The Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) is a high-quality laptop that can replace your desktop. It’s an excellent choice for creative professionals who want the best of both worlds: workstation performance and tablet portability.
- Series: Surface Book 2
- Brand: Microsoft
- Color: Silver
- Screen Size: 13.5 inches
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
- Battery Life: 13 hours
This Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) Review will explore what makes this computer so good, why it’s different from Microsoft’s other laptops, and how it stacks up to Apple’s MacBook Pro 13” in terms of price point, specs, design, battery life and more.
Table of Contents
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Design
The Surface Book 2 is the type of laptop you can’t help but notice. It doesn’t really change much from its prior edition, and still maintains that signature look: an elegant gray magnesium body with a reflective logo on top – not to mention it’s always open-backed due to those hinges!
The Microsoft Surface Book has a sleek, modern design that will catch your eye. The 3:2 screen size and 13.5-inch inch display are what make this laptop stand out from other competitors in its class but also has some limitations for everyday use – like the lack of touch functionality or stylus support!
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How to Microsoft Surface Book 2 Display?
I watched a 4K open-source movie on the Surface Book 2 and saw colorful holograms that shined brightly as if they were real. The screen was crisp with perfect clarity; it made me think about how amazing technology has become in just 20 years!
The screen covers an awesome 130% of the sRGB color gamut, tied only by Miix. The ultraportable average is lower at 103%. However, XPS 13 reproduces 112% and Spectre 109%.
Keyboard, Touchpad, and Stylus
The Surface Book 2’s keyboard is on the shallow side, with just 1.2 millimeters of travel and a required 70g to press. Despite that, I found it satisfying enough for typing as my accuracy improved by half compared to usual rates at the 10fastfingers test (beyond what has normally been seen in speed tests between 107-116 words per minute).
I was using the 4.1 x 2.7 touchpad on my laptop and I had no issues whatsoever with recognizing gestures or responding quickly, even if scrolling through web pages in Safari was pretty quick! It also worked well when activating Cortana by tapping away at nothingness–yes indeed there is still some spare room beneath your desk after all those emails were sent backtrackin’.
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Audio
One of the best features of Microsoft’s latest Surface Book 2 is its innovative stylus, but I found that it can sometimes attach magnets to the base.
Apart from the speakers on my new Surface Book 2 being a little too soft for what I would like to hear, there’s no fault found in their performance. When listening closely and paying attention only Camila Cabello was able to sing her way through “Havana” with clear vocals as well as all other instruments involved such as drums snaps or keyboards; however, if this song were just slightly louder then it would be truly great sounding music!
How does the Microsoft Surface Book 2 perform?
The speakers on the Surface Book 2 are adequate for most multimedia, though I wouldn’t mind if they were just a smidge louder. When listening to Camila Cabello’s “Havana,” her vocals and drum snaps came through clearly but only filled our midsize conference room with enough volume so everyone could hear it without having their own personal music playing at high volumes in headphones or earbuds. If there was more sound pressure output from these computer audio components then this track would truly be great!
The Microsoft Surface Book 2 notched a score of 12,221 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test – beating other devices by up to 20%. However, it lost out when compared to high-end laptops like Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina Display (score 10500) or Dell’s XPS 13-9360(11400).
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Graphics
With the new GTX 1050, you’ll be able to game on medium settings without sacrificing too much performance. But don’t worry about getting stuck with low graphics or having your computer slow down because of this card – it can play Rise Of The Tomb Raider at 33 fps!
The Surface Book 2 strays from the pack and scores well above average on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, with a performance that easily surpasses competitors such as laptops using Intel’s integrated HD 620 graphics.
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Battery Life
The Surface Book 2 is the perfect laptop for those who like to work on the go. The base of this luxurious hybrid device supports up to 13 hours and it endured 7 minutes longer than any other model we tested, including competitors such as Lenovo’s XPS 13 (10:48) or HP Spectre x360 11(8:26).
The Miix petered out after just 5 minutes but if you need something that lasts all day then get yourself one of these babies!
The tablet’s battery life is not great, but you can prolong it by using the charger. This laptop lasted for 3 hours and 4 minutes on its own!
Webcams
The selfie I took with the Surface Book 2’s front-facing camera is perfect. My face was clear as day, individual hairs on my head and beard were easy to make out, plus blue eyes popped against light skin!
The rear camera of this phone is an outright genius. It accurately captured every shade in the leaves, from green to brown and everything in between – just look at how it got that unfortunate spot on top!
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Heat
You won’t be able to handle the Surface Book 2 for long periods of time if it gets too hot. After streaming HD video from YouTube, we measured 84 degrees on its back—below our 95-degree comfort threshold!
The Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) is a high-quality laptop that can replace your desktop. It’s an excellent choice for creative professionals who want the best of both worlds: workstation performance and tablet portability.
This Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) Review will explore what makes this computer so good, why it’s different from Microsoft’s other laptops, and how it stacks up to Apple’s MacBook Pro 13″ in terms of price point, specs, design, battery life and more.
Software and Warranty
Because Microsoft’s Surface computers are so sparse with third-party junk, they’re a great option for those who don’t want their computer getting bogged down by all that clutter. Beyond just showing battery levels and stylus settings through the app “Surface” there isn’t much built-in at all–just as you’d expect from any copy of Windows 10 installed on these devices!
Microsoft’s official warranty is one year, but they don’t offer it for the Surface Book 2. See how Microsoft ranked in our list of best and worst tech brands to know if you should buy an extra protection plan or not!
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Configurations?
The Surface Book 2 we reviewed costs $1,999 and includes an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU with 8GB of RAM as well as a 256GB SSD. This computer also features Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 2 GB VRAM to power your virtual reality needs!
Thanks to a 2021 update, the base model of Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 is now equipped with an 8th Gen Intel Core i5 processor instead of its predecessor. The price remains at $1 499 without any discrete graphics or extra RAM but you can upgrade both if you desire so for less than what was originally invested in buying these components separately!
Let’s see how much storage you need with the 512GB model. That’ll be $2,499 for a quad-core processor and 16GB of RAM or 1TB/16 GB to get as many gigs as possible without breaking a sweat!
Microsoft Surface Book 2 Bottom Line
With the new Surface Book 2, Microsoft has stuck to its guns of designing high-end laptops. The detachable tablet and stylus are still present in this laptop which offers amazing battery life with its 3:2 PixelSense display that’s ideal for artists or people who want more screen real estate without having huge bezels around them like on some notebooks out there–all at a reasonable price point!
Not interested in the XPS 13 or Spectre x360 laptops? The answer is simple: choose between this Dell laptop that offers better battery life (over 16 hours), a brilliant screen, and faster speeds.
Conclusion:
The Surface Book 2 is the most powerful laptop on the market right now. If you’re looking for a device that can handle your demanding workload, this could be it. It’s not cheap at $1,499 (for an Intel Core i5 model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD), but if money isn’t an object.
