A new year, a new Surface Book.

Late last year (2017) Microsoft released the second generation of their bold hybrid laptop like device the Surface Book 2.

Essentially a 13.5 inch screen with 3240 x 2160 resolution tablet with a keyboard dock that the screen can be undocked and used as a fully functional Windows 10 tablet with full PC functionality. Well, almost full functionality.

One of my bug-bears with the first gen of the Surface Book (Review HERE) was that there was no USB socket on the tablet – and the same can be said for the second generation too. But, there is an additional USB socket on the power brick.

Nonetheless, the Surface Book 2 is a powerhouse of computing and productivity, depending on which model you get.

From the latest i3, i5 to i7 Intel chipset models with differing RAM options of up to 16GB, the touch screen is optimised for Windows Creators update of last year. There is also a 15 inch model aswell. Storage options are from 256GB SSD up to 1TB.

Unlike the first model, the Surface Book 2 does not include the Surface Pen. This needs to be purchased separately.

STG received an i5, 8GB RAM model for review, with the Surface Pen and Microsoft’s latest bluetooth mouse, the ARC.

Firstly – the ARC is a brilliant. A no fuss, easy to instantly connect mouse that folds flat for portability and totally compliments the Surface Book 2. It is however, expensive.

The Surface Book Pen is a necessary peripheral for those creatives who utilise the tablet form for artistic and detailed endeavors and I felt it a shame that it is an optional extra.

The higher-end models are Mixed Reality ready and function exceedingly well with both HP and Dell VR units. Likewise you can get a good game time from the higher end models. Anything below i5 – 16GB RAM tends to choke.

For example on the i7 model, a NVIDIA 1060 GeForce Graphics Card can be integrated upon purchase (online store) to give you the portable graphical edge needed for higher end titles.

The i5 model that we were supplied with had a Intel HD 620 and was not able to sustain Mixed Reality or games to the likes of Battlefront II or Gears of War 4.

But there is a variety and each user has their own set of desired tasks and functions, so the menu of models will cater for all. The only downside is the cost of the higher end devices.

Aesthetically, the Surface Book 2 has left its metallic looking casing behind opting for a more smoother, sharper aluminium like finish. It actually almost feels as though it is coated in a thin layer of rubber.

The usual ports feature, two USB 3.0 sockets, Thunderbolt and a 3.5mm socket on the screen / tablet for audio. The onboard sound for the model that we had was equipped with a Realtek HD chip – which was not too bad at all for both media watching and general music listening.

Another factor to note that has improved from the previous model, the Surface Book 2 does not heat up s much as the prior model. It infact remained super cool during our play with it.

Battery is excellent too. On standby (with the lid closed and not on charge) the Surface Book 2 was still good to go with half of it’s battery life after a week.

General usage (not gaming or media viewing), such as internet browsing and work related tasks the Surface Book 2 that we had managed to survive three days before needing a top up.

Gaming (moderate level games) and media watching, as you would expect, drained it like a hungry kid. Around four hours is what we got.

As always it will depend on your usage as to how long the battery will last.

The Surface Book 2 is a super beast and does exactly what it sets out to achieve. Let down by it’s price tag though.

The post Surface Book 2 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Over the Xmas break of 2016, Microsoft New Zealand supplied Shane the Gamer (StG) one of their high end Surface Book Pro’s (Read our Review HERE) to give it a hard workout for PC related gaming.

With the new Surface Book’s and Surface Studio poised for release down under, the currently available model is still an up spec’d powerhouse and we were curious how it would do in replace of a high end gaming laptop.

The hybrid tablet / laptop combines a hardware keyboard where the screen, or tablet, slots in to. The tablet can be removed and navigated using your fingers or the Surface Pen. However, the tablet side of the Surface Book does not have any ports for peripherals other than headphones and playing any PC game with hand gestures or a stylus would have been impossible, so for this the screen remained docked to the keyboard.

Myself, keen to hit the ground running, loaded up Gears of War 4.

The first instance of installing the game saw many crashes, so an uninstall and then reinstall had to take place. The second install ended up not rendering graphics properly. So again, a completely fresh install. Third time lucky.

A warning popped up almost immediately after signing in to the Xbox Live function that the on board Nvidia GE Force Graphics card and the Intel HD 520 chipset did not have the required 2GB Memory (the Model that we had was only 1GB graphics memory).

Nonetheless the game continued to load despite not having the recommended specs.

Expecting Gears of War 4 to chug and choke and overall be laggy, I was super surprised at the Surface Book’s performance.

No lag to speak of and the game played as smoothly as it did on the Xbox One S. It was clear though that the Surface Book was being given a workout as the builtin fans (behind the screen) went into jet engine mode.

Still, three to four hours of play did not see the Surface Book melt down and although the back of the screen felt a bit hot, there were zero performance issues.

I tended to think that the Book’s internally installed RAM of 16GB and the i7 processors made up for the shortfall in the graphics component.

Next up was Dishonored 2. This game has usually set a bench mark for us, and we used this one, primarily when we reviewed the HP Omen Laptop a month or so back.

Again, there were warnings about specs, or lack of, before we were able to play. With Bethesda’s Dishonored 2 we did not have the same installation issues that we experienced with Gears of War 4, so I have put that down to the Microsoft Store vs. Steam – Steam being the winner.

Again the jet engine sounding fans ramped up as the Surface Book began to heat and again the internal RAM and processors made up for the shortfall in the graphics card.

Dishonored 2 went smoothly. There is a but though.

The Surface Book Pro began to REALLY heat up, so in fear of a meltdown and after just over one hour of play of Dishonored 2, we canned the test.

Still, as impressed as I was with the grunt these small form factor hybrids have, I wanted to see and do a bit more.

Taking the lighter side of gaming Borderlands 2 played fluidly and didn’t seem to stress out the Book all that much. Then I went a bit easier and began trying out some older titles, such as Prototype 2 and Dark Sector (still a favourite of mine from the Xbox One days).

These two did not even break a sweat on the device.

The Surface Book is designed to be an all rounder, and perhaps not a replacement for a high end gaming laptop. But it is more than capable providing you have good ventilation for the fans – and if you are to play something extremely graphic intensive, long play times on the Surface Book would not be advisable.

The Surface Book Pro is a marvel, an ingenious device that does everything that a conventional laptop does and a bit more. After our gaming test, we would recommend that you still hold on to your high end, zillion dollar gaming laptop as the higher spec’d model of the Surface Book we feel would only be ideal for mid range gaming (nothing too insanely graphic infused).

While it can do high end gaming and does it surprisingly well, I feel that if this was the normal usage of the device, it’s life would seriously be shortened.

Still, the Surface Book Pro is a winner in my eyes. It does everything that a conventional laptop does, but does it with style, and of course is ultimately a Surface tablet with a keyboard docking station.

As an all rounder for home, study or work (and yes, even play) it still gets my full recommendation.

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The post Gaming on a Surface Book Pro appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

From the beginning, Microsoft’s Surface mission has been about empowering people to work and create in new ways.

It’s led to the creation of the first tablet that could truly replace your laptop with Surface Pro and redefining the ultimate laptop with Surface Book. We believe there is a special alchemy when a device and software pair perfectly to create something new – a profound experience that can create an entirely new category. Today, we unveiled our next new category – an all new Surface device, designed for creators and professionals.

The first of the new devices released today is the Surface Studio which literally turns your desk into a creative studio. It is a new class of device that transforms from a desktop PC into a powerful digital canvas, unlocking a more natural and immersive way to create on the thinnest display ever built. With a 4.5k ultra HD screen, Surface Studio delivers 63% more pixels than a state-of-the-art 4K TV.  Surface Studio works beautifully with pen, touch, and the new Surface Dial.

Surface Dial is a new input device designed for the creative process, enabling you to work with both of your hands. It integrates with Windows 10 to work with any Surface device for a faster and more intuitive way to scroll, zoom, and navigate. It also enables a set of unique experiences exclusive to Surface Studio, such as app-specific digital tools that allow you to quickly access shortcuts and move seamlessly through your workflow. The Surface Dial will work on Surface Pro 3 and upwards.

Additional to the above, the Surface Book is also getting a revamp – Surface Book with Performance Base, turns it into the most powerful Surface Book yet, packing up to 16 hours of battery life into the same sleek, versatile design people love. It has more than twice the GPU processing power than the original Surface Book due to the newer generation of Intel i7s. No other laptop combines this combination of  battery life, performance and pixels, in as lightweight a package.

All devices are now available for pre-order from the Microsoft Store with the release date expected to be mid December 2016.

The post Surface Studio, Surface Dial & Revamped Surface Book Announced from Microsoft! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Known for their operating system; Windows, Microsoft has also been a quiet player in the hardware market for years with varying results. They were the pioneers of touch devices with early smart phones (known as PDA’s) with early versions of Windows Mobile and one of their greatest but quietest achievements was the Surface Table in 2012.

Up until a couple of years ago it was predominantly PC peripherals to the likes of keyboards and mice. That was until the tablet market boomed and although late comers, they released the Surface, to mixed responses.

This was quickly followed by a couple of other Surface editions which has now lead us to their ultimate hardware masterpiece, the Surface Book. A Notebook and tablet hybrid.

At first glance the Surface Book resembles a sleek 13″ notebook but when you begin using the device you realise that it is much more than that.

The prior tablets did not come with keyboards, the light weight flip keyboards for Surface and Surface Pro were an additional accessory, purchased separately, that were infact almost a necessary component. As using Windows on a touch screen was a bit fiddly, especially if you are generally all thumbs on a tablet, and even with a stylus (or Surface Pen as it is called) that was included it didn’t quite make the experience a user friendly one at times.

So Microsoft have taken all of this on board when producing the Surface Book, which comes with a solid laptop-like keyboard which acts as a dock for the screen. The screen is detachable and is of course a Surface tablet.

The Surface Book runs Windows 10 but for or ease of use there is a Tablet Mode, which likens the interface to Windows 8.1 with larger tiles when you detach the screen.

The keyboard base consists of two USB 3.0 ports which was a gripe among many users of the Surfaces’ that there had only been one USB socket.

Detaching the Surface tablet from the keyboard dock is as simple as pressing a key on the keyboard. Windows ‘preps’ itself for a second or two and then the screen can be released.

The tablet itself is much like it’s predecessors, if you have used or own a Surface already, you’ll know your way around – but in order to plug anything external (like storage devices, mouse or video game pad) this can only be done on the keyboard dock. The tablet function has no USB options. This was disappointing.

Re-attaching the tablet back is simple enough as it clicks in and it can be reverse mounted, so in that respect you can have the tablet function with not one but two USB ports. The tablet when fully detached is basically a multimedia touch device.

The Surface Book comes with a Surface Pen for tablet time. Pressure sensitive and equipped with mouse like click functions Microsoft have also made the pen magnetic so that it will sit firmly on the keyboard dock without rolling away. I would have liked if the Pen had been integrated more into the body of the keyboard dock. Being able to place the stylus into the keyboard through a sliding mechanism or similar. This is not an option and the Pen is explicitly an extra and needed peripheral.

The Surface Book comes in a few hardware versions. The cheaper models have a still very impressive 6th Generation i5 processor and minimum 8GB RAM with varying flash storage options.

The more ‘Pro’ versions are the 6th Generation i7 models with upto 16GB RAM and flash storage of up to 1TB. For this review Shane the Gamer was given an i7, 16GB RAM model and no matter what we tried to run on it, it never missed a beat.

The graphics cards on the 512GB and 1TB SSD models are NVIDIA GE’s, for some superior gaming time (and productivity of course) replacing the onboard Intels in the i5’s.

We installed Adobe Creative Suite which ran perfectly, then we put the Surface Book through it’s gaming tests. Now while we realise that a serious PC Gamer will prefer (and rightfully so) a custom built Rig we were curious to know what it was and wasn’t able to handle.

Black Ops III, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Batman Arkham Knight all ran smoothly enough without the need of tweaking or turning down any graphics settings. But with Black Ops III we noticed that the Surface Book felt a little warm.

The Surface Book is an outstanding all rounder, especially the more higher spec models. Light enough to always carry about with you and a perfect productivity device (I am writing this review on one right now).

Pricing is where Microsoft maybe culling their market though.

The entry level i5s (128GB / 256GB SSD with 8GB RAM) are going to cost you over 2K and for the higher spec’d will not see alot of change left after 4K. For the average consumer, I don’t see this being in their sights and the Surface Book I think has been more slated towards corporate or elite users. And this is a huge shame as the i5 Surface Book devices are brilliant for students and excellent for the average home users.

If it were not for the high end price tag, Microsoft would have successfully produced the much awaited ‘laptop killer’. An all in one accessible to all types of users on any budget.

The Surface Book is a superb all-in-one device. For us it ticks all of the boxes but is let down on it’s pricing factor. Microsoft have done it right though, they nailed both the Notebook and tablet with the Surface Book. A powerhouse of functionality and alot of grunt under the hood.

The post Microsoft Surface Book Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Microsoft announced to us today the retail availability of Surface Book throughout New Zealand.

“Surface Book is the ultimate laptop, continuing Surface’s tradition of breaking barriers and pioneering new device categories,” said Carol Glidden, Windows & Surface Business Group Lead for Microsoft New Zealand.

“Designed for people who need maximum performance — people doing photo and video editing or engineers and architects rendering 3D models and schematics—Surface Book harnesses the power of a full desktop workstation in a sleek device that is among the fastest 13-inch laptops ever made.”

Surface Book is a powerful, high-performance laptop with incredibly accurate and responsive pen and touch support. Surface Book combines the impressive power of 6th Generation IntelCore i5 and Core i7 processors with up to 12 hours of battery life.

The 13.5-inch optically bonded PixelSense Display delivers a high-contrast 267 dpi display with improved latency and parallax, making it not just beautiful to look at but natural and fluid to write on. The screen also detaches, so it can be used like a clipboard to sketch, take notes and benefit from Windows programs like Microsoft Edge.

An optional discrete GPU allows Surface Book to harness the full power of hardware-accelerated graphics for seamless video editing and fast rendering, and Surface Book comes with the redesigned Surface Pen, packing 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, that lets you write, draw and mark documents with precision ink on one end and an eraser on the other.

Those that are after more than just a tablet can purchase the Surface Book starting at an estimated retail price of $2,749 by going directly to the Microsoft Store, or visiting retailers such as Noel Leeming, Harvey Norman, or JB Hi Fi.

The post Microsoft’s Surface Book Now in New Zealand! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.