Microsoft has just released its first ever laptop - an event that many probably didn't see this coming. And this may be because of the obsessive fixation on the Surface Pro 4.
It may also be down to the fact that the company should have had released this kind of device years ago but didn't, leading many to believe the company may not go to laptop territory when its line of tablets is doing well in the market.
"After years of trying to force everyone into the future it imagined, Microsoft built one for the world we actually live in," Wired noted. "The Surface Book isn't made to convince you of a new way of doing things. It's a laptop that can replace... your laptop."
Interestingly, the Surface Book is till like a tablet that's also a laptop. However, this time, it's primarily a laptop that can be manipulated like a tablet.
"Like most laptops, it has a hinge. Microsoft's hinge is insane," The Verge observed. "It's like a snake and it folds into place to let you adjust the display viewing angle. The trick of the Surface Book is that everything, apart from the Nvidia graphics chip, is contained within the screen."
"Microsoft has added a little prompt that is displayed within Windows to let you know when it's safe to lift off the display," the news source added. "Once you click the display back into the base unit, it latches into place firmly and it just feels like a normal laptop."
Desribed by Microsoft's Panos Panay as the "ultimate laptop," the device is "a machined magnesium alloy laptop with a 13.5-inch, 267ppi screen and high-powered internals" and "looks as premium as any other laptop on the market, including Apple's MacBook Pro."
"It's also twice as powerful as Apple's workhorse, even though it's just 0.51-0.90 inches thin and weighs 1.6 lbs," Wired said in another piece. "Like the MBP, the Surface Book tops out at 1TB storage and 16GB of RAM, but it'll cost you; the base configuration of 128GB storage and 8GB of RAM starts at $1,500, while a fully loaded Surface Book runs north of $3,000."
The Surface Book has USB ports in its keyboard base and comes with its own digital pen.
Reviews of the device have conceded that the Surface Book is indeed powerful. According to Wired, it's the kind of product that Microsoft fans want.
"They don't want a device that is mostly tablet and a little bit laptop. They want a laptop. If it's also a tablet? Great!" the tech news source commented.
Surface Book pre-orders reportedly starts October 7, with the shipping date set on October 26.
What do you think of Microsoft's laptop?