Microsoft Surface Book: power, style and portability

It used to be that any self-respecting creative person would look at a PC and emit a gruff guffaw.

Microsoft’s latest laptop replacement at first glance looks like, well, just a laptop. But the display, though it looks solidly attached to the keyboard, is in fact removable, becoming an attractive and slimline tablet.

The whole shebang looks stylish enough, with the Microsoft squares logo in a mirrored finish shining out from the matte silvery metal machine –it’s made of magnesium, which feels classy. From the edge it looks like a folded newspaper or, WIRED supposes, a book. This is thanks to the distinctive hinge, called a "Dynamic Fulcrum" by Microsoft. It leaves a gap between screen and keyboard but pleasingly this doesn’t seem to collect dust or dirt in it.

The hinge moves smoothly and easily, and is stiff enough to hold the display at whatever angle you want. That is, once you’ve opened it. 

This is the Book’s first issue: it’s quite difficult to open it one-handed in laptop mode. This is a shame as it’s something you’re likely to have to do every single day. The trick is to rest one hand behind the hinge while opening the screen with the other.

Once open, things improve. The 13.5-inch display looks great – resolution is 3000 x 2000, giving a pixel density of 267 pixels-per-inch. It’s bright and sharp, even if not a match for the 309 pixels-per-inch of the Google Pixel C. And the keyboard itself is good, though can be a little too springy for extended typing. It’s certainly better than the Pixel C offering, thanks to the extra space available.

It’s also a big step forward from the Type Cover available for earlier Surface machines. The large glass trackpad is very useful, and unlike, say, the Apple MacBook, this one actually travels when you click it. You need to position your fingers towards the bottom of the trackpad to do this as the top edge doesn’t move. And WIRED sometimes found it too easy to right-click when we meant to left-click. Still, the keyboard is backlit, which is very handy if you’re typing in a darkish room.

Removing the display from the keyboard is a simple trick, though there is a knack to it. Press and hold the dedicated keyboard removal key, towards the right of the top row of keys. When the light comes on, lift the display off. Quickly, mind: too slow and the screen is locked in situ again. You can also touch a virtual key on the display and watch for an onscreen message to say that the display is detachable.

What’s actually going on is what Microsoft calls "muscle wire". An electric current is sent through wires that connect the display to the keyboard, causing them to release. It’s efficient and feels completely secure when the two halves are clicked back into place.

The Surface Book comes supplied with the Surface Pen, as seen previously on the Surface Pro 4. It’s a stylus which magnetically attaches, firmly, to the left side of the display. It feels secure enough that you won’t worry you’ll lose it. The nib on the Pen is fine and there are no side-mounted buttons – previously these had been used for erasing what you’d written or drawn. Now, with a blindingly simple common-sense idea, you turn the stylus upside down like you would, you know, a real pencil and use the virtual eraser at the top. That top is also a button: click it and the Surface launches OneNote even from sleep, with other functions customisable, too. 

The keyboard contains most of the Book’s battery and the graphical processing unit. So when you detach the display to use it as a tablet, you are choosing a less powerful machine, which is a curious idea in itself. It means that you won’t be able to do really power-intensive work in Photoshop or AutoCAD stuff without making the two pieces whole again.

In turn, if you use the Book for this, you’ll probably keep it in laptop set-up most of the time. It also means that if you’re in a demanding program you’ll get a warning message if you try to separate screen from keyboard. At least the keyboard battery is the one that drains first, so the tablet juice is preserved till last. The battery, combined with the size of the Book and its 13.5-inch display also means this is a relatively heavy machine to lug about. 

Microsoft has also created Canvas Mode where you put the display back on the base the wrong way round, then fold it flat so that you have, effectively, a chunky tablet. This is handy for drawing and painting apps when you don’t need a keyboard but do want the battery, graphical power and screen angle that this set-up provides. 

The top-of-the-range Surface Book is very powerful, thanks to its Intel Core i7 processor, plenty of RAM (16GB) and a 512GB SSD for storage. The graphics processor included means this is a highly capable machine that works well, fast and smoothly. 

Because this is a full Windows 10 machine, it has Microsoft’s latest extras such as the face-recognition Hello screen. 

What it’s not, though, is cheap. The entry-level (ha!) machine costs £1,299, with 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM but lacking a dedicated GPU. This rises to £2,249 for the model with 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM and that Nvidia GeForce GPU in the keyboard.

Price apart, though, this is powerful, effective and much more stylish than you might expect from Microsoft.

What was that thing? Why would anyone use one?

It had the elegance of Donald Trump's vocabulary and the dexterity of Bernie Sanders in heels.

Microsoft wants you to believe things have changed. It wants you, oh creative person, to revisit your priorities and reassess your prejudices.

It wants you to use a Surface Book.

In a new ad, wildlife photographer Tim Flachinsists the Surface Book gives him better resolution. He gushes over the detail of a slobbering tiger's saliva.

He uses the Surface Book's pen directly on an image. And it all builds up to one killer line.

Perhaps he could try the iPad Pro?

No, that's a silly thing to say. The iPad Pro is just Apple's way of catching up to the Surface, isn't it?

The message here is that you can do more with the Surface Book than you can with a Mac.

The ad follows another set of ads that subtly implied Windows 10 computers did more than Macs too.

Microsoft clearly intends to reverse the idea that creative people should only use Macs.

Creative people have strange, delicate egos, though.

The challenge isn't just getting them to stop using Macs. It's getting them to stop being seen with Macs, their de rigueur accessories.

That will be a little harder.