the news and user forums for how the competition is doing with their laptops regarding what issues are coming up with Windows 10 incremental updates. If they are keeping up well, then maybe all is okay.

Surface Pro 4 Reviews

The Surface Pro 4 is less of a startling Microsoft release, so I am not tracking it quite a closely. But here are a few reviews:

I am a fan of Ed Bott. He’s been writing about and reviewing the Windows world longer then many of you have been out of diapers, and he’s earned his stripes. He took a quick look at the Surface Pro 4 here:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/surface-pro-4-first-look/

A balanced review, but mostly praise for the incremental changes in version 4.

Dan Ackerman also reviewed the Surface Pro 4 here:

http://www.cnet.com/products/microsoft-surface-pro-4/

Dan’s take:

A host of small refinements cements the Surface Pro 4’s position as the best-in-class Windows tablet — so long as you’re prepared to pay extra for the required keyboard cover accessory.

Pricing aside, he gives it an 8.5 score overall.

Michael