Microsoft Channel 9 interview with Milad Aslaner (Program Manager, Surface Commercial Engineering team)
Surface Book Launch Issues - Part 1
The Surface Book launch day reports are in. Other reviewers have covered the great features of Surface Book in-depth, so this blog post will focus on making the readers aware of the new launch hiccups. This will help them make an informed decision on being an early adopter vs. waiting a few weeks to allow Microsoft time to fix the manufacturing and software issues.
The Surface Book issues range from display driver crashes, blue screen of death (BSOD), screen flickering and color issues, touch screen freezing, the system becoming unresponsive, surface pen not working, screen and keyboard loose connection, unable to detach, keyboard back light issues, unable to boot and so on.
Many of these issues are software issues and there is a possibility of a future fix with software/firmware updates. But some issues are hardware issues and would require a replacement.
Sample of Surface Book Launch Issues:
Articles
Videos
Forums
The Surface Book issues range from display driver crashes, blue screen of death (BSOD), screen flickering and color issues, touch screen freezing, the system becoming unresponsive, surface pen not working, screen and keyboard loose connection, unable to detach, keyboard back light issues, unable to boot and so on.
Many of these issues are software issues and there is a possibility of a future fix with software/firmware updates. But some issues are hardware issues and would require a replacement.
Sample of Surface Book Launch Issues:
Articles
Videos
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl5YpRrsdGk (this is from a Best Buy demo unit but the issues have persisted in many retail units)
Forums
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3qb49u/surface_book_stuck_in_infinite_loop_to_uefi_screen/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3qk8xz/sb_popping_sound_with_touch_keyboard/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3qiw4a/surface_book_day_1/
Surface Book & Surface Pro 4 Software, Firmware & Driver Updates Available Now
These updates include various fixes as well as Windows Hello.
Surface Book Software, Firmware, and Driver Updates:
Surface Book Software, Firmware, and Driver Updates:
What's included in the update (publish date: 10/24/2015)?
- "Cumulative and current firmware and drivers for the Surface Book. This firmware and driver package contains drivers for all of the components in the Surface Book, as well as updates to the system firmware that have been released via Windows Update. These drivers and firmware are compatible with Windows 10, including Enterprise versions. The driver MSI and ZIP files include all of the drivers and firmware needed to deploy custom images of Windows on your Surface devices. For convenience, the Ethernet dongle drivers are included as separate packages, but are also included in the ZIP and MSI. Additionally, the WinTab driver is provided for those professionals needing WinTab compatibility with certain Surface Pen enabled applications."
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49498
What's included in the update (publish date: 10/24/2015)?
- "Cumulative and current firmware and drivers for the Surface Pro 4. This firmware and driver package contains drivers for all of the components in the Surface Pro 4, as well as updates to the system firmware that have been released via Windows Update. These drivers and firmware are compatible with Windows 10, including Enterprise versions. The driver MSI and ZIP files include all of the drivers and firmware needed to deploy custom images of Windows on your Surface devices. For convenience, the Ethernet dongle drivers are included as separate packages, but are also included in the ZIP and MSI. Additionally, the WinTab driver is provided for those professionals needing WinTab compatibility with certain Surface Pen enabled applications."
Surface Book Pre-Production Unit Crash & Blue Screen (BSOD) Video
I have covered this before in my blog - the Surface Book pre-production unit display driver crashes and the blue screen of death (BSOD). Now we have a video from a store display unit:
Should you pre-order the Surface Book?
If you have come to this blog, I am sure that you are excited about Surface Book, a premium notebook/tablet/pen hybrid. In fact, Microsoft introduced it as the "Ultimate Laptop".
Does it stand up to the high expectations? Mostly. But my 30 minutes of hands-on with Surface Book (256GB disk, 8GB memory, NVIDIA dGPU version) left me slightly underwhelmed. In fact, I was about to pre-order the $2,699 version myself but after my experience, I have decided to wait a little.
Why?
It is possible that the unit I tried was defective but this could happen to you!
Surface Book Display Driver Crash Sample
(this occurred multiple times on detaching/attaching)
Surface Book Unresponsive Sample
(this occurred a couple of times, once it just froze and I had to force power cycle, i.e., reboot!)
Does it stand up to the high expectations? Mostly. But my 30 minutes of hands-on with Surface Book (256GB disk, 8GB memory, NVIDIA dGPU version) left me slightly underwhelmed. In fact, I was about to pre-order the $2,699 version myself but after my experience, I have decided to wait a little.
Why?
- The Surface Book unit I played with froze/crashed more than half a dozen times in 30-40 minutes. That is astounding for a Windows 10 machine. I have many laptops (including Lenovo X1 Carbon, ASUS ROG G750JZ) and Windows 10 has been rock solid on each of them. But it crashed so many times on SB when I attached/detached/closed/opened the lid that it makes me wonder if Microsoft needs to tweak it some more before it is ready. The crashes included multiple Display Driver crashes (see screenshot, the error goes away quickly but I was able to take a photo once) and frozen machine (see screenshot). I also encountered a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I have never seen a BSOD on any of my Windows 10 laptops before so this was the most surprising part. But I was told that this is due to some conflict with Microsoft Store display software installed on the SB which gets confused on closing/opening the lid and tries to launch the Demo Software upon opening the lid and crashes.
- The pen is great but not perfect yet. It might take one more iteration with Surface Book 2 for the pen to meet my high expectations (my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone S-Pen writes better!). If you are happy with the pen experience in Surface Pro 3, you will like this pen.
- The top of the line model (1TB disk, 16GB RAM) is very expensive at $3,199 because of the sky high prices of 1TB PCIe SSD drives (search Amazon, they go for $900+ at this point). I expect them to drop in price in a few months.
It is possible that the unit I tried was defective but this could happen to you!
Surface Book Display Driver Crash Sample
(this occurred multiple times on detaching/attaching)
Surface Book Unresponsive Sample
(this occurred a couple of times, once it just froze and I had to force power cycle, i.e., reboot!)
My Recommendation
I like to be an early adopter but at this price, I have decided to wait until a few units ship and I hear more about the real world user experience.
If you are pre-ordering one now, I would recommend that you spend $249 more to get the Microsoft Complete Accident Protection for Surface Book for peace of mind.
MobileTechReview of Surface Book
Lisa Gade from http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ reviews Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 in this video. Notice that the Surface Book hinge connectors don't have any holes/hooks in them. Microsoft is doing some Nitinol "muscle memory" magic. It is pretty strong. I pulled the demo unit hard and couldn't pry it open without worrying about breaking something else.
Exclusive Review of Microsoft Surface Book - 256GB/i5/8GB/dGPU (NVIDIA GeForce Details Included)
Initially, I am going to try to focus on what the other reviewers have not covered well. I will update this review with more details as time permits.
Weight
It feels light and comfortable to hold when folded like a book. The grip is nice and not slippery at all. It will not readily slip out of your hands when folded and held from the hinge side.
Weight Distribution
It feels steady in laptop mode. You won't flip it over by just writing with a pen. You have to push harder on the screen to lift the keyboard base.
The detached clipboard (screen) is thin, very light and almost feels like holding a clipboard. With an i5/i7 CPU, that's an amazing feat.
Keyboard
Keyboard is great but not as awesome as my ThinkPad X1 Carbon keyboard. It gets close though.
Display
Hinge
The hinge is firm and built solid. But keep in mind that you can't open the display all the way flat because of the hinge design. It will stop about halfway past upright (my guess is about 45 degrees or 135 degrees from closed position when facing from front). You can however detach and flip it and then close it with screen facing up.
Also, if you want to write on the screen in laptop mode, you will need to hold the screen with one hand for stability and comfort. You could do simple diagrams without holding the screen though.
Pen
I have never had Surface Pro line before so I don't have any benchmark to compare to. I compared the OneNote pen experience with Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book and felt that Surface Book was slightly better (but this could be just an illusion in my mind). I feel that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone pen is more accurate/precise when taking notes vs. the Surface Pen. Surface Book pen was very usable but not perfect in my mind. When I wrote "Hello World" multiple times in cursive at the normal writing speed, the letter "l" was about half the height of what I had expected. I had to slow down or put more pressure to get full height. Maybe there is a setting to adjust pen sensitivity that I didn't try.
The magnet to attach the pen is fairly strong. It will not fall off from just shaking the device. But you can knock it out with some force or while taking it out of a tight backpack.
Pen Eraser
Pen Eraser is fantastic. Feels just like a real pencil eraser.
TouchPad
TouchPad is great. Feels smooth like my MacBook, my ASUS ROG and my Lenovo X1 Carbon. No issue with the TouchPad .
Camera
The front facing camera quality was very good and it adjusted for low light. The back camera was good but showed some fuzzy artifacts (around the objects) if I pointed towards fast moving objects.
System Information
GPU (NVIDIA GeForce & Intel HD 520)
Sound
Disk
Surface UEFI Boot Menu
Crashes
Surprisingly, the video driver froze/crashed few times during my 30 minute hands on with Surface Book. I was able to reproduce occasionally by quickly detaching, re-attaching, flipping, closing, detaching and reattaching. Here are a couple of screen shots of what I encountered.
This is the reason I didn't pre-order today but I am hoping that this will be resolved soon.
So would I buy it? Yes, in a few weeks.
Questions: If you have any questions, ask in the comments section below and I will get the answers for you.
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