The bestest laptop of all time
by Volker Weber
It was quite funny watching the pundits declaring the Microsoft Surface Book as the best laptop ever. Ever. Before they even had a chance to touch it, let alone use it. This breathlessness is a consequence of hunting for clicks. Live blog, live tweet, live everything. Microsoft did an excellent job at playing this machine.
Take your time, watch, think, analyze. And then judge.
Microsoft still sells the Surface 3. The LTE version just hit German stores. And to me, that is a wonderful machine. Yes, it is less powerful than a Surface Pro 3, and even less powerful than a Surface Pro 4. But it's powerful enough for what I do with it. Are three burgers better than one? Do you need five? Or is one just right?
I have not tried a Surface Pro 4. I think I would like it, now that the fan does not come on as easily as it did on the Surface Pro 3. Surface 3 does not even have a fan.
And now, for this magic Surface Book. I have never needed a GPU. But I don't do video editing. For me, Surface Book solves two issues: you can actually use it on your lap, which is next to impossible with the Surface tablets. And the other one is, you don't have a MacBook and an iPad in your bag. It's just one machine. And it's oh so pretty. Could it replace my MacBook Pro? Possibly. But so could the latest MacBook, the tiny less powerful one. Remember, one burger!
So, is the Surface Book the ultimate laptop? I am sorry to say, there is no such thing. You always have to trade off power and weight and size and battery life. Your ultimate laptop may not be my ultimate laptop.
Yes, I could use a better keyboard on Surface. And a trackpad that is actually any good.
Comments
And thats the reason why I just ordered the new MacBook (2015). I do not set that
much expectations on Power. I just need Office(+MAIL.app), a little bit of Safari and OneNote. If I really need to do bigger stuff... wait, I do not need do anything what needs much power :-)
I replace my MacBook Pro and I am very happy to to use it now also on planes,
where I used to have my iPad Air with Logitech Keyboard. So in fact, the new MacBook
is what I expected to be the new iPad Pro!
Cheers,
Martin
I just started to use Photoshop CC on a Surface 3 LTE. Even on this machine there is nothing in my (large) Apple bag, that matches the experience. The key is the pen. Even when Apple is delivering the Pencil, the iPad Pro will not run something like the Creative Suite. For creative professionals, the tool set may change with Surface Pro 4 / Book.
in a dark and quiet small room I'm still dreaming of a iPad Pro with Dual-Boot.
You may say, I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one :-)
It has been a while since Apple made machines that could boot into OS 9 and OS X. I don't expect to see that again.
Dualboot != userfriendly.
Das wäre außerdem eine Kapitulation.
I remember dual booting OS9/OSX and Windows/Linux. High chances that task switch = reboot since you never have all essential apps on one side (hence you need the dual boot).
Btw. they are already making dual boot campable Macbooks (MB, Air, Pro) ;)
