Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsA powerful computer plagued with some powerful problems
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2018
This is an edited review.
I purchased the Surface Book 2 for graduate school and some gaming when I travel. I cannot recommend it after several months of use.
Yes, what everyone says about the Surface Book 2 is true: It's a luxury laptop which provides a great of power and functionality. But it also runs like a vintage American muscle car, unable to make the best use of its powerful engine while being plagued by critical problems. I have had to exchange one model already and I am now contemplating returning the second---I am by no means alone. Some have exchanged their Surface Book 2 over five times, encountering the same variety of critical failures over and over.
The first problem you will likely encounter is that the Surface Book 2 will stop recognizing its main graphics card, reverting to the far less powerful Intel graphics card. You can forget about doing anything moderately intensive once your fancy Nvidia graphics card vanishes. Games will crash or run at potato level graphics, while any other moderately intensive editing program will sputter like they're running on a computer that costs 1/4 of what the Surface Book 2 does. Many people have encountered this problem. Some suggest that you can temporarily fix the problem by detaching the tablet and re-attaching it. But the problem *will* return.
I routinely "lost" my graphics card with my Surface Book 2, even when I updated all my drivers and reattached the tablet. And then the computer kept telling me that the tablet was detached when it was in fact locked to the keyboard. The keyboard, as well as the charging port, failed to respond, letting the computer slowly die. I couldn't turn it back on once the computer failed to recognize its own keyboard, would not detach the tablet, and failed to charge. I had to return the computer, which Microsoft thankfully exchanged with a new Surface Book 2. But in the process I lost all my licensed software and could save only what I had backed up.
I encountered the same problems with my new Surface Book 2 within weeks. My graphics card vanished and my Microsoft Surface charger burnt out and needed to be replaced (a $100 charger, mind you). I decided to purchase a $20 app that manually upgrades every driver on my computer, which may have solved my graphics card problem. But now I encounter blue screen video tdr errors, which force the computer to slowly reboot. I've been shut out of games, word editing, and many other tasks, which makes me risk losing progress on whatever I'm working on.
On top of that, the Surface Book 2 has battery issues: Even when plugged it at lowest power settings, your computer will slowly deplete its battery while doing anything moderately intensive (e.g. gaming). Playing games on "best performance," the highest power setting, can take down up to 10% of your battery in an hour. Maybe that's not an issue for some, but I don't like knowing that my expensive computer can't sustain itself and is slowly taxing its non-replaceable batteries even while plugged in,
You'll certainly get to know Microsoft tech support if you purchase this computer. One of the women I spoke to plainly told me that the Surface Books 2, while "great," was a common source of complaints.
My other complaints are that the Surface Book 2 lacks a lot of what you'd expect from such a high price computer. Namely, it has no HDMI port and very few USB ports. You'll have to purchase another expensive item, the Surface dock, if you want the kind of connectivity you'd likely expect from a high-power, high-cost laptop. You'll also have to buy yourself a stylus if you want to make use of the touch screen, as Microsoft does not include one with the Surface Book 2 model (it does come with the Surface Book 1, however). That's gonna add up to a lot of moolah.
Having said all that, you'll probably love this computer at first if you're fortunate to be able to afford it: it IS powerful, has a smooth keyboard, can run games like Witcher 3, and looks great. It reminds me of my mom's old Camaro, a beast of a car that could accelerate in a flash but couldn't idle too long at a stoplight or the whole thing would sputter out and die. You might want to consider something more sensible.
Update: 12/2020
I wish I had not purchased this laptop, and instead put my money towards something cheaper for productivity and/or towards a desktop PC. The number of problems I have had with *both* of my Surface Book 2s is ridiculous. Just today, while working, my battery dropped from 50% to 0% in an instant. This happens to both batteries, making running the GPU impossible.
