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  • Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here

  • So this is the Surface Book 2, the 13 inch version

  • Now, when the original Surface Book launched in 2015

  • I thought it was some of the coolest pieces of tech available at the time

  • It's just really impressive because

  • No one else was making something quite like it. Two years later, we're still there

  • No one else is making something quite like this

  • The CPU is built into the screen

  • It's removable and it's a fully functional tablet by itself

  • And then the GPU is in the keyboard so when they connect, it becomes a full-fledged

  • graphically powered laptop, so...

  • I mean a lot of people want something like this

  • It's something quite unique

  • But it comes at a pretty steep price tag

  • This thing, this unit here, starts at $2000 US

  • Now, there is a cheaper version

  • But the cheaper version does not have the dedicated graphics card

  • in the keyboard so that makes it not as cool

  • Or just not as unique to be honest

  • So I'm going to focus just the experience on this one, the $2000 version

  • Now, there's a 15 inch version that's significantly more expensive

  • I may do video in the future on that but, 13-inch for this video

  • I want to talk about the hinge first. This is a hinge that, when it first was announced

  • I had mixed feelings about it because I felt like there's so many moving parts

  • There's places that dust can get into, there's just a lot of things that could go wrong,

  • I thought

  • That's not the case. Two years later

  • People still don't have any major issues with the hinge

  • Now the design isn't for everyone. It can look a little bit weird

  • But functionally and mechanically, it's really well made. When you open it up

  • You'll notice that very little has changed aesthetically

  • The screen is still the 3 by 2 aspect ratio with good color accuracy. It's bright

  • It's high-res. There's no complaints here. There's no pen in the box this year

  • It's an extra 100 bucks if you want to buy one, which I thought was a little bit weird

  • But I guess not everyone uses a pen so it's understandable

  • The one I'm using is actually from the Eve and it works perfectly fine

  • The keyboard and trackpad are nice

  • It's a noticeably better typing experience than the original Surface Book

  • It's a little bit quieter, and it just feels more responsive

  • than the original Surface Book keyboard, not that that one was bad

  • It was already good. This is just a little bit better. The trackpad has also improved

  • It's obviously still running Windows Precision drivers

  • The button mechanism feels a little more deliberate when you press it

  • And it's a little bit louder than I remember the Surface Book 1 to be

  • but it feels awesome, so keyboard, trackpad, both excellent

  • Performance is good. It's the quad core Kaby Lake-R

  • It's a 15 watt CPU, but it's fast in short bursts. Multi-core performance is really strong now

  • But the question is whether this extra speed really makes a big difference for what you do

  • And it really depends on your workflow

  • The truth is for the majority of people that are using a device like this it won't make their workflow

  • Or just work experience that much faster

  • You need specific apps that can handle multi-core processing

  • Some computational stuff will really benefit from it and same with video editing

  • But at the end of the day, it is a 15 watt U processor

  • So it's not gonna be the fastest laptop in the world. One thing to keep in mind, the 13 inch version

  • does not have a fan in the tablet component.

  • The 15 inch version of this device like the Surface Book 2, 15 inch screen

  • does have the same processor as this, but there is a fan in there

  • So it's able to run at a higher clock speed for longer periods of time. It also pulls

  • I think 20 watts instead of the 15 watt at max

  • There is some CPU throttling when you push it hard enough

  • But most people won't notice it because this is not the device that people would choose

  • for really heavy CPU activity. In terms of gaming performance,

  • It's actually pretty good. The GTX 1050 pushes out some decent performance

  • You have to run it at a lower-than-native resolution

  • But light-to-moderately demanding titles are very playable on this device

  • There are reports that the 15 inch version with the GTX 1060

  • is actually pulling more power than the AC adapter can supply

  • So it's actually draining batteries while you're using it

  • That doesn't happen on the 13 inch version because this is running a 1050

  • Slightly less power drain, so yeah. If you want to play games on this device

  • I mean, neither of them are a good choice

  • But the issue doesn't happen on the 13 inch version

  • The speakers. Surprisingly, these have been improved this year

  • They're not as good as the 13 inch MacBook Pro speakers, but they sound pretty good

  • And they're positioned well, you get really nice stereo separation

  • - The webcam is really good. It's actually one of the best webcams

  • I've seen on a laptop. The mic quality sounds pretty good as well

  • Battery life on this thing is very good

  • I'm getting around 10 hours of use with the screen at 250 nits

  • Now, this is with it in laptop mode. With the screen removed and just using it as a clipboard,

  • I'm only getting around three hours

  • This has a 23 watt hour battery inside the screen, and I think 67 watt hour battery inside the base

  • But overall, good battery life

  • It'll easily last you the full day, and for people that aren't familiar with how the charging works

  • You can charge the tablet by itself or you can connect the tablet to the keyboard

  • and just charge the base and everything will charge up altogether

  • The drive speeds are a mixed bag

  • The read speeds are fast but the write speeds are a little bit slow

  • The thermals are good

  • The temperatures are comfortable both in tablet and laptop mode

  • The fan noise under max load is a little bit loud

  • But it's kind of expected considering the size of the chassis, so there's a lot of stuff

  • I like about the Surface Book 2, but the big things are not so much the CPU and the GPU upgrades

  • It's the little things, like the things like the speakers, the keyboard, the trackpad

  • Things that they didn't have to change but they tweaked it anyways

  • because they're just trying to make a better product overall and I really like that

  • That being said, there are things that I dislike about this thing

  • And the first one, the big one, is the price. Now the price

  • When you first look at this thing seems very expensive

  • It's $2,000 for a 13-inch laptop with a U processor and a GTX 1050

  • If you spent that money on something like an XPS 15

  • You'd get something that's more powerful, but the reason why it costs this much is because

  • Microsoft is the only company making something like this

  • No one else makes something like this and

  • The reason why is because it's super hard to engineer this hinge

  • And it's super hard to engineer this device to have a CPU up top

  • and the GPU on the bottom because if it wasn't hard, you bet that Huawei or

  • Xiaomi would make something like this for a lot less money

  • But they aren't because they can't, and that is why they can charge

  • whatever they want to. I don't like the price

  • I still feel like it's like 10, 15 percent more than it should be

  • Because this is such a good product if it was more

  • appropriately priced, more reasonably priced

  • I think a lot of people could make great use of this

  • But we can't because it's just a little bit another price range for a lot of people

  • which is unfortunate. The other thing I don't like about this thing,

  • is the lack of a Thunderbolt 3 port. So it has a decent port selection,

  • two USB 3.0's, an SD card slot and a USB-C

  • But it doesn't support Thunderbolt 3 and that really bugs me

  • because, this is a device that costs as much as it does and

  • It's their flagship products, right? Every single other manufacturer out there

  • who's making flagship laptops has Thunderbolt 3 support in 2017

  • and it just lets you connect to faster storage, external GPUs,

  • 4K displays or at least multiple 4K displays

  • There's just a lot of good features that come with Thunderbolt 3

  • And it seems so weird that they didn't include it

  • Now, the omission of Thunderbolt 3 feels almost

  • purposeful like they did it with intent and that's what bugs me

  • Like, are they waiting for the Surface Book 3 to come out so they can sell that or

  • Was it something like cost-saving measure?

  • I have no idea, but it doesn't make sense to me as to why they didn't include such a

  • ubiquitously useful port in late 2017, and I guess that leads to my last thing

  • I don't love about it. The AC adapter they include is a proprietary connector,

  • and it would have been nice if they included a USB-C adapter

  • You can charge it through that port, you just need to supply your own adapter

  • So overall, great device

  • You just got to make sure that you're using it to its full

  • purpose because, if you're buying this and you're not making use of the tablet

  • And you're not making use of the detach ability and all that,

  • then there are probably cheaper devices

  • that would have been a better fit, but if you can make use of it

  • and you can afford its relatively high price tag, you're gonna enjoy it.

  • Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video!

  • Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it!

  • See you guys next time!

Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here

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