Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) Review

CPUIntel Core i7-8650U CPU
Operating SystemWindows 10 Pro
RAM8GB
RAM Upgradable to
Hard Drive Size256GB SSD
Hard Drive Speed
Hard Drive Type
Secondary Hard Drive Size
Secondary Hard Drive Speed
Secondary Hard Drive Type
Display Size13.5
Highest Available Resolution3000 x 2000
Native Resolution3000 x 2000
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Speed
Graphics CardNvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU / 2GB
Video Memory2GB
Wi-Fi802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Wi-Fi ModelIEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
BluetoothBluetooth 4.1
Mobile Broadband
Touchpad Size4.1 x 2.7 inches
Ports (excluding USB)USB 3.1 with Type-C
Ports (excluding USB)Headphone/Mic
Ports (excluding USB)Surface Connect
Ports (excluding USB)USB 3.1
USB Ports3
Card SlotsSD memory reader
Warranty/Support1-year warranty
Size12.3 x 9.14 x 0.90 inches
Weight3.56 pounds
Company Websitemicrosoft.com

Design

You might not notice by looking at it, but yes, this is a brand-new laptop. From the outside, the Surface Book 2 hasn't changed much from its prior iteration, and it maintains its greatest trick: detaching from the keyboard to turn into a tablet. It's still gray magnesium with a reflective Windows logo stamped on the lid. And, in Surface Book tradition, it doesn't close, prevented from doing so by its fulcrum hinge.
Surface Book 2 
Lifting the lid reveals the 3:2, 13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000 PixelSense display. While Microsoft told us the hinge is stronger than the one on the first-gen Surface Book, the part still would flop a bit while on my lap. The deck and keyboard are made of the same, clean, gray plastic that, while attractive, draws your attention toward the screen more than anything else.
At 3.6 pounds and 12.3 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches, the Surface Book 2 is significantly larger than other 13-inch laptops. The HP Spectre x360 is 2.9 pounds and 12 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches, while the Dell XPS 13 is 2.8 pounds and 12 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches. The Lenovo Miix 720 is easily the lightest, at 2.6 pounds with the keyboard, and is 11.5 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches. However, none of these competitors features a detachable screen.
The Surface Book 2 is a bit slight on ports compared to its competitors. On its left side are a pair of USB 3.1 ports and an SD card reader, and the right side boasts a USB Type-C port and a proprietary Surface Connect port. There's another Surface Connect port on the bottom of the tablet, so you can charge that independently. The headphone jack is on the right side of the tablet, which is awkward because you'll have some cable slack. But it's a necessary evil if you want to be able to use headphones when you remove the tablet from the base.
USB Type-C is a big addition, as Microsoft has been steadfast that this port wasn't ready for prime time, famously skipping it over and over again on the Surface Pro and earlier this year on the Surface Laptop. At this price, though, Microsoft really ought to take it one step further and include Thunderbolt 3, for faster data-transfer speeds.

Display

The display on the Surface Book 2 is still best-in-class. The 13.5-inch, 3:2, 3000 x 2000 display is crisp, brilliant and oh-so-colorful. When I watched the 4K open-source movie Tears of Steel, blue, orange, green and purple holograms shined brightly in a black lab, and I could see individual ivy leaves on columns.
The screen covers an awesome 130 percent of the sRGB color gamut, tied only by the Miix. The ultraportable average is lower, at 103 percent, while the XPS 13 reproduces 112 percent of the sRGB gamut and the Spectre covers 109 percent.
The Surface Book 2 measured 374 nits of brightness, far higher than the average of 289 nits, as well as scores from the XPS 13 (368 nits), Miix (361 nits) and Spectre (313 nits).

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, the keys feel great, with an appropriate clickiness that makes them satisfying to type on. Case in point: I reached a blazing 119 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test (beyond my usual 107- to 116-wpm range), with just a 1 percent error rate (half my usual rate of mistakes).
Microsoft's 4.1 x 2.7 touchpad is smooth and uses the Precision Drivers the company designed for Windows, so it's no surprise that this touchpad recognizes gestures instantly. Whether I was scrolling through the web browser or tapping to summon Cortana, it worked the first time, every time.
The Surface Pen ($99.99, sold separately) is still the best stylus on the market. It's almost lag-free, has 4,096 degrees of pressure sensitivity and registers tilts for shading. It is supposed to attach magnetically to only the left side of the Surface Book 2's tablet (though it can attach to either side on the 15-inch model), but I found that it sometimes connected to magnets in the base when I put the stylus on my desk.

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