Customer Ratings & Reviews

I am a case manager/ service coordinator for families with children with special needs. I needed a multi functional laptop that can handle a variety of tasks and run smoothly whether on the go or at the desk. I love that I can use this as a typical laptop but also as a tablet and even a detached tablet. The detached tablet is very light weight and still gives me the option of a keyboard which is nice. Most of my job is basically logging in notes to state portal reporting systems and use of Microsoft Office. I was told I was buying a very high end computer for what I need but it runs so smoothly. Love how office seems to be the best version I've seen on this Book. I was able to link to my phone and printer easily. I'm working on downloading fax app which I really wanted and needed for work, and was excited about rear camera for the purposes of easy scanning. I have loved the ease of doing what I need to do and multitask on a larger screen with ease. I do love the windows 10 on here as well and ability to manipulate documents with the stylus, which is also very easy to get accustomed to from a little use. I've even played around with some of the functions all the artists out there love and have been creative with my records designing my own forms, and have loved using the stylus. The art professionals will love the graphics. The Book 3 was actually recommended to me by a family I work with who are in the arts and have the Book 2 and absolutely have loved transforming their hard copies to digital with beautiful graphics. Something we both found we love about the Books, runs quiet and keeps cool to the touch. Battery life for me has been about a workday; I haven't tested it to the point of completely dead. For the artist with the 2 he remarked about 4-5 hours. I am truly happy with my purchase and feel like I made a great decision. It also helped that I was able to price match and given discount.

The newly released Microsoft Surface Book 3 replaces the Surface Book 2 with some noteworthy upgrades. My unit comes with a configuration of a 10th generation 1.3 ghz i7 Intel processor, 16 gigs of DDR4 RAM, a 256 gig SSD hard drive, and Nvidia GTX GeForce dedicate graphics processor with 6 gigs of dedicated video. A bright 15 inch “Pixel Sense” detachable monitor with a resolution of 3240 x 2160 pixels rounds out the major features. Microsoft can configure this generation of Surface Book in a number of ways from a 13 to 15 inch monitor, i5 or i7 processors, or up to 32 gigs of RAM and more powerful graphics, so depending on your needs, there will be a variation of this you can configure that’s best for you (at a cost, of course). Full disclosure: Best Buy reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews. I will always provide my honest opinions on all products reviewed. . One of the main reasons people get these are for the versatility. The screen (which houses some of the laptop’s guts) can be detached and used like a tablet on it’s own, with it’s own battery supply built in. When used with the Surface Pen (which unfortunately they do NOT include with these units), your creative juices can go wild with the bright, colorful, high-res screen. The backlit keyboard unit has a battery of it’s own as well, and when the two are attached, you get some pretty good battery life as well as much improved graphics power as this is where the graphic card is housed. A note though – a 17 hour possible battery life is quoted in specs, and in reality, I found it to be a bit less than half of that when running the screen at least at 50% brightness and doing “real world” projects and uses. Your mileage may vary depending on how you use it. You can use it as a standard laptop, or detach the screen and re-attach it backwards to use in tent mode or as a tablet with the keyboard attached, or just carry around the screen as a standalone tablet (with less power as the graphic card and one of the batteries are again, housed, in the keyboard section). One minor issue is that with the monitor holding several components inside, it can get a bit warm in use, but it never gets so hot that it’s worrisome. The keyboard and track pad feel rock solid, and the Surface 3 has a nice typing feel to it, and has the ports most need; two USB-3 ports, one USB-C, SD card reader, headphone jack. Speakers are standard in terms of volume and clarity – nothing outstanding but much better than on lesser machines. The web cam is very good being true HD, and has very good lower light clarity. A “rear” camera (in the upper corner of the lid) is also of good quality if you have need of it. The microphones are clear, though I did find I had to speak up just a bit louder than on some other machines for them to pick me up and react. A magnetic connector on the charger helps prevent accidents if someone or a pet walks by and accidentally pulls the power cord while in use – it just pops free of the machine, preventing it from being dragged off of the table. Processing power overall is good. The Surface Book 3 breezed through Paint Shop Pro projects even with multiple layers being applied to photos, large resizing of pics, and having several projects open at once. I decided to try to tax the system by using an old Microsoft screen capture program called Expression Encoder – it allows you to take screen captures of video up to 10 minutes in length (free version), and when converting and saving those clips to your computer, can really tax a system. My mid-range desktop will whine and whirrrr (fan) when using it, sounding like it’s near death. It can take several minutes to process even shorter 4-5 minute videos. The Surface Book handled this pretty well. I took some 3-5 minute grabs and encoded them to save, and while the fan did come on and it was still pushing some limits, overall it did a very good job handling this. The i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics worked well together. The machine did get a little warm during the processing, but not “hot”. I don’t think this will give people any issues when using it for video processing and conversions, especially if you configure it with a bit more RAM. 4K video playback went without any hiccups. I wouldn’t give it an award for processing power, but it’s about what I would expect from any laptop with this configuration of hardware. Because you are dealing with a thin laptop with cooling considerations that a desktop may not have, I think the processor operates at a lower wattage than it’s cousins used in desktops, because while again, the processing power is “good”, a very similarly configured desktop I use at work seemed to work a bit faster as it of course has cooling fans, and more room for air circulation. Not a problem for daily tasks, photo editing, basic video editing, etc. If you want to get more serious, you’ll want to configure a machine with more RAM and higher Graphics. If you will be using this quite a bit in tablet mode, consider the 13 inch option, as while the 15 inch model is great for desk and office work, it’s a bit bulky to use as a tablet – the 13 inch version would be your option if you are in the field, traveling, or holding that screen a lot. Glitches? Only one so far. You can as with many Windows laptops now, configure your login so that the web cam recognizes your face and speeds up the login process. Twice, I’ve had it do this, yet the web cam will stay ON, along with the on light and red Windows Hello cam light next to it. Trying to go into the camera app to turn it off didn’t work and I’ve had to reboot to reset it correctly. It’s only happened twice but hopefully will be fixed in a firmware/software update at some point. The Surface Book 3 is not inexpensive. It’s a well spec machine with a bright, beautiful, removable screen, and is built very well, and you do pay for that, along with it’s various special features. In order to justify the price tag, you should be someone who will take advantage of those features. This would necessitate having the Surface Pen, and that’s one of my big gripes – that they don’t include it. The approx. $100 pen is an additional feature, which in my opinion, should be included with EVERY Surface Book configuration. The retail price for my configuration hovers around the $2,300 range. You do get excellent build quality and a premium screen for that price, but in my opinion, I think for this price, the SSD drive should be at least 512 gigs (or even 1 TB?) and again, the Surface Pen should be included. I’ll be greedy, too – an outstanding extra would be a basic protective case you could slip the monitor in when in tablet-only mode to protect it and prop it up while in use (I can dream, can't I?). Only you can decide if the price is justified for your specific needs and uses, but if it is, you should enjoy the investment. If not and you just need the basic specs, shop around as you can get something without quite all the bells and whistles for a few hundred less.

==================================================== I was provided with this Microsoft Surface Book 3 at no cost as part of the Best Buy Tech Insider program. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews and sharing their experiences with the product. ==================================================== The Microsoft Surface Book 3 is an extremely well-engineered, high quality, high performance notebook that literally flew through almost every Adobe Photoshop task I threw at it as part of my daily work regiment. It easily handled all my MS Visual Studio development work with ease and the 15” inch PixelSense display’s 3:2 aspect ratio helped to keep more text on the screen – in addition to also being great for photo editing and long form document viewing. The PixelSense screen produced excellent Adobe RGB color accuracy out the box. Everything from the minimalist industrial looking magnesium alloy case, to the well-spaced and perfectly back lit keyboard screams quality and well thought out engineering…. However, there is significant room for improvement. The main areas I felt needed the most attention was centered around design and performance decisions made by Microsoft to keep the Surface Book 3 “the premier” 2-in-1 notebook in the market. The detachable tablet design results in a lot of sacrifices to maintain that unique form factor. There was a noticeable amount of screen wobble due to the top end heavy design of the display. Audio and sound takes a minor performance hit due to the relatively weak and hollow sounding speakers embedded into the display unit (but not the base unit oddly). More importantly, while I found the unit whisper quiet under normal operation – it got notably noisy, and even a little whiny, under full sustained processing loads, such as encoding in Adobe Premier Pro, or while testing out the graphical processing prowess in some light gaming action in Fortnite. Sadly, all of the currently available configurations are non-user serviceable/ non upgradable which means that you need to seriously calculate the amount of RAM and SSD storage you may need for future application usage and development – or risk having to acquire a whole new unit later on down the line. Detailed Observations after a regular usage: =================================================== My team and I create training photos, video content, coded programs, and virtualized network/server infrastructure to meet our organization’s needs. I am fortunate to regularly work with others that often live on the “bleeding edge” of technology and this results in inevitably swapping machines between team members many times over throughout a project to work through our tasks. This provides for a great opportunity to compare the performance of many different machines essentially running the same tasks over and over. I primarily utilize Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Premier Pro, MS Visual Studio, and VMware Workstation Pro as part of my regular work routine… with a healthy heaping of PC gaming on the side. I wouldn’t say I am a “Artisan” Photoshop/Premiere Pro user, but my team and I utilize the programs enough to be more than well versed in what they have to offer. For reference, I predominately work with 8-16 Megapixel uncompressed JPG images with average bit depths of 8bpc per image. I rarely utilize more than 10 layers in any of the images I work with – and in that regard this 16GB of RAM model is more than enough to tackle any filters or renders that I throw at it in reasonably quick amount of time. I kept a close eye on the RAM and system resource utilization – and it never peaked above 80% under the above circumstances – even with 10-15 Chrome tabs and streaming music services running in the background as well. I added a photo in the gallery for reference. In all honesty, I feel that if you are planning on working with predominately RAW Images or any 16bpc (or greater) JPG images AND/OR rely on more than 10 layers – you should definitely be looking at the Surface Book 3 with 32GB of RAM over this configuration. The battery life was decent and lasted about 5-7 hours with moderate to heavy use in a single day of my type of usage. I imagine this is due in part to the two separate batteries in the in the base and in the Surface Book Display unit along with the low voltage 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor. The keyboard is spacious, has great key travel, and uniform back-lighting...What more can you ask for? I regularly create/maintain VMware virtual machines as part of my development work to test and verify functionality of features I am working on. Interestingly – although this machine has the graphical, and computational horsepower to serve as a dedicated VMware or VirtualBox workstation – it requires a little tinkering out of the box. Due to native Windows 10 Security settings AND the Surface Book 3 default BIOS configuration – resource conflicts occur with the native Level1 Windows hypervisor and the Level2 VMware/VirtualBox virtualization software you are trying to use. “Credential guard” errors resulted every time I tried to load a VMware or VirtualBox VM. Without going into granular technical detail, technical – the Surface Book 3 BIOS lacks the ability/option to easily view or enable/disable “Virtualization” features of the Intel Chipset – even though it is a natively supported feature. I was able to rectify the situation by making edits to the Windows Registry to disable the conflicting services and I also had to modify the Windows 10 OS Security settings to allow the sharing of virtualized privileged system resources/core memory functions. There are a few Microsoft Knowledge base articles that you can search for to address this if you run into this similar issue, and it would have saved me several hours of my time had I known in advance. Interesting things I noted: =========================================== - The Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti is a decent solution for 1080p Gaming with “High” detail settings (and possibly some “very high” depending on the Game) - Its nice to have a full-sized SDXC card read directly in the device - even under heavy load, the keyboard and palm rest stayed nice and cool - the back side of the Display unit got noticeably warm at times when I would pick up or move the unit to another area. - Microsoft really should include a Surface Pen at this price point – it really adds to the capability of the device and helps to strengthen one of its key advantages over other machines - The screen is bright enough to work easily with in direct sunlight – even if it can have touch too much reflections at times - While the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 1065G7 inside of this model is more powerful than its predecessors – it is not the best performing (nor best priced) processor for content creation on the market. Microsoft should really consider offering the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 series processors in this model or in future revisions or at least try to consider using a non "low voltage" based processor to compete with AMD. - I have mixed feelings about the “mechanical” button mechanism that detached the tablet from the base. I accidentally engaged it the first day I used it and the mechanism made a weird sound and the tablet sort of wobbled. Nothing broke, but makes me ponder the longevity and fragility of the mechanism over long term repeated use. - The trackpad looks small – and is small - but it was more than adequate in my usage. I think it doesn’t help that there is so much “unused” space in the palm rest area on both side of the base. Maybe place extra Speakers to improve sound while plugged into the base? Closing thoughts: ========================================= As I mentioned – I work in a team, and some my team mates regularly switch out their notebooks in a quest the find “the one” that tries to do everything they need. This is where I think the Surface Book 3 starts to lose some of its luster and appeal. There are faster/more powerful notebooks and 2-in-1’s for content creators and developers out there - for lower MSRP. They are often more customizable, with better performing hardware and equally impressive displays out there – for lower MSRP. I physically witnessed 15” inch AMD 4800U and a 14” AMD 4900HS powered notebook -with similar Nvidia GTX GPUs- perform many of the same tasks in 20%-30% faster time frames, along with more system RAM, SSD storage … for less than half the price of this models MSRP. Even taking all that into consideration – there is still something special about the Surface Book line that can’t be quantified. Thanks to the detachable screen, I found new ways to collaborate and make on the fly edits/adjustments with my team. I was able to gather input that would not have been possible with any other machine thanks to the added flexibility. Using the Surface Book 3 in tablet mode with an optional Surface Pen is where this device really shines. Sadly, there is NOT one included in the box – I borrowed one from my personal Surface Pro 4). As configured with 16GB of RAM, and at retail MSRP – I think the Surface Book 3 is an outstanding machine that can tackle light – to - medium weight content creation tasks and workloads, with the added bonus of lightweight gaming on the side. It looks and feels like a premium device – but it costs significantly more than (mainly AMD) devices that can outperform it on almost every level. In my mind, it boils down to “needing” the tablet functionality for the added cost –or- heavy Photo editing/collaboration with the PixelSense Display and a Surface Pen – which again is oddly optional at this price point given lower priced "Surface Pro" models can be purchased with a pen as part of the configurations.

I have had my eye on the Surface Book 3, since even before it was announced. I have been using a Surface Pro 3 for years now, and while I love the portability and power it provided, it was needing something capable of a bit more heavy lifting. Especially since the current state of the world means I'll be working from home even more frequently. I love taking notes on the Surface Pro 3, so I wanted to be able to continue to do so on a whatever new machine I upgraded to. That's why the Surface Book 3 was so appealing to me. It combines the touchscreen and pen input capabilities with a very capable GTX 1660ti graphics card in the base. It's the best of both worlds for me. In my day-to-day work requirements, I do lots of photo editing and design work in Photoshop, as well as motion graphics in After Effects, video editing in Premiere Pro and vector illustration in Illustrator. I also like to dabble in 3d modeling. When I was offered the chance to test a Surface Book 3 from the Tech Insider program, I jumped at the chance. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews. Over the last few days, I've been putting this machine to through the ringer. It has absolutely handled all that I've thrown at it so far. I'm currently working on some motion graphics and web design assets for an upcoming conference. I had begun the motion graphics work on my current desktop machine and was curious how well the Surface Book would handle it. It has performed very well. I am getting render speeds similar (and in many cases, better) than my workstation PC (with a Xeon processor and a bit older Quadro graphics card). I imagine this is in part due to the newer processor the Surface Book is using. It's very satisfying to be working on a project and disconnect the screen to take some notes from a meeting. Speaking of which, the screen removal is very interesting as well. Windows will tell you when there is software that will be impacted by removing the screen from the base (since you'll be unable to use the discrete graphics card when removed). Very handy. There is a slight delay when you tap the button to remove it before you can actually remove the screen, but it's only around a second or two. While testing with Photoshop, I was able to easily edit large files (the screenshot I've shown is me editing a 265mb file) without any performance issues whatsoever, including zooming/panning around the image and applying effects to smart objects and with many layers. Photoshop performs VERY well on this machine. Testing with the ever-demanding After Effects, performance was also very good. In the screenshot I've shown, I am in the middle of an intro video for the conference project I spoke about. I was deliberately trying to tax the machine by using multiple instances of some demanding effects and expressions (After Effects' scripting language), since After Effects is very taxing to the CPU. Render times were equal to, or better than my desktop machine. All while running off battery! Very impressive. I also wanted to test the rendering speed of a complex scene in Blender. I downloaded one of the demo scenes that Blender makes available on their website, since it would be much more advanced than anything I've created. This one titled "Spring". It's some beautiful work, and the final render took approximately one hour for a 1000x2000 image. Again, very impressive for a portable machine, all while working on battery power. Speaking of the battery- the battery life has been pretty great. Since I've been working the machine very hard, it's battery life has been about 7 hours. Again, this is when I'm doing very demanding tasks, like creating or rendering in After Effects, or that Blender rendering. During less demanding use (web browsing, word processing, coding), I'm getting very good battery life, much better than I anticipated. I'd say around 12 hours. That's sort of tough for me to estimate, since I'm not using it non-stop for those times. Also, a nice little side-effect of the processor being in the screen, rather than the base like most laptops, there is little to no heat on your lap. Even during demanding tasks, since most of the heat is generated at the screen/tablet area of the machine and quietly sent out from it. Another nice feature for video editing and motion graphics, is the aspect ratio of the screen. It's a little taller than other laptops, which is actually very helpful. This gives you additional room for your audio/video tracks and feels less cramped that standard 16:9 displays. It also has excellent and accurate color reproduction. Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this machine. It is exactly what I was hoping it would be. If I had any complaints, it would be that this particular model I am testing is only a 256gb SSD. It's fine for most things, but I just need to make sure and offload any large projects once I'm done. The bright side of that, is that it will make me better about backing up my projects. :) I also wouldn't have minded getting one with a more RAM. The 16gb performs VERY well, but I imagine I could squeeze out even more performance with the 32gb model. If you're looking for a machine that can perform any creative tasks, I'm not sure there's a better form factor out there. The ability to use high end full-featured editing software, while also being able to use a pen input is absolutely great. Especially when you have the screen removed, or reversed to create a slightly elevated canvas. Pros: Beautiful looking machine, great productivity features, love the removable screen to use as a tablet along with the pen input, taller aspect ratio, excellent performance in Photoshop, After Effects, Blender and FreeCAD, excellent battery life, very color-accurate screen, pretty decent as a gaming machine too (I didn't want to get too much into this, since I think most people are probably looking for productivity, but the GTX 1660ti is a pretty capable graphics card for gaming as well. I played some recent games, like Gears Tactics and it was performing very well in it) Cons: I would like to have a larger SSD, as the model I was offered is only 256gb, I wouldn’t mind the trackpad being a bit larger (though, I can't completely say this is a con just yet, since my hands do rest nicely to the sides of it while typing, so I think I'll just have to see after more prolonged use if I would really prefer it to be larger)

Good product. I'm enjoying it each time of the day for school and work. I installed Linux on it for school and work and haven't had any problems. No changes in performance with a second OS installed. I recommend this product to anybody looking for a laptop for everyday work and beyond.

It is worth for the money. You gonna love it. Display solution is so nice. I like the design also, just 1 thing , it’s hard to find the accessories for 15” version

Full disclosure: Reviewers for in this invitation-only program (Tech Insider Network) are provided products for the purpose of writing an honest, unbiased review. When I first saw this laptop, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Is it a laptop or a tablet? My concern was if it’s both, does it do either functions well? I’ve seen many other laptops that claim it can be used as a tablet. There are many laptops where the keyboard folds behind the screen and they call it tablet mode, but it weighs much more then what we consider tablet weight. But with the Windows Surface Book 3, the keyboard detaches, to me, this is a game changer! For comparison, the weight of the Surface book (tablet only) is 1lb 13 ounces (29 ounces), for comparison an iPad 10.2” weighs 17 ounces and the iPad Pro 12.9” weighs 1lb 6.6 ounces (22.6 ounces). Unboxing and appearance: The laptop comes very nicely packaged, open the box and you will find the laptop, charger and cord neatly packaged. The charging block has a USB port also, nice touch as I use it to charge my phone. No need to take up a USB port on the laptop. I wish the charger had some sort of wire management on it though (i.e. plastic tabs to wrap wire around, Velcro strap). The magnetic charger is a nice touch, it connects to the laptop parallel, so it doesn’t protrude out from the laptop. It’s made out of black plastic, so feels a bit cheap. A Surface pen is not included, at this price point, it would’ve been nice if it were included. If you have a pen, it doesn’t appear to have a spot to store it on the laptop. Initially I wasn’t crazy about the hinge design, when it folds up, it doesn’t fold flat, there’s a quarter inch gap near the hinge area. I think we’re all used to laptops folding flat when the lid is down. After a week of usage, I’m getting more used to it and it doesn’t bother me as much. The front lip has a magnet that keeps the lid shut tight. The magnet is evident as my watchband keeps sticking to it. I end up taking off my watch when I use the laptop, which is probably better anyway as I don’t want to scratch up the laptop. Overall the design is very clean and nice, the shiny silver Windows logo gives it a premium look. I’ve seen many 2 in 1 laptops where the screen is very heavy, making it easy to topple over, but this laptop is very well balanced. Pushing gently on the screen doesn’t cause the keyboard to lift up. Instead, the hinge responds by opening more. This is where I start to appreciate the Surface book hinge design. I have 4 laptops in my home, all of them, if I push the top without holding the base down, will lift up. Traditional laptop hinges are stiffer. The keyboard lights up nicely, there are 3 settings that you can toggle between. Usage: Initial setup was a breeze, follow the instructions, log into your Windows account it pretty much does the rest. I love the Windows “Hello” login (facial recognition) feature. I have that on one of my other laptops, but not in my work laptop. It’s definitely nice to have and works well. I found the picture quality of the PixelSense display to be very good. I used this laptop with Adobe Lightroom to organize, edit and print my large library of photos. The colors and clarity of the photos look very good (I have not calibrated the display yet). I’ve used Lightroom on my iMac that’s approximately 7 years old, it’s been painfully slow opening catalog, editing etc. The Surface Book was able to do all these tasks much, much faster. The benefit of being able to disconnect the tablet is that I can show photos to my family without carrying around the laptop. Much friendlier to hold and swipe through vacation photos. I enlisted my son’s help, an Engineering student in HS, to test the laptop with Autodesk Inventor Professional. The Surface Book performed perfectly and comparable to the desktops he uses in school. He created a sword using Inventor. I also used the laptop for general applications such as Microsoft Office and Ameritrade Think or Swim, no issues running any applications of course. I didn’t even hear a fan kick off while running these programs. Conclusion: Overall this is a beautiful, capable laptop that is light weight, the tablet mode was executed very nicely by the engineers at Microsoft. I can wholeheartedly say it’s a great laptop and a great tablet! Just getting the weight down to something I wouldn’t mind carrying but has the computing power to work flawlessly with Adobe and Autodesk applications is amazing to me. There are some minor issues, as I’ve mentioned in my review, but nothing that’s a deal breaker. The price is on the high side, I would say this is the biggest negative.

Before starting I would like to say that I’m a member of the Tech Insider Network and reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews. Pulling the Surface Book 3 out of the box it seems heavy for its size. They must have a lot crammed into a small package as it certainly has the specs. It looks sharp and feels premium and it should at this price point. As I went through the box looking to see what all came in the package I was upset to find there was no stylus included. At this price it should be included. Looking at the screen I noticed a sizable bezel. At first, I wondered why the bezel was so large before I realized it was probably for the attachment points between the keyboard and tablet. Turning it on there is a short boot time thanks to the SSD. There is the standard Windows 10 setup, which goes quick with some assistance from Cortana. The mouse pad is standard, and the keyboard has a selector to light up the keys, which comes in handy. The screen is sturdily attached to the keyboard and only comes apart when you press the detach button on the keyboard. Reattaching is as simple as putting the screen back in its place as it locks itself together. I really like that there are no vents on the bottom of the keyboard. The vent is well placed on the top of the keyboard and it’s not very noticeable. I love that I can set the Surface Book on my lap and not worry about blocking a vent and causing it to overheat. There is also a vent that goes around the entire screen and the speakers are hidden on the left and right sides. It’s also quiet and I haven’t heard a cooling fan yet. Listening to music and watching some videos I was pleasantly surprised with the sound system. It’s not audiophile quality but for movies and music it’s unexpected and surprisingly good. The Dolby Atmos creates an exceptional sound stage. The charger attaches magnetically and is an improvement over a coaxial power connection you see on most laptops. There are two USB connections, a single USB type C connection, headphone jack, and an SD card reader. Missing is an HDMI connection, which would be nice to have. I installed several programs, and each was quick to install and quick to open once installed. The SSD is nice and fast but it doesn’t appear to be interchangeable so make sure you get a model with enough storage space for your needs unless you plan to use external storage. Programs are also very responsive thanks to the i7 processor and 16 GB of memory. The touch screen is accurate and works well and the screen is sharp and produces good viewing angles. There are cameras on the front and back, but I mainly just use the front facing camera to identify my face to aid with the login. I’m currently in the midst of a project for work to create a manual and I’m using Acrobat DC. I’m using a lot of pictures in the manual that I’ve taken with my DSLR. To help organize and prepare everything I also have Lightroom and Photoshop. I’ve been running all three programs at the same time and this thing hasn’t skipped a beat. I’m able to quickly import RAW image files into Lightroom since the Surface Book has an SD card reader. I currently have 90 images imported and I can easily browse all the photos I’ve taken for the project at one time and switch between the RAW images without any lag. I can quickly make the necessary lens corrections and white balance adjustments before exporting to Photoshop for finetuning the image and saving it to a reduced size for the manual. I can then import the images into Acrobat. The speed at which I’m able to go from one program to another is great and it really makes the project so much easier to complete. With 93 imported RAW images in Lightroom, 18 photos open for editing in Photoshop, and Acrobat DC open for editing a 110-page manual all at the same time there are no issues with performance and I have absolutely zero complaints over the performance of this machine. One thing to note is that the Surface Book has two batteries. One in the tablet and one in the keyboard. Together they give you pretty good battery life but separate them and the smaller battery in the tablet will only give you around 3 hours of use. Overall, I’m happy with the Surface Book 3. It’s more than capable to handle anything I can throw at it. I think a stylus and an HDMI port would have been nice additions. Better battery life for the tablet portion of the Surface Book would also be welcome. Otherwise it’s an excellent machine, although expensive, and I know I will get plenty of use out of it.

Suddenly started to get overheated and the battery only lasts less than an hour. Before this issue , it was working as expected. I thing that this particular piece it came with this malfunction, after 2 weeks of looking for my best option I came with my decision of buying this laptop, I never heard about this issue in all the reviews that I read.

While I really like the product in that the screen looks really nice, battery life is good, performance good enough for my needs, the versatility of the screen, and the pen feels great, I am currently dealing with a cracked screen within the first 11 days of purchase. It has only been on my desk and have been opening and closing it carefully. Then, one day of opening it, I heard this crumbling noise and there was a crack in the screen. Microsoft has had issues with other laptops randomly cracking the same way, notably the Surface Laptop 3. However, they don't offer the same free fix and expect the consumer to pay $650 to fix.

AESTHETIC / BUILD Starting with its looks, since that is the first thing you see when unboxing, this computer is absolutely beautiful. Having owned and used mobile computers from many of the top manufacturers, I can definitely say that for me, this package is among the nicest looking available. Gorgeous design. All the way from the mirrored Windows logo, to the sleek shape, and the perfectly machined aluminum housing. While you may instantly think this is a very similar design to the “other guys” I can say without a doubt that the Surface Book 3 is one awesome looking piece of tech that should satisfy anyone wanting a mobile computer solution. The feel is also very modern and high tech. The build quality also feels solid. It’s not a light computer weighing in at just over four pounds, but that doesn’t bother me at all. In fact I prefer the weight of it which only adds to its premium look and overall feel. SETUP & UPDATING Once unboxed and charged, and after Cortana got me connected to WiFi, I proceeded directly into setup and Windows updates, which I highly recommend being your first step regardless of what type of tech you have purchased. With my home WiFi connection, initial setup and Windows updates took roughly 15-20 minutes to complete. After updating through Windows update, I also recommend opening the Microsoft Store App and updating all available Apps that you choose to keep on your system. All of the aforementioned updates will ensure that everything on your computer is running a peak performance. This entire process is extremely easy and should be a breeze for any level of user to complete. Once all updates are complete, customization can begin! Start loading the software you use and customize the look of your computer to fit you personally. SCREEN / TEXT The screen! Finally! I have always complained that Windows computers never had sharp text, but I can now safely say that this screen (at full resolution) provides the sharp text I want to see when reading articles, or simply browsing websites, looking through File Explorer, etc. Text is definitely cleaned up, sharp, and nice. Netflix and streaming sites look really great in HD, with gorgeous colors popping off the screen. PAD MODE This may be the Surface Books coolest feature. The Surface Book 3 is literally a Tablet and a Computer Laptop in one awesome package. It’s up to you to decide how you want to use it. There is a dedicated “eject” button that seems to electronically eject the screen for tablet use, instead of a physical eject button. By this I mean that when the button is pressed, the computer unlocks the screen and lets you know when it is safe to detach. Once detached, you can either use it with a Surface Pen (more on this later), or your fingers. A virtual keyboard is also included in this mode. Also worth mentioning, is that if you edit photos in Photoshop, you must eject the screen, then place it back on backwards and fold it down over the keyboard. The reason being is that your photos are stored on your local HD, not in your screen! Photo editing is awesome on this computer in pad mode (more on this later). KEYBOARD The keyboard is soft touch, feels solid, and is very quiet. The backlighting includes three levels of brightness. One thing to point out, is that when you stop typing, it takes about 20 seconds before the backlighting fades out to save battery. Once you start typing again, the backlighting turns back on immediately. A nice touch. SD CARD READER The inclusion of an SD card reader is ALWAYS welcome to me. As a full time photographer, I can definitely appreciate having this as standard on the Surface Book 3. USB This computer provides you with two USB 3.1 and one USB C port, making connecting today's peripherals a snap. If you need more, you can always grab the Surface Dock, or a USB Hub. OS Windows 10 Home is included and is working great for me. Updating to Windows 10 Pro is something I may do soon for the extra security features alone. Windows 10 has gotten its fair share of criticism for updates failing certain users. That said, I have not run into any issues and everything is working flawlessly at this time. The Windows 10 user experience is sleek and easy to navigate. I find that coming from a different OS to Windows 10 is not only easy to adapt to, but also a much needed breath of fresh air. It is much more customizable. Go to a Best Buy store and take it for a spin. I bet you’ll be glad you did. APPS I mainly use this computer for mobile editing and display of my photo and video work. I have the Adobe CC Suite installed and have found that this computer can handle any of the Adobe Apps with ease. That said, if you are editing 4K video in Premiere Pro, you will still want to create proxies to speed up your workflow, as is the case with even highly specced out systems. Once your proxies are created, you can scrub and edit with ease. The Adobe Apps all work wonderfully. They are responsive and look amazing on this screen. BATTERY The battery life seems good to me, but could always be better. It really depends on how you use the system, as to how much battery life you will get. Graphic intensive apps and games will deplete your battery much quicker than basic web browsing and office work. Keeping your brightness cranked at all times will also take some juice. ACCESSORIES I have purchased the Surface Pen to go with my computer and couldn’t be happier with this combo. The pen is a must with this screen and enables you to go in close when editing photos, or using a drawing app. As a bonus, the pen has a pretty strong magnetic connection to the left screen side of the computer, so you’ll never have to set it on the desk to misplace or forget. The pen and Surface Book are in the same family, therefore they pair and work very well together. CONCLUSION I can’t find very many negatives with this computer other than the battery life may not be enough for some users. I could also do with the power button being relocated, as almost every time I take the screen off and put it back on, I accidentally hit this button and turn off my screen. I’ll admit, I was playing on the other side of the fence for years when it comes to computing. Having said that, I feel refreshed with my Surface Book 3. It’s new, it’s fun, and it’s downright gorgeous. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.

The computer doesn't recognize the video card. There is an issue with the screen when detaching and attaching again, doesn't work properly. Microsoft poor support, still can't fix the problems Some problems with the updates, computer requests detaching frequently.

Quick disclaimer: Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews. 5 years from its debut this tried and true design still holds up. It’s still an elegant, durable and versatile design. And the hinge is still just an excellent piece of engineering. The quality and the materials and build are top notch as they have been since Microsoft introduced the Surface Book. And it doesn’t just pass the eye test. It still feels like a premium piece of equipment too. This model does come with the performance base that boasts a 1660ti graphics card that helps a lot when using graphic intensive programs such as Photoshop and/or AutoCAD. I was having some performance issues at first but realized that the program itself was using the integrated graphics rather than the dedicated GPU in the base. If for some reason you have issues like this, check your settings in the nvidia control panel to be sure whatever programs you are using are using the correct one. It may not default to the desired one on install. The auto-select option may not be what you need either. Microsoft has improved the sequence to detach the display over previous versions that also have the performance base. The button to release it has a nice and very subtle click when pressed. It gives you just enough feedback to know that you’ve started the process and the screen prompts will let you know when it’s ready to physically remove. That is unless you’re using a program that is currently using the dGPU. In which case you will need to close those programs first before detaching. Some might say that it defeats the purpose of being able to use the base and to utilize its mobility. Well, that wouldn’t be completely wrong. Although that is a little frustrating it’s not a deal breaker. The unit itself performed well when it was properly set up. It barely showed any sign of slowing down while touching up photos and having a few CAD projects open at the same time. This is really close to being the perfect desktop replacement for most. I absolutely recommend this product but suggest those who are thinking about making this purchase to get their hands on it in person to get a feel for it first.

Ok, for $2494.74 (with tax) I was expecting a high-quality product, however, here are some issues I faced in only 2 days before I returned back: 1. On a 4k video both the laptop and the book 3 wifi were slow (I'm using AT&T fiber high speed) "No problem with my MacBook pro." 2. Sound quality is absolutely poor and not even close to the iPhone 5. 3. On the second day of purchasing I notice some oil leak?!! Seriously Microsoft?? (Picture attached) 4. The laptop was slow in general until I updated windows then it started to operate less than expected. Finally, I returned it after 2 days of purchasing and not planning to buy it with this cost. This is a personal opinion but if book 3 (15" 16GB memory i7) costs around $1,400 I would consider buying it again.

In under 30 days, after doing a restart it loaded in to a system repair and locked in a loop that wouldnt fix its self. Now I'm doing another wipe and going to return it.

Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews Tablet or a Laptop How about a two in one and you get the best of both worlds. Meet the new Microsoft Surface Book 3 15 inch 10th Gen Intel Core i7 with 256GB SSD, 16GB of Ram and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GPU Max-Q. This laptop is a lightweight, versatile and a beautifully unique designed powerhouse. I have been using this laptop now for a little over a week now for multiple things such video editing, photoshop using Adobe photoshop, graphic designing, gaming, office work, everyday use such as writing this review and I must say it has excelled in every aspect, it has yet to let me down. The laptop and tablet in one is such an amazing design and done very successfully by Microsoft, in my perspective, that you have everything you need for whatever life demands all at your fingertips. If you need to get something done on the go just simply detach the tablet portion and get it done. The only downside to the tablet portion is that your dedicated graphic card and larger battery are built into the keyboard portion of the laptop to keep the tablet design slim, so you do end up losing a little bit of the graphics and battery in the tablet mode. The Surface Book 3 came packed with great tech, like Windows 10 Home, WIFI 6 or Wi-Fi 802.11ax support, whatever you want to call it, Bluetooth 5.0, 2 USB, Media Card Reader, USB C, which can also be used to for charging as well, and a charging port. One thing I have to say that most people are getting away from and I am glad that Microsoft decided to keep is the headphone jack, built into the tablet. Most people don’t like or care for the headphone jacks but I personally love them because in a pinch they do come in handy. The laptop also comes with a front and rear camera, which by the way worked well during my office meetings, along with the Dolby Atmos audio which is not bad at all. The screen resolution on the laptop is amazing (3240 x 2160), and the touch screen is very responsive. As far as performance goes, while the Surface 3 is not built for gaming, it does allow and runs some performance requiring game such as tomb raider, Modern Warefare without any problems. Also, working of some 3D designing rendering, video editing, and using photoshop the laptop performed without a hitch and did not heat up, which my other laptop still does but it is also older and lags a bit behind in hardware. My overall experience with the Microsoft Surface Book 3 has been nothing but amazing. Although being a very expensive unit, I believe it is well worth the price. Like the saying goes “You get what you pay for”. If anyone is looking for tablet/pc, I would recommend looking into the Surface Book 3.

I love the detached screen. However, I hate the screen is half yellow. And the backlight leaking is horrible.

First of all, the packaging for this device is entirely recyclable and of high quality. I was very happy to see that. The Surface Book 3 has a sculpted metal finish that is very pleasing to the eye and it is surprisingly heavier than I expected. But in a good way. The hinge mechanism is ingenious and seems like it should last for a long time. If you’ve ever had a broken hinge on your laptop you will appreciate how it extends the entire width of the screen. On the top left of the screen you will find the power button and the volume rocker. At the top right there’s a headphone jack. The entire screen detaches from the keyboard portion to become a tablet. The keyboard part has 2 USB A 3.1 ports and an SD card reader on the left, the Surface connector port and an USB C on the right. When the tablet is removed there’s a Surface connector to attach the charging cord. So the quality of build makes this machine feel like the high end computer that it is. The keyboard is quiet and responsive, dare I say silky? I am happy that it is also backlit so I can work in darker areas without having to turn a light on. Now on to its technical abilities… Setup was a breeze once the battery was charged. Startup times are blazingly fast thanks to the SSD and when configured properly the facial recognition was uncanny because it worked well even in extremely low light conditions. The Surface Book 3 has 2 cameras: 5MP front facing and 8MP rear facing. This arrangement has worked well for Zoom meetings and so far everyone has commented that my audio and video are much better than with my old machine. I work with digital photography in a clinical research setting so the following part deals on how the graphics abilities of this computer sets it apart from others. Perhaps I haven’t mentioned that this particular model comes equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q Design as well as the Intel ® Iris ® Plus Graphics. Wow! You can even tell it which graphics adapter to use. I use Photoshop extensively because photography in a surgical/medical setting can be problematic due to the different types of lighting and how the image is captured by the camera’s sensors. For example, we can have overhead fluorescent lights mixed with surgical lights and then the macro ring flash at the same time. All of them have different color temperatures, so post shoot editing is a must in order to balance the color and exposure to generate publishable images. The screen is 15” and can display HDR images properly in crisp color detail with a plethora of user adjustments to suit your needs so images and videos can be displayed properly. Adobe Photoshop opens in about 10 seconds. A bit less if you don’t have other apps running, a bit more if you do. Regardless, that is impressive because my desktop can sometimes take over a minute (or more) to do the same. I think I’ve opened Photoshop before and gone to get a cup of coffee while the program went through its routine startup mode as you see the credits roll… I work with large raw images (NEF files) that allow a wide range of adjustments including color temperature, exposure, highlights, shadows, whites, black, ETC. As you play with the sliders you can see the changes displayed instantly in the preview pane, which when zoomed in allows you to see all the incredible detail found in macro (1:1) photography. Once you are satisfied with the balance of the image, you can open it to display it full page and continue to work on details until you have the perfect image. So far the only thing I wish it had is a larger trackpad. The one used is adequate and sensitive, paired with a touchscreen it works for most purposes. But if you are planning to do fine detail I would recommend using a mouse or perhaps a Microsoft Surface pen. The other thing I’d like to comment on is battery life. Seems to me this device could benefit from a boost in battery life… It appears that the keyboard half of the device houses the GPU and feasible more batteries than the tablet detached alone, so I would expect 8-10 hours of power but in reality I was running out of juice at about 5-6 at the most. Other than that, I am very pleased with the Surface Book 3 and its graphics and performance capabilities. It is also a beautiful thing to behold. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.

I bought the Surface Book 3 to replace my Surface Pro 4 that I bought in 2016 because the SP4 was overheating and glitching. I'm happy that the pen and docking station I bought for the SP4 still work for the SB3. The charger for the SP4 won't work with the SB3 but luckily a charger came with it. Yes, it's pretty expensive but I really like that I am able to detach it and use it as a tablet. Very helpful for taking notes in college. And this one has much more memory and SSD than my SP4 which I needed. I've been using the SB3 for 2 weeks now and haven't really had any problems with it. It's fast and the battery lasts much longer than my SP4. It was relatively easy to transfer Microsoft Office 365 to the SB3 because all I had to do was log into my Microsoft account. The only issue I had was on my second day of using it, I turned it on and the screen glitched then all the icons on my desktop disappeared. I couldn't even access the Start menu to shut it down. I had to hold down the power button to shut it off. When I turned it back on it was back to normal. Not sure if it was a software thing because there were still a few updates I needed to finish, or if it was a hardware issue because when I picked up the SB3 from the store after they ordered it, the side of the box was crushed like something heavy fell on top of it during transportation. (Side note: kind of disappointed that the Best Buy employee didn't say anything about the damaged box or inform me of my options if the SB3 turned out to be damaged during transportation) Hoping it was just a one-time glitch because I've been using it everyday for the past two weeks and it hasn't happened again.

One of the best of many laptops I have used for business. Fast, lightweight, stylish, easy to carry in even a light briefcase. Good battery life also. Display is stunning. Could use an HDMI port, although that's easy to work around these days.