Surface Book: Past, Present, and Future

Having successfully formalized the 2-in-1 product category with its Surface Pro family of products, Microsoft next set its sights on the laptop with Surface Book. After one year of extensive experience with this incredible yet flawed product, I have some thoughts about Surface Book’s first year and its future.

First, let’s look back on the most important milestones in the first year of Surface Book availability.

October 2, 2015. I tweet a “rumor” that was the first mention of Surface Book: “Potential rumor on the new hardware: 14-inch Surface 2-in-1 with Retina-class screen, dual GPUs, keyboard base with ports. Is it real? Hm.”

October 6, 2016. At a new hardware event in New York City, Microsoft announces Surface Book alongside Surface Pro 4, Band 2, and the Lumia 950. Check out my Microsoft Surface Book Preview and Brad’s Gallery: Microsoft’s New Surface Book for more information.

October 9, 2015. Microsoft opens up Surface Book for preorder, with pricing started at $1499. The first Surface Book commercial also aired.

October 21, 2015. I publish my first review of Surface Book—the Core i5/8 GB/256 GB version—noting that it was an expensive, first-generation, and untested product with a controversial design. Worse, my review unit was dogged by reliability issues, which Microsoft said were due to it being a pre-production unit.

October 26, 2015. Microsoft begins selling Surface Book to customers in the U.S. and Canada only. It would expand availability—and add a few models—over the coming months.

October 28, 2015. Just two days after the device ships publicly,Microsoft issues the first major firmware update for Surface Book. A second firmware update then shipped just five days later, addressing numerous additional issues.

November 19, 2015. Microsoft releases a third major firmware update arrived on November 19, 2015. Over this first month, it became clear that Microsoft’s new laptop seemed to have some serious issues. “This [update] was necessitated by major reliability issues, in particular with Surface Book, related to power management, Windows Hello, and the display driver,” I wrote. “I’ve certainly experienced these issues myself.”

December 4, 2015. Buried in a support forum, a Microsoft representative finally acknowledges the rampant reliability issues with Surface Book and then drops a bombshell: Citing the “very hard computer science problem” that caused the issues, he said that Microsoft would not fix Surface Book until sometime in 2016. My response was simple. Bullshit, I wrote.

December 11, 2015. Faced with widespread criticism for shipping an expensive and yet reliability-challenged product, Microsoft finally apologizes to customers. In a support forum. “For those of you who’ve had a less-than-perfect experience, we’re sorry for any frustration this has caused,” a Microsoft representative wrote.

January 22, 2016. Having waited over a month for Microsoft to do something—anything—about the problems dogging Surface Book, I coined the phrase Surfacegate and called out the firm for not doing right by its customers. “Rather than publicly face the problems head-on, the software giant has retreated behind a veil of silence,” I wrote at the time. “Microsoft, you’re f@#$ing up. Big time.”

January 28, 2016. In the first material step towards fixing the many reliability issues in Surface Book, Microsoft issues a firmware updatethat partially fixes some of the problems.

January 30, 2016. Having been assured by Microsoft that they can and are fixing the issues with Surface Book, I offer to reassess the device. A final fix is still “weeks away,” I was told.

February 17, 2016. Microsoft finally fixes the sleep bug that was at the heart of most Surface Book problems.

February 24, 2016. After a full week of use, I determine thatMicrosoft’s sleep fix is working, at least on my Surface Book. However, I had to reset the Surface Book to get the update to “take.” “A properly sleeping Surface Book is a thing of beauty,” I noted. It only took four months.

February 25, 2016. In Trying to Explain the Surface Sleep Problems, I gather public-available evidence to support what several high-placed sources at Microsoft had been telling me privately for months: Surface Book’s endemic reliability issues were indeed caused by Intel’s Skylake chipset, which is the buggiest processor family the company has ever released.

March 9, 2016. With Surfacegate seemingly behind us, I finally review my replacement Surface Book, the Core i7/16 GB/512 GB with a dedicated GPU. “I can now recommend Microsoft’s Surface Book without hesitation,” I wrote. “This is a stunning 2-in-1 PC with excellent performance, great looks, and a unique design.”

August 29, 2016. I debunk a rumor about a Surface Book 2. My sources had already told me that this device would not ship until Spring 2017. Microsoft will hold an October 26 Windows 10 event and will announce new Surface hardware there. But it will not include a Surface Book 2.

It’s not pretty, is it? Most of that first year is problems, silence from Microsoft, and belated fixes for those problems.

And yet. There is something special about Surface Book. And despite its issues, I suspect that most Surface Book owners are fiercely loyal to the product and would still defend it, despite any problems they may have experienced.

That is most interesting. And for Microsoft, it should be quite exciting. Very rarely can a company mess up at such an epic scale and still retain customer loyalty on such a scale. (Samsung faces this issue now thanks to the Galaxy Note 7.) In fact, there is only one other example of this in Microsoft’s history that I can think of: The endemic reliability issues that caused most Xbox 360 consoles to “red ring” at least once and triggered a $1 billion warranty fix. That should have killed the Xbox, but it didn’t, and loyal 360 owners sent their consoles back, sometimes, repeatedly, to be fixed so they could keep playing.

So they’ve done it again, somehow, with Surface Book. But here’s the weirdest bit. I get it. Despite having access to the best devices in the world, premium PCs from the likes of HP, Lenovo, and others, I keep returning to Surface Book.

There is just … something … about it.

Key among the things that Microsoft got right, I think, are the screen, keyboard, and trackpad, which combine to provide an excellent usage experience. For me, the screen is right-sized, though I usually prefer even bigger displays. And the keyboard is fantastic. I can use this device for weeks at a time, and I have, and never tire of it.

Those positives shouldn’t outweigh the negatives, but they do. Somehow. And that, too, is impressive, because the Surface Book’s negatives make for a fairly long list. These include:

Price. Surface Book is an incredibly expensive, high-end laptop. A base model with a Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of flash storage still costs $1499, one year after the product’s initial release. If you want a dGPU version, you’re looking at $1899 or more, and you could actually spend $3199 on a Surface Book if you were insane and/or just won the lottery. No laptop is worth that sum, sorry.

That crazy hinge. Surface Book’s ridiculous hinge, which creates a large teardrop-shaped hole when you close the screen, is a feat of engineering that should never have happened: I guarantee you that a future Surface Book will remove that hole, which today makes the Book awkward in a bag, lets in dirt and sharp objects, and creates needless mechanical and electrical complexity.

A removable screen. If I could buy a Surface Book with a non-removable screen, I would. The only reason I remove the screen, ever, is because the keyboard and trackpad stop working sometimes and the “fix” is to remove and then reattach the screen. Again, needless complexity, and because that screen is so big, it’s awkward as a tablet.

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.

No USB-C. Microsoft’s proprietary Surface Connector is just a USB port redesigned with a screwy magnetic slot. That approach might have made sense in 2012, but it doesn’t make sense today, and Surface Book should have included USB-C for expandability and power connectivity. The next one will, I bet.

But again, I still love the thing. Still turn to it when it’s time to travel, or when I’m just sitting on the couch and want to get some light work done while watching a baseball game or whatever on TV. It’s what I use for my Android software development as I pursue a nanodegree from Udacity. And it’s the one PC I would choose were I forced in some imaginary alternative universe to pick just one PC. I really do love the thing. Despite its flaws. That is kind of amazing, isn’t it?

Looking ahead, I do expect Microsoft to address some of the issues I’ve raised. Surface Book 2 will be powered by the more reliable Kaby Lake chipset, which should help with the reliability issues. Microsoft should fix the hinge design, and remove that silly hole. And I bet they go USB-C in the next release too. I’d like to see more and better Surface peripherals, including a large 3:2 display that matches the resolution of Surface Book.

But we’ll have to wait until early 2017 to see how all that pans out. For now, we have this deeply flawed and yet eminently lovable first-generation Surface Book. It’s Microsoft’s little miracle.