Surface Book: Microsoft's laptop combines almost perfect

Presentation

If Microsoft has always been, historically, a software publisher, the company has also become for ten years a manufacturer of products like the Xbox or the Surface. Its first Windows tablet dates from 2013 and since then it has continued to refine and improve its concept. The Surface Book, on paper, seems to be the culmination of all these efforts, and Microsoft presents it as "the ultimate laptop", one that makes no concessions. An absence of compromise that has to be paid for, since this hybrid is sold between € 1,649 and € 2,919 (public price on the Microsoft site), depending on the on-board configuration.

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Construction

The design of the Surface Book is undeniably what we notice most, since Microsoft has made several daring choices, which are certainly not all judicious, but which have the merit of bringing to the product a true identity. Let's start with some factual data: contrary to what one might think, the machine is not particularly light. In its version without dedicated graphics card, it weighs 1.5 kg (100 g more with an Nvidia GPU). We are therefore very close to a MacBook Pro type laptop and we will suddenly hesitate to call it ultraportable.

As a good premium machine, the Surface Book opts for a unibody chassis made entirely of magnesium. Light gray dominates, for a sober and classy result, which once again recalls the MacBooks. In the middle of the back cover, still Apple-style, only the Microsoft logo appears. On these few points, the Surface Book remains a very classic premium laptop. Let us now focus on what makes it unique, namely this famous hinge "snail". Impossible to deny the excellent work of design and integration: the screen rocks in a very flexible way, and we will not hesitate to grab the device by the upper part, without fear of breaking the system.

There remains this famous "open" part when the machine is closed, which is debating. A space of two centimeters is thus constantly visible, which contributes to bringing to the product a "magazine" aspect which is quite interesting, but which will leave lovers of finesse on the floor. However, nothing slipped into the gap during our week of use, while the machine spent a lot of time in a bag. Again, this aesthetic choice is certainly far from unanimous, but has the merit of bringing a certain character to the Surface Book. The kind of detail that immediately identifies the device.

But that's not all: Microsoft wanted to go a little further and therefore decided to offer a detachable screen, which then becomes a comfortable 13.5-inch tablet. Again, the brand makes an original choice and offers a secure system to separate the assembly with a button on the keyboard. You must therefore press the key, wait a few seconds and, as soon as the LED is green, remove the screen. This can also be put back upside down on the keyboard part, to benefit from a more advisory mode of use.

From our point of view, two problems arise: in tablet mode, the screen has no more than 2 hours of autonomy - we will come back to this later in this test -, which largely limits this type of use, and we would have preferred that Microsoft opted for a "Lenovo Yoga" format by allowing the panel to tilt 360 degrees. We could have kept the complete autonomy of the device while taking advantage of a good compromise between a laptop type use and a "tablet" use. As it stands, it is difficult to recommend the Surface Book if you are looking for a hybrid laptop and we are therefore above all in front of a real laptop with a touch screen.

A real laptop therefore, which also offers excellent user comfort, as its keyboard and touchpad are successful. The keys are impeccably spaced from each other, the typing is pleasant and precise, all the more thanks to the large space left for the wrists. The Surface Book comes with a stylus identical to that of the Surface Pro 4. It is therefore quite precise and allows you to take notes quickly. For more graphic and professional work, it is a little more complicated, even if it can completely be used as an auxiliary tool.

Weight distribution is however not ideal: the screen weighs 723 g and the keyboard 860 g. A fairly small difference which results in a tendency to tilt when the laptop is on the knees. We never dropped it during our test, but the stability is not totally there. Another small negative point to note, the relatively poor connectivity, especially for a machine at this price. There are indeed two USB 3 ports, a mini-DisplayPort, an SD card reader and a jack on the screen. It's not much, and we would have really appreciated an HDMI output or a USB Type-C port.

Finally, let's finish this tour of the owner of the Surface Book by talking about temperature and noise management. We measured fairly reasonable hot spots of 41 ° C on the front and 39 ° C on the back. The problem comes mainly from the speed at which the machine heats up, often for little.

Fortunately, this rise in temperature is still concentrated on the screen, so that we can continue to use it on the knees without being embarrassed. Noise pollution remains fairly contained, since we have not exceeded 40 dB (A) at full load. Again, it's too fast activation of the fans that annoys us a little more, sometimes for simple office tasks or surfing the web (in Chrome, mainly).

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Screen

Let's make it short: the Surface Book screen is the best among all the laptops tested to date in our laboratory. It exceeds that of the Surface Pro 4 or Apple MacBook. As a reminder, we are dealing with a 13.5-inch IPS panel, in 3: 2 format in a definition of 3000 x 2000 px.

The figures speak for themselves: maximum brightness of 430 cd / m², contrast ratio of 1310: 1, delta E of 1.3 and color temperature set at 6940 K. Add an overall reflection rate of only 12% and you get a very readable screen, whatever the lighting conditions.

The configuration tested:

The configuration received in test includes an Intel Core i7-6600U processor, 16 GB of memory, an Nvidia graphics card type GeForce 940M, a 512 GB SSD. Unlike the rest of the test, which is valid for all Surface Book models, only the version tested here is affected by our comments on performance.

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Performances

Microsoft has loaned us the most upscale version of the Surface Book, the one billed a whopping € 2,919. We were therefore relatively confident when we launched our benchmarks, and the results were, overall, very satisfactory. The Intel Core i7-6600U processor (2 cores clocked between 2.6 and 3.4 GHz), coupled with 16 GB of RAM achieves a very good power index. If the MacBook Pro 2015 achieves a better score, the Yoga 900, also a premium laptop, is slightly out of date, just like the Surface Pro 4 with Core i5.

In use, it is therefore very difficult to take the Surface Book into default, all the more since the update deployed by Microsoft last week. Indeed, some of our colleagues who received the product a few days before us seem to have noticed a lot of bugs, especially concerning the standby and the management of the hinge. None of this on our side: the use of Windows 10 is fluid, the machine immediately enters standby as soon as it is closed and all uses, even the most advanced, are no problem. We only encountered, once, a problem with the scrolling of the touchpad, which was solved by restarting the PC.

Of course, we are aware that few users will opt for this very high-end configuration at almost 3000 €. However, it is very likely that the € 1,649 version (Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM) offers relatively equivalent performance. Except, perhaps, for the graphic part, as we will see later.

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Games

The Nvidia graphics card in the Surface Book is a GeForce 940M that does not say its name. It is based on the same Maxwell GM108 architecture and is also clocked at 954 MHz. The amount of video memory is 1 GB in GDDR5. It is therefore a fairly light dedicated graphics chip which, after going under 3D Mark, displays a slightly higher performance index than the iGPU Intel HD Graphics 520 located in the screen. However, the difference is not huge: 26 for the first and 22 for the second.

In practice, it is still possible to enjoy some games, provided you do not go too high in graphic details and remaining within a reasonable definition (do not expect to play in 3000 x 2000 px). Tomb Raider (2013), for example, runs at 26 frames / second in Full HD at the maximum level of detail, and at 50 fps at the "normal" level of detail. Battlefield 4, meanwhile, runs at 45 fps in 1920 x 1200 at "normal" level of detail. Finally, we launched The Witcher 3, one of the most resource intensive titles in recent months and, not surprisingly, it is difficult to exceed 16 fps in 1920 x 1200 at the level of "average" details.

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Mobility / Autonomy

We were impatient to test the autonomy of the Surface Pro, but also a little worried given that it is an Achilles heel of the Surface Pro 4. The surprise was only better, since our reading test under Netflix (brightness at 200 cd / m², headphones plugged in, under Chrome) ran for 8 hours. An excellent result, which places this hybrid battery between an HP Specter x360 (7 hours) and a 13 '' MacBook Pro from 2015 (9:45 am).

By playing on the brightness and energy saving, we can thus reach 11 hours of use. A full recharge is also done in 2h15. The presence of two batteries (one of 18 Wh in the screen, the other of 51 Wh in the keyboard) is a very good thing, even if, in return, the autonomy in tablet mode remains low (2 hours of reading video on Netflix , no more).

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Audio

No miracle, the audio part of the Surface Book remains very average and does not necessarily do better than that of other laptops on the market. The headphone output delivers correct sound, with very little distortion, enough power and good reproduction of the sound spectrum.

Speakers side (graph above), however, is much more mixed. The power is very low and the distortion still very present. Difficult to distinguish the bass, while the treble is a little too present.

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Conclusion

No, the Surface Book is not the "ultimate" laptop dreamed of by Microsoft, but we must admit that it has a lot to offer. It's impossible not to salute its high-quality screen, its very solid construction, its comfort of use or even its autonomy which guarantees a big day of nomadic work. However, we do not give it 5 stars, because there is still room to progress. We would like, for example, that Microsoft thinks differently of its detachable system, that the temperature management is refined, or that the connectivity gains in variety. Anyway, the Surface Book remains a very attractive hybrid that has a real identity, something increasingly rare on the laptop market.

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