Upgrading from the Surface Pro 4 which was plagued with quality control issues and screen problems, the Surface Book 2 seemed to have fixed all the gripes I had about the Surface Pro 4. After using it for several months now, I noticed it has incredible battery life, a great Microsoft Precision Trackpad/Drivers, and its quiet fan-less design. Speakers were decent enough, but their front firing locations on the screen is what really made it shine. No more distorted sound coming from the base of an average laptop. Screen is super sharp 3:2 ratio screen which is great for productivity and web surfing, not 4k level resolution though(saves battery life). Also the magnetic power cable is handy if I accidentally trip over the cable. Since the base of the laptop is mainly battery cells, I can use this laptop while lying down on the carpet, sofa, bed, etc. without blocking any fans or causing overheating of components.
Now comes the criticism:
1) The two USB 3.1 ports on the left side are slightly too close to each other, if I use two fat thumb drives, both of them won't fit.
2) The adaptive contrast cannot be turned off since there is no way to install or run Intel Graphics Control Panel, but there is a workaround which is: Going into RegEdit "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001" path and changing the "FeatureTestControl" Value from 9240 to 9250. (Microsoft needs to make an easier way of disabling this feature).
Over all a great laptop which I use as my daily driver. Would recommend to others.
| Standing screen display size | 13.5 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels |
| Processor | core_i5 |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Memory Speed | 3.5 GHz |
| Hard Drive | 128 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel HD Graphics 620 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 17 Hours |
