Customer Ratings & Reviews

It works great. It's a nice laptop. Definitely worth the money.

Bought this for my son as he is entering college. He loves it.

Geek Squad was good once I got thru waiting for an hour.

That was a gift for my son practice your homework at home

Good features.. But there were some blue screen issue initially, got fixed after the os update

This computer is FAST! Maybe I've just had my old computer for too long, but I've been very impressed by the speed of my new Surface Book. My old desktop has a 27 inch screen but this is now my go-to computer. Additionally, I'm a huge fan of the beautiful display, detachable screen, and versatile pen. The downside is obviously the price. It is by no means cheap. I myself had to think long and hard about spending that kind of money on a computer (or anything else for that matter). But if, like me, you do decide to take the plunge, I'm sure you'll enjoy this amazing machine as much as I do.

I originally purchased an i5 256GB GPU model and due to the constant locking up and overheating when docked through the MS docking station to two 24" monitors, I thought I may have been asking too much from it. I returned it and purchased the i7 but found the same results. I write a lot of notes and really wanted this to work.

I really do not like this computer and have tried to like it. I hate Windows 10 to start and the computer recognizes me at times and other times I have to enter the code to access the computer. The only things I like is the versatility and lightweightness.

If I could redo I would have gone with the MacBook. I am terribly disappointed in this surfacebook. The reviews and the hype made me feel as if I couldn't go wrong. It has been nothing but bugs and fixes since I brought it home. Maybe it's just a bad machine but I would not recommend it to anyone.

I purchased and primarily use my Surface Book (SB) for heavy business use (power user), light tablet use, and almost no graphic intensive use. When it works properly, the SB is an amazing piece of technology which meets all of my needs and even added several other new productivity tools to my arsenal. In short, I love it, BUT… Let me also share a few other important facts (IMHO at least) to keep in mind as you read: I am on my third SB and am not convinced it will even make it to the end of its one-year limited warranty, if you are not tech savvy this is NOT for you, and short of needing this for heavy graphics use, there is absolutely no need to purchase one with a dedicated graphics card. I started with the base SB (i5 with 128GB SSD) and was happy with its performance until it failed slightly more than two weeks after purchase (think blue screen resembling an 80’s video game). When I exchanged the defective unit, I wanted to try the i5 with 256GB SSD and dedicated graphics, but the last one in stock had just been used in another exchange (telling, I know). So I grabbed the low end i7 and when I turned it on, it skipped setup and went straight to a login screen. Back I went to Best Buy to exchange it for SB #3. When I arrived I was informed by the tech that this was a known bug, but assured me it was a new unit. Nonetheless, I was provided a new machine which we turned on in-store to verify it went to the setup screen. When I got home and opened it back up to complete set-up, it was back on the same login screen as the prior SB had been. After a short web search, I discovered the “fix” was to re-start the machine at which point it does go to a setup screen. Note: Since Best Buy clearly knew of this bug, I was disappointed that they neither shared this information nor the solution that I had to look up on line. All of this, just so I can finally get to my review. Based on what I had read I expected great performance from Microsoft’s base apps (i.e. Office apps) and the apps which were available in the Store. While they may be useful for lighter users who shouldn’t be buying this product in the first place, most are nowhere near as robust as their desktop equivalents and the Store apps regularly crash and close for no apparent reason. The reason I discourage non-tech savvy users from purchasing this is because MS is still working out A LOT of bugs. To their credit, the requisite updates are coming at a furious pace (including several firmware updates). However, you can no longer choose what to install or when to install it. The updates are either immediately downloaded and installed or “deferred” for up to four months when they will still be automatically downloaded and installed. This has already required a couple of system rebuilds which are not for the faint of heart or those who do not do a good job of backing up their data and system. For those of you who require connectivity, Microsoft inexplicably chose to use the same HORRIBLE wireless adapter which was resoundingly torched as such in previous Surface Pro models. For reference, I am less than 30 feet from my 75/75 FiOS Quantum Router which broadcasts both 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz and have only one bar on my wireless indicator. Though not hardware related, it still makes no sense that that third-party software is still required to sync Outlook with Google especially with the claims on how well integrated everything is in Windows 10. There are also other W10 features that were removed from the beta (which shouldn’t have been) or are still lacking despite the progress it made over 8.1; and yes, 7 as well. Other problems I have encountered are the screen getting extremely hot (inexplicably, if you shut down the machine in an attempt to allow it to cool, the fan immediately stops running), there are major issues with screen brightness (which I have set on max) as it has become unreadable or almost unreadable on several occasions and required me to re-start just to be able to see it, the screen is nowhere near as bright as when I first purchased the unit, apps and desktop software randomly locking up or not closing for no apparent reason, and an inability to re-start/shut down at times. Hence why I am highly concerned that my $2,000+ SB will make it a year. Since brevity was impossible in order to get the above points across, unless directly contradicted in my review, you may assume any other advertisements, claims, and/or reviews regarding all of the amazing things this product can do are true. While this may be hard to believe based on my review, I love this machine although I wish I had stuck with my original base model (for all the aggravation to-date, how about you make this happen Best Buy?) and I get excited each time I discover and use one of its many new features. However, since this is no inexpensive toy, I thought it was more important to share the factors that may matter most to potential buyers. I hope you found this helpful. Note: Since I tested both the base i5 and i7, I would recommend the i5 to my friends as a 3-star product with the potential to get close to 5, but not the 2-star i7 which grossly underwhelms for the price tag.

the laptop is good, but freezes when disconnecting and connecting

PRO's: This is a very good tablet/laptop hybrid. The machine is fast and very responsive. The display is good and the touch panel works great. When undocked from the keyboard the "tablet" portion is VERY light. When docked it is on par with a light/slim laptop. Complaints/Missing features: #1. They should have put a kickstand on the tablet so you could prop it up when undocked. This would have been such a simple addition given it is already available on the Surface Pro... this seems like an oversight that I would think they'll add in the next revision. Yes, I know this is marketed as a laptop, but it would only increase the flexibility of this device. #2. I'm not a huge fan of the undock button being a switch that only works if the device is powered. I will have to see how this plays out in real life use after I've had it for a longer period of time. Seems like a nice physical switch would have been a better idea. I tried to undock it last night and was told "Charging, try again later". What if I want to just take the tablet and power cord with me, and not take the keyboard? Overall, so far I really like the device and have only seen a few minor drawbacks.

Fantastic Laptop first. The size is great. Its very light and managable. I replaced a 15" macbook pro with this surface book. I really needed something i could use with the power of laptop but had the functionality of a tablet when I wanted it. This hits just right in every way. The bad: When I picked up the laptop I spent and evening troubleshooting the pen trying to figure out why the back end worked but not the tip. Just so happened my pen's gold connectors inside were damaged from the manufacturer so the tip was useless. BBuy swapped it out for me. I'm not a fan of how short the laptop charging cable is. MS is trying to put this laptop up against the Macbook and the only thing I can find they didn't do well was the length of the charger. The one that came with my 2011 macbook pro almost twice as long. Lastly i just find the headphone jack in an odd spot when in laptop mode. Its placement is fine if you are only using it as a tablet. Would have been nice to have a second jack on the base. The good: Screen is beautiful. I have not been able to see the individual pixels. Battery life is solid and i like that you always know the status of both batteries individually to know the screen by itself vs the base. The pen is sensitive and accurate. Search for "calibrate" after your laptop is up and ready to set the touch screen and pen. The magnet is strong and long for the pen. It takes effort to knock it off the screen. writing with the pen actually has a good feel to it. It feels like you are writing with an actual pen and less like using a stylus on a screen to me. The keyboard keys area nice balance of soft and mechanical. The hinge is incredibly strong. It is very difficult to curl when the screen is not attached. I'm going to have to research this but it appears that the touch-pad has a "left button" and "right button" side to it. this will take some getting used to. Still learning everything but overall I am very impressed. I have a background building computers, photo and video editing, engineering and design work. So far this version with the I7 and GPU have been able to run all the programs i use smoothly. But anything graphic intensive will not run on the tablet by itself. Whats nice is the laptop will let you know if you can or can't use the software before you detach it. Overall I'm really enjoying and look forward to learning more about it.

I purchased my surface book from the Microsoft store on 11/1/15 and it was 1 from the original shipment. Best buy would have gotten my business if they had the surface book in stock as I purchase most things I can from best buy. The unit I purchased from the Microsoft store was plagued with lots of bugs and problems. Restarts freezing etc. I was ready to return the laptop for a new one but none were available to exchange and since I was still within return period I decided to give surface support a chance. From that point till 11/08/15 I have worked with online surface support and my laptop is now flawless. Microsoft support is excellent. I will admit that in the beginning I was frustrated and upset that my laptop was having so many problems but Microsoft was willing to do everything in their power to make me happy and they have. I now own the ultimate laptop. It is powerful and perfect for what I do (I design rugs on photoshop). Bottom line, If you want this laptop and its within your budget, give it a chance. You only have the ultimate laptop to gain.

B.L.U.F. (Bottom Line Up Front) I will be returning my I7 256gb Surface Book due to issues with the pen and release dock. Neither of these features are totally "broken" but they are intermittent. Full disclosure - I am a Mac enthusiast. However, I really do not mind Win10 and this device has a lot of potential. Pro: Display looks great. Fast - I was running some programs that require some heavy processing power and it worked great. These programs are only available in Windows. I run the programs on a 15 inch MacBook Pro Retina via Parallels and the Surface Book is much faster. In defense on the MBP it is running Parallels and OS. Tablet Mode: When the screen is removed and used as a tablet, it works and feels great. Thin, light and responsive. Keyboard: Keyboard is solid. Trackpad is NOT. Cons: Trackpad: I installed the firmware update. The trackpad is wonk. It is fully functional, but it is not even in the same ballpark as the MBP. Battery: No way this is a 12 hour machine. Not even close. Glitches (these may be isolated to this machine) Pen: Was working good in OI ne Note then started cutting out. Sort of like a pen running out of ink. Release Latch: I am rarely able to remove the screen on the first try. When I rotate the screen and reattach, the machine usually locks up touchscreen and the trackpad. With the glitches, I cannot keep the machine. Without the glitches, I think it would be a very good machine. It needs a little more refinement to become great.

The initial release-day software for the Surface Book had a bunch of issues, but the latest update fixes 99% of the problems!!! It really is a fantastic machine once you have the latest software on it! The far majority of negative reviews for the Surface Book are not because of hardware problems, but rather bugs in the easily updatable software that comes pre-loaded on the launch day machines. So as soon as you get the device, click 'Start' -> type 'check for updates' -> press enter -> click the 'check for updates' button -> download and install all the available updates. (Firmware, Windows patches, etc) Or simply ask the store to do it for you before you even leave! Frozen touchpad, display driver crashing, system freezing during dock/undock, fan always running or oddly spinning up and down -- all of these and more are fixed with the latest software update! Did you first boot up your machine and see a weird 'other user' account, as if someone else was already using your new machine? Don't worry, that's actually just the account Microsoft uses in the factory to test and install the initial software with! To fix this, simply restart your PC while holding the 'shift' key. Keep holding 'shift' while the PC restarts until you see the Windows setup screen. From here, it will walk you through setting up the PC just as it normally should have when you first powered it on. (Seems someone in the factory didn't set the flag to make it launch the first time setup on some of the machines) After installing the latest updates, I've stress tested with Prime95, Intel Burn Test, and 3DMark and the machine has remained rock-solid stable. It impressively keeps temperatures under 50C during these heavy loads without throttling the CPU as well. (That's exceedingly rare for laptop CPUs, especially one confined to such a small space) I've also run a Linux virtual machine and a few simpler, but stressful games under it as well without issue. Hopefully, they'll just start sending these out from the store with the latest software on it soon, but even if they don't.. it's really easy to fix...

Let me first start out by saying I love this machine. It does absolutely ALMOST everything I want it to but we will get to that later. Windows 10 along with the Surface run great in tandem it's almost like they were designed for one another (go figure). The pen feels and writes/draws like a dream! Can't wait to try it at school and work! There are countless other reasons to buy the surface book. The good far outweigh the bad so far (4 days in). Now let's talk cons: Problem: 1 When I first started the machine (the i7 256gb with the nvidia dgpu) it went straight to the logging screen and could not connect to the Internet to sign in to my Microsoft account. So to troubleshoot this I was forced to restart and turn-off the computer several times and finally was given the correct start-up screen. Ok so problem 1 solved. Problem: 2 Once I created a new account blah blah I obviously decided to surf the web and give my machine a test run. BOOM! Problem 2 arrives! Microsoft edge was telling me that every website I went to had security certificate issues. So after looking this up on my other computer I found that the computers clock needed to be synced. This was a minor problem but one worth mentioning. Problem: 3 After about 7 hours of ownership and about 2 hours of sleep mode for the surface I decided to log back in. At first everything was fine but within 10 minutes the trackpad stopped working! So once again I went into "troubleshooting mode" and had to remove and reconnect the screen to the keyboard.....bad connectivity I guess. Luckily I haven't had any further issues since then. Problem: 4......maybe This by some may not be viewed as a problem but for me it is more than a little disappointing and for paying a little over $2,600.00 I expected more. Now let's start out by saying yes I am a gamer at heart and no Microsoft never advertised this as a gaming laptop but again for that price tag we should have gotten at least a GTX 960m inside. So as you might have expected the dgpu is quite underwhelming. In fact the dgpu was made specifically for the surface and is not supported by nvidia at all. The driver can only be updated by windows updates!! BOO!! Goodbye customized game settings and updates from the actual maker of the gpu! It does however run most games on good or low settings and the games still look great with the very high resolution that the surface provides. Oh and ps. Be prepared to deal with extremely small text on some apps and games due to the high resolution (this could be a 5th problem but hopefully the apps will catch up soon and really isn't an issue with the surface or Windows 10). Conclusion: BUY IT!!! This machine rocks!!! These rather minor bumps in the proverbial road are in no way enough of a reason to return or not buy this awesome machine and as I said in the intro this machine does almost everything I desire it to! I love my surface book and I hope you do as well!

I decided to replace my 3 year old macbook pro, that can be nothing but problems since day 1 of ownership. The battery was replaced twice, because of a "bulging" battery and the CPU fan went out 3 times. Nothing like having an 18-year old pimple-faced apple genius tell you that apple products are superior products and recommends replacing my macbook pro with a new one because it's getting old... After installing windows 10 on my imac, I fell in love with it. Bit the bullet and got a surface book. It has a gorgeous screen and premium build quality. I made the switch! From a Mac to a PC!!!

I loved the design of the Surface Book, but I ended up returning it. Why? It was supposed to have 8 GB of RAM, but only showed 4 GB under the system settings. How can a $2,000 laptop be missing half its memory? Scared off by such a glaring defect, I exchanged it for an HP Spectre x360, which isn't perfect but I'm liking it so far -- and it had all its memory and a bigger 512 GB solid-state hard drive. Oh, and there was one other bug with the Surface Book: The first time I booted it up I got a login screen for "Other user." Logging in with my Microsoft account failed. I had to restart it, and then the setup wizard kicked in.

It is super light, super fast and just a dream to use. The battery life is amazing, the screen is gorgeous, the keyboard is wonderful. I really couldn't find anything wrong, I love it.