Thinking About an Affordable Surface Book 2 Laptop (Premium)

Surface Book is obviously an impressive device, but as I’ve pointed out, no customers were asking for an expensive, detachable laptop. What they were asking for is a Surface-branded Ultrabook that could go head-to-head with Apple’s MacBook lineup.

Well, guess what? This may be happening.

To be clear, the key word in that sentence is may: This bit of wishful thinking on my part is based entirely on a report from the occasionally-reliable DigiTimes. This is one of those things that seems to good to be true. But also seems too good not to be true.

So we obviously need to discuss this.

The DigiTimes report includes the following tidbits:

• Surface Book reportedly entered mass production recently.
• Microsoft is likely to announce Surface Book 2 at the end of March or April.
• Surface Book 2 is expected to adopt a clamshell design instead of its [current] 2-in-1 design.
• Surface Book will feature a lower starting price than that of its predecessors, with a starting price of just $1,000.
• These changes are being made because of a “significantly limited demand” for Surface Book and a “conflict” with Surface Book competing too closely with Surface Pro “in terms of product position[ing].”

At first blush, this seems a lot like what I asking for when Surface Book first launched in late 2015. As I noted in Surface Book: Past, Present, and Future:

No one was asking for a laptop. One of Microsoft’s big fibs is that it made Surface Book because its customers were asking for a laptop. No, they weren’t. They were asking for an Ultrabook, which would be much thinner and lighter than the current design. Imagine a Surface Book with no battery in a non-removable screen, and without that silly hinge, and how thin and gorgeous that device could be. That’s the machine customers were asking for, Microsoft. And they still are.

The DigiTimes report does not use the word Ultrabook, however. Actually, it doesn’t use the word laptop either. Instead, it uses two terms—clamshell and notebook—that point to the form factor. So this could be another laptop—meaning a bit big and heavy—or it could be the Ultrabook that I think most people really want.

Worse, two pieces of information don’t make sense. At all. And both are tied to the very point of Surface.

First, and most important, the Surface lineup exists to provide devices that are both aspirational and market-defining. That means that what Microsoft is trying to do is create or at least formalize new product categories, as it did with 2-in-1s (Surface Pro) and touch- and pen-capable All-In-One (AIO) PCs (Surface Studio). But as a notebook, Surface Book 2 is just a me-too device. PC makers already make tons of these types of devices. It’s not clear why Microsoft would even pursue a traditional form factor here.

Second, that pricing makes almost no sense. Microsoft positions the Surface lineup as premium devices that sit, price-wise, above most of the PCs made by other PC makers. It does this to protect them from competition from the platform maker, the idea being that people may come into a store to look at a Surface, but maybe they walk out with a lower-cost Dell, HP, or Lenovo. As long as they buy a PC, everyone—Microsoft included—wins.

So what I’m left with is this.

Surface Book, as good as it is, is simply too expensive. We know from recent AdDuplex usage data that Surface Book only accounts for 6.3 percent of all Surface devices currently in use. And DigiTimes claims that Microsoft has sold only 500,000 units, a paltry sum for a device of this quality.

We know, too, that Surface Book is too mechanically complex: That silly hinge—and its resulting “hole” when closed—isn’t just an eye source, it’s an ongoing source of reliability issues. I’ve seen this too many times to count on the first two Surface Books I’ve owned, and while the third, review, unit has not suffered from this issue yet, I’m sort of waiting for the weirdness to start.

So a non-detachable Surface Book 2 makes tons of sense, on paper: That device will be more reliable because it lacks that ridiculous hinge. And it will be less expensive. Because it lacks that ridiculous hinge.

But being less expensive doesn’t really make sense in the context of Microsoft’s Surface strategy, unless something has changed. Nor does a traditional laptop/Ultrabook/notebook.

Which leads me to the speculation, which, yes, is based on an admittedly dubious report that has nonetheless gotten me excited for the possibilities.

That $1000 starting price is just that, a starting price, and it’s in line with the $1000-ish starting price of Surface Pro plus a Type Cover. So these two pro products would, in fact, be priced similarly, with customers first choosing the form factor they prefer. Obviously, there will be higher-end Surface Books that are more expensive. And more capable.

What if this clamshell Surface Book 2 is simply a new entry-level model for a lineup that does still include detachable versions? In other words, that clamshell design isn’t the only Surface Book 2 design, it’s just a way to create a lower bar to entry.

Or … what if this is in fact the only design, but that it’s really a convertible notebook, meaning that you can somehow twist the screen back around the device and use it like a big and heavy laptop? This is a very common form factor, with the HP Spectre x360 being perhaps the best example. In that latter case, Microsoft could essentially be formalizing the convertible form factor just as it did with 2-in-1s with Surface Pro.

Whatever happens, I’m obviously hugely interested in the next Surface Book. Which I hope is a lot closer to what I’ve been asking for all along.