Just pre-ordered SurfaceBook2. Because I embrace pain and suffering.

History – used SBook1 for approx 1year from Dec2016 to now (so I missed the majority of issues at the start) and while it hasn’t been without issue it has also found a special place and I love/hate/love the thing.

After it looked like the SB2 wasn’t going to happen this year I relented and bought the new HP Spectre x360 15 with 8th Gen i7, 16GB, 1TB, 4k, etc, etc. A fine machine in theory but I really disagree with Paul on this as being a a laptop veteran of about 15years where I have used laptops exclusively and changed them almost every year for the latest and greatest – I just don’t get the HP. Its just full of unaceptable rookie mistakes, so long story short that went back and I’m now looking to embrace the pain with a launch day SBook2.

Got my pre-order in this morning for the i7, 16GB, 512GB in 13.5″ version. I would have thrown my money at the 15″ version but its not out in the UK… “because Microsoft”.

But… where are the reviews? pre orders are open and I’m yet to see a single review outside of the brief hands on event where they announced it. I’m concerned because the 13.5″ doesn’t have a CPU fan and its a quad-i7. To me this just screams disaster, but being the fool I am I’m hoping beyond hope that they have worked some thermal magic and everything will be fine. I know right… if this was true there would be throwing review units at people but there is an errie silence and its making me nervous.

anyone else ordering today? Should we start a support group? “SurfaceBook anonymous”.

Cheers.

J.

Conversation 6 comments

  • Brad Sams

    Premium Member
    09 November, 2017 - 8:32 am

    <p>We appreciate your sacrifices for the greater good.</p>

  • Polycrastinator

    09 November, 2017 - 8:39 am

    <p>Pretty typical for reviews to come out on release day, not on preorder day.</p><p>What issues did you end up with on the SB1? Like you I was late to the party on that, although not so late that I missed some fun hot-bagging issues. That one issue (and to be fair, it is a big issue) has really been my only problem with the unit, though.</p>

  • aidsjorb

    09 November, 2017 - 9:34 am

    <p>I waited 2 years for updated specs and was happy they made a 15" model (though obviously a tablet of that size is more amusing than practical.)</p><p><br></p><p>So I ordered the top end model that is now Out of Stock. Suddenly I feel far less silly about waiting up until midnight last night to pre-order it since either they made almost none of them or it was in highish demand.</p>

  • moogleassassin

    16 November, 2017 - 4:53 am

    <p>Well my 13.5 i7, 512gb has now arrived and having done yet another daily scan for reviews on the Web and even a general scan of YouTube I have found exactly zero content outside of the announcement and limited hands on at decoded. This is pretty **** poor on Microsofts part and makes me really nervous there is something wrong. </p><p><br></p><p>Well I guess I will know in a few hours when I'm done putting it though it's paces… </p>

  • moogleassassin

    16 November, 2017 - 6:29 pm

    <p>first impressions:</p><p><br></p><p>pretty much blown away by this thing. Pretty sure they have broken physics with the cooling in this thing. </p><p><br></p><p>Fanless i7? check.</p><p>Basically *silent* outside of playing games? check.</p><p>Able to maintain &gt;3Ghz over 45minute gaming session?! check</p><p>Tablet/CPU section barely warm to the touch on the tablet portion after that 40min gaming session while also running 2x external screens and streaming 1080p movie via AmazonVideo/Edge movie at same time?! check.</p><p><br></p><p>I keep waiting for it to either massively downclock, or massively overheat, or massively suck with FPS… but it just keeps going. </p><p><br></p><p>genuinely feeling all of the following at the same time. I'm amazed its doing it, confused how its doing it, pleased that its doing it, but concerned it might stop doing it. </p><p><br></p><p>I had the HP Spectre x360 15 with 8th Gen chip (the lower i7 chip, 8500) and that things fans ran all day long and blew hot air right onto my mouse hand. Very pleased I returned that now. very pleased.</p><p><br></p><p>obvious disclaimer – only had it a day</p>

  • moogleassassin

    16 November, 2017 - 6:33 pm

    <p> one other thing, the coil whine on it is pretty severe. not as bad as the 8th gen HP Spectre x360 15, but its not far off. Judging simply from these two machines being the only ones I've used so far with the 8th Gen chips and both having some of the worst coil whine I've experienced in recent years – plus the reviews also complaining of coil whine on their SB2 review units I'm wondering if this might be a trait of the 8th gen chips?</p><p><br></p><p>I mean, if its a trade off for this perf/temps for some coil whine. I can live with that.</p>

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