Most of what Microsoft announced at this morning’s big press event was exciting, but not surprising. We’ve known about the two Lumia smartphones, the Microsoft Band 2, and the Surface Pro 4 for a few weeks now, but one thing that nobody was expecting was the Surface Book. Microsoft is calling it “the ultimate laptop,” and claims that it’ll completely blow the MacBook Pro out of the water. We don’t know much about the laptop’s hardware, but judging from how impressive the Surface Pro 4 looks, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Surface Book is actually as great as Microsoft claims.
Microsoft Corp.’s claim for the Surface tablets has long been that they’re tablets that can truly replace your laptop. But now, for the first time, Microsoft is building an actual laptop under the Surface name. It also refreshed its lower-priced Surface Pro tablet. The Surface Book is “the ultimate laptop,” said Panos Panay, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for devices. “Ounce for ounce, pound for pound, this is the fastest 13-inch laptop ever made.” Mr. Panay didn’t go deep into details about the hardware powering the $1,499-and-up Surface Book, but he made the bold claim that Microsoft’s laptop will be twice as fast as Apple’s top-of-the-line MacBook Pro laptop. Inside, Panay said the Surface Book will have the latest Intel processors, a discrete Nvidia GeForce graphics processor and—importantly—offer 12 hours of battery life. Mr. Panay said that the motivation behind Microsoft making a laptop was centered around offering the best typing experience. “The typing experience on this product is perfect,” Mr. Panay said. “This product is about reinventing categories.”
