On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the availability of its Surface Laptop and Surface Book 2 in India. Savio D’Souza and Ashutosh Desai... ...to give you an idea of what you can expect
MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP
The Surface Laptop boasts of a sturdy aluminium build, tipping the scales at just 1.25kg—and with just the right amount of heft at the bottom—to allow you to open the lid with a single hand without toppling it over. The opened lid reveals a 13.5-inch 10-point ‘multitouch’ screen display that’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The laptop comes with a full-sized backlit keyboard—that dims off when not in use but lights up as you touch its keys. You also get a large glass touchpad that supports multitouch gestures.
The surrounding area is covered with premium Alcantara—a durable and stain-resistant micro-fibre material—that provides a luxe feel under your palms when typing. The entire look and feel of this machine screams premium.
On the left side of the keyboard, you get a single USB 3.0 slot, a Mini DisplayPort to connect up to two 4K UHD screens, and a 3.5mm stereo headphone/mic jack. On the right side, you get Microsoft’s Surface Connect magnetic port for charging.
Press the power button, and the Windows logo appears on the screen in a second, while the laptop is ready to use within the next
12. The Surface Laptop is equipped with a 720p HD camera that runs Windows’ proprietary ‘Hello’ face sign-in technology. If you have set this up, the camera recognises you in a couple of seconds, and the entire process—from the time you touch the power button till Hello logs you in takes about 15 seconds.
On the downside the Hello face sign-in will need to be configured multiple times, under different light conditions, to work flawlessly. Also, if you wear spectacles to configure Hello, you will also need to use “Improve recognition” in the Windows Hello Sign-in options for it to recognise you without them. As failsafe, during set up, you are prompted to set a PIN to login to the machine.
USER EXPERIENCE
The Surface Laptop is arguably the best business laptop we have reviewed yet. Its spiffy bootup allows you to send a quick email from the airport lounge minutes before you board your flight or begin a presentation in a boardroom with zero delays.
Its keyboard—with three-levels of backlit brightness—allows you to work in darkened rooms, and you get just the right amount of haptic feedback for comfortable touch typing.
Touchscreen capabilities add an extra level of natural interaction with the device like swiping from the right side of the screen to see notifications.
Its bright screen—with a contrast ratio of 1500:1—is capable of sharp and vibrant visuals that are visible even in sunlight, while its HD camera works well for video calls when coupled with its dual-mics for clear voice pick-up.
The pièce de résistance of the Surface Laptop, however, is its proprietary Omnisonic stereo speakers that are backed by Dolby Audio. Given this notebook’s slim design, Microsoft has hidden these under the keyboard. This piece of audio equipment is by far the best we have experienced in any laptop. When seated in front of the machine, you get clear left and right channel separation and it is even capable of spatial sound that makes it seem like there are additional speakers at the back of the screen. Overall, the multimedia capabilities of the Surface laptop are best in class; ideal for watching movies and even making multimedia presentations to clients on the laptop itself.
The Surface Laptop is available with two operating system variants: All personal purchases run Windows S. This is a streamlined version of the OS that only runs apps from the Windows Store to ensure a more secure, fast and stable user experience. On the other hand, this means users will not be able to install third-party programs like iTunes, the Chrome browser and or even Adobe Photoshop. Laptops purchased by businesses for commercial use, however, will get Windows 10 Pro.
Microsoft gives consumers the option to shift from S to Pro whenever they like. They would need to open Microsoft Store from their device for the free upgrade. Though, once they upgrade, there is no option of going back to Windows 10 S.
That said, both versions of the OS come with BitLocker encryption system to secure your data in case of theft. This system uses the laptop’s integrated TPM (Trusted Platform Module) crypto-processor that protects the keys used to encrypt your computer’s contents.
When it comes to battery, the Surface Laptop gives you about nine to 10 hours on a full charge, and the brick on its power adapter also comes with an extra one-amp USB port that lets you juice your smartphone simultaneously.
You get Bluetooth connectivity, as well as support for dual-band Wi-Fi, which means it will also be able to connect on the lesscrowded 5GHz wireless band wherever available.
As far as accessories are concerned, you might want to consider the Surface Dock (₹19,999) that connects to the laptop via its USB port to allow for (2x) mini DisplayPorts, (1x) Gigabit Ethernet, (4x) USB 3.0 and (1x) audio-out ports.
The Surface Laptop also supports the Microsoft Surface Pen (₹8,499) that allows you to use the stylus to annotate images, scribble notes and even draw directly on the touchscreen in compatible apps and programs, but this accessory is better suited for the Microsoft Surface Book 2.
IN CONCLUSION…
The Surface Laptop is one of the best business laptops there is. Its lightweight but sturdy build make it a trusty road warrior, and it packs in more features than you can shake a stick at. With prices starting at ₹86,999, this device—with its tight security features—sits comfortably in direct competition with premium Windows and Mac-based ultrabooks and is well worthy of serious consideration.
MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 2
If the Surface Laptop is targeted at travelling executives, the Surface Book 2—available in 15- and 13.5-inch variants—is aimed at professionals who need a high-end computer for applications in the field of engineering, graphics design, data analysis and coding. Its touch display can be detached from the keyboard and used as a tablet. You can also dock the display, with its screen facing outward, for presentations, to watch movies and answer video calls.
The tablet part of the device sports the power and volume control buttons, a 3.5mm stereo port for headphones and a magnetic Surface Connect charging port. Whereas the base keyboard unit is equipped with a charging port, two USB ports, an SDXC memory card reader, and a USB Type-C port that can be also used to link to a secondary display.
The tablet connects with the keyboard via proprietary connectors and magnets along its lower edge. The connection is solid and the hinge is sturdy enough to prevent the screen from wobbling while you type. A Detach button on the keyboard lets you undock the display safely.
The entire unit—display and keyboard—are fabricated out of high-grade, lightweight magnesium, with ceramic being used as a thermal insulator in its hinge. Notably, the lower-end models with the Core i3 processor and integrated graphics sport a fanless design. While the higher-end larger display devices that are equipped with discrete graphics, include a fan each in the display and keyboard. Here, the Nvidia GPU is housed in the keyboard with a vent close to the hinge.
Despite packing in the processor, memory, SSD, battery, a noiseless fan and stereo speakers, the 15.6-inch model’s tablet sports a slim 8mm profile and weighs just 1.9kg with the keyboard. This is half a kilo lighter than a regular laptop with the same hardware specifications. You also get a 5MP front camera for video calls, an 8MP rear camera, and Windows Hello face unlock.
Like with the Surface Laptop, you get a soft-touch full-sized back-lit keyboard and a glass trackpad. The latter supports up to four-finger gestures, which can be configured to scroll, multitask, control volume level, activate Cortana and more.
USER EXPERIENCE
The Surface Book 2’s touchscreen renders punchy colours and crisp text. It runs on Windows 10 Pro that lets you switch between two colour profiles: Enhanced or sRGB – and you also get a “night light” mode with a blue light filter to cut screen glare.
The 15-inch model, which comes with a discrete Nvidia GPU in the keyboard, can run the current crop of PC games like PUBG, Far Cry 5, Fortnite and Asphalt 9 Legends without any hiccups at high resolution, but with ‘medium’ graphics quality settings. You can also connect a wireless Xbox game controller to this device. The integrated Intel GPU on the 13-inch model is also capable of handling these games, but at much lower resolutions and quality settings. The stereo speakers on the Surface Book 2 add to the experience with quality sound – and these also work well for clear internet video calls.
Clearly the 15-inch version is suited for graphics-intensive work, 3D modelling and high-resolution illustrations. If portability is your priority, but you also need a dedicated graphics card for design, then consider the 13-incher with the Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU. Both versions come with enough processing muscle to handle encoding and editing audio and video files.
Artists can pair the Surface Book 2 with the Microsoft Surface Pen. It is powered by a single, replaceable AAAA battery and has a clickable button that works as an eraser. This button can be configured to take a screenshot and launch the Screen Sketch tool, open the Windows Ink Workspace, Sticky Notes and more. While the Pen works out of the box, it needs to be paired via Bluetooth to gain access to its shortcut settings.
A built-in magnet lets you stick it to the side of the Surface Book 2. It feels just like a regular writing instrument and the nib moves smoothly over the screen almost as naturally as pen on paper. There is no visible lag and compatible apps like Sketchpad (Free) and Sketchable (Paid) even recognise strokes when the Pen is tilted to shade areas on the screen.
The Surface Book 2 is capable of 13-14 hours of use on a full battery. When used only in tablet mode, you get 5-7 hours of use. You can adjust battery life settings from the taskbar itself and get a status for the batteries in the tablet and the keyboard.
IN CONCLUSION…
The 13-inch Surface Book 2 presents a viable alternative to the Surface Laptop, especially for those who are looking for a hybrid laptop-tablet combo. The 15-inch variant is more suited for those in the creative field and who need a powerful computer for design, illustration, 3D modeling, video encoding, etc.
Note: The reviews are based on the configurations mentioned above. However, prices for the Surface Laptop start from Rs 86,999 with the top-end model costing ₹2,33,999. The Surface Book 2 starts at ₹1,37,999 (for the 13.5-inch model) and goes up to ₹2,58,999 (for the 15-inch version with Nvidia discrete graphics).
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