On Tuesday, Microsoft announced several new products at the event: two new Lumia smartphones, a new fitness-focused Microsoft Band 2, Surface Pro 4 tablet and the surprising Surface Book.
All about Surface Book:
Branded as the “Ultimate Laptop”, it is the first in-house laptop launched by the company. Its more of a hybrid laptop with surface pro at the core. Its display can be detached from its keyboard base and used as a standalone tablet. Microsoft has put a lot of effort in making keyboard and screen components durable. The screen can be detached and separated from its keyboard. In tablet mode, Surface Book is bigger and wider that the company’s new 12-inch Surface Pro 4. Without keyboard, it is 1.6 pounds.
An incredibly sturdy laptop, it sports a 13.5 inch screen packed with 6 million pixels. It has got powerful Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors and users can also opt for a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GPU with GDDR5 video memory. The graphics chip works great for graphically intensive programs such as video editing apps. This chip lives in the keyboard base. And when you disconnect tablet form keyboard, some of its processing capabilities are cut.
It’s super easy to convert it from a laptop to a tablet. There’s a button the upper right-hand side of the keyboard which when pressed lets you detach the tablet from the screen. The keyboard is fully-sized and trackpad is also fantastic. There’s a new way to attach stylus pen to tablet via magnets which is a lot better than the fabric loop Microsoft used in the past. The pen comes with an eraser that can be used to remove notes on the back of stylus.
It features a body built out of magnesium and comes with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of RAM. Surface Book features two USB 3.0 ports, a full-size SD card reader and a Mini Displayport. In terms of connectivity, it offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, and Bluetooth 4.0.
The most interesting hardware feature is the Surface Book’s hinge. Microsoft is calling it as a “dynamic fulcrum hinge.” It just means that its hinge seems to flex when display is opened and closed. This does not allow the Book’s display to lie flat on the keyboard. It is a high-powered machine with up to 16GB of RAM.
Surface Book laptop claims to be twice as fast as Apple’s MacBook Pro.
A quick look at Microsoft Surface Book:
| Specifications | Details |
| Construction Quality | Casing: Magnesium | Color: Silver | Physical buttons: Volume, Power |
| Display | Screen: 13.5” PixelSense™ display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) |
| Dimensions | 12.30” x 9.14” x 0.51 – 0.90” (312.3mm x 232.1mm x 13.0 – 22.8mm) |
| Weight | Starting at 3.34 pounds (1,516 grams) including keyboard |
| Processor | 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 |
| Memory | 8GB or 16GB |
| Storage | Solid state drive (SSD) options: 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB |
| Battery Life | Up to 12 hours |
| Graphics | i5: Intel® HD graphics 520 i5/i7: NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Processor |
Camera | 5.0 megapixel front-facing camera | 8.0 megapixel rear-facing |
| Security | TPM chip |
| Wireless | 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology |
| Audio | Dual Microphones, front and rear facing | Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby audio |
| Sensors | Ambient light sensor • Accelerometer • Gyroscope • Magnetometer |
| Price | Starts at $1,499 |
This laptop is legitimately exciting and one of the coolest gadgets available today.
What are your thoughts about this laptop cum tablet? Share with us in the comments!
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