Surface Book and Surface Pro 4

[ikjadoon]

Sequential write speed of hard disk is not that bad. For the longest time hard disks out performed ssd with regards to raw linear write performance. While the newest pcie ssd have changed this (esp with pcie interface); the real advantage was random write/reads. The samsung are pretty darn good when it comes to random small writes (compared to sandisk and a few other brands).
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Having now clicked your link and read the benchmark; they really aren't that bad from a pragmatic perspective. Now you might argue that you are over-paying for the drive but I doubt the user experience will suffer.
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I'm more concern about the battery life esp for the pro 4 without gpu but that is just me.

The random write speeds aren't great, either. 37,000 IOPS 4K random write on the 128GB model, 77K on the 256GB.

You have to examine the price. Why pay an "ultimate laptop price" with essentially a 2012 SSD?

Constant writing with a SSD isn't a good idea so if you're a video editor or CAD designer that's out of the picture. I do know a few laptops has 2 drive options, SSD/M2/eMMC for OS and HDD for the other stuff such as what I mentioned would be ideal.

Uh...I think the SSD Endurance Experiment put all that junk science to rest:

http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead

 

[you2]

Fyi: your typical sata drive is lucky to obtain 200 iop/s; compare this to the 37,000 of the 128GB model. high end hard drives drives do a bit better and I think some of then newer models can get close to 1000 iop/s but take this with a grain of salt. The is of course seek time which can range from 12ms to 2.5ms (typical->high end); and there is a bit of issue with rotational time of 8.3ms to 4ms.
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Btw some of these tests are not performed properly. Most ssd have a small high speed cache; one thing I ran into when I was benchmarking ssd is that artificial tests (like those you see used in typical benchmarks) might write to the raw device skipping buffer cache (which is good) but they do not tell the device to sync the data (which is bad - well misleading performance). When we actually tested the device doing a proper sync the 'real' iop rate was much slower (factor of 100+) then what you see in typical posted benchmarks esp for 4K objects. Basically the nand is no where close to the speed we see posted. This is only important if you are concern about loss of data during a complete power outage. Some of the high end ssd have guaranteed consistency in the event of a power outage (i.e, they have logic and capcitors to flush the cache to nand when a power outage is sensed).

 

[slashbinslashbash]

My boss just got his Surface Book in today. Beautiful machine. Really well made. The keyboard hinge thing is really a great implementation of a problematic area for tablet/laptop hybrids. The iPad Pro keyboard thingy seems like a toy in comparison. The ability to set the thing down at a table or on your lap and have it be propped up and stable at any angle you choose, is huge for mobile workforces like sales. Onscreen keyboards can only go so far.

I am very glad that Microsoft is finally making PC hardware. They had to try to not rock the boat with the PC OEM's for too long. Microsoft has made good peripherals (mice and keyboards) forever and then had good consoles with the Xbox line. Now that there is a full-blown Microsoft laptop out, I see little reason (other than price*) to buy anything from an OEM. Microsoft is showing Apple-level design touches here, and the main thing I can think to say is "What took you guys so long?"

Of course, it is way too early to tell things like long-term durability and what niggling issues might come up over time, but my initial impressions are extremely positive.

*I'm an Apple user, I have long since gotten used to paying 3x-4x the amount for hardware that will last 5x-6x the time of the cheapy stuff. Currently using a 2011 15" MBP that I see no reason to even think about upgrading.

 

[Commodus]

My boss just got his Surface Book in today. Beautiful machine. Really well made. The keyboard hinge thing is really a great implementation of a problematic area for tablet/laptop hybrids. The iPad Pro keyboard thingy seems like a toy in comparison. The ability to set the thing down at a table or on your lap and have it be propped up and stable at any angle you choose, is huge for mobile workforces like sales. Onscreen keyboards can only go so far.

I am very glad that Microsoft is finally making PC hardware. They had to try to not rock the boat with the PC OEM's for too long. Microsoft has made good peripherals (mice and keyboards) forever and then had good consoles with the Xbox line. Now that there is a full-blown Microsoft laptop out, I see little reason (other than price*) to buy anything from an OEM. Microsoft is showing Apple-level design touches here, and the main thing I can think to say is "What took you guys so long?"

Of course, it is way too early to tell things like long-term durability and what niggling issues might come up over time, but my initial impressions are extremely positive.

*I'm an Apple user, I have long since gotten used to paying 3x-4x the amount for hardware that will last 5x-6x the time of the cheapy stuff. Currently using a 2011 15" MBP that I see no reason to even think about upgrading.

It strikes me as an acknowledgment that Microsoft's laissez-faire attitude toward licensing has been hurting the Windows PC business. It was supposed to encourage a wide range of devices, but the industry left to itself was only interested in competing on price -- there were few things to convince vendors that premium PCs were worth keeping. Windows needed more advanced PCs to show what's possible and prevent Apple from completely dominating the high-end space. I don't think the Surface Book will sell in MacBook Pro numbers, but it doesn't have to.

 

[mlah384]

So what's the verdict on the SPB and SP4? Any talk by Microsoft on addressing the battery life issue and the slower SSD issue?

 

[Topweasel]

So what's the verdict on the SPB and SP4? Any talk by Microsoft on addressing the battery life issue and the slower SSD issue?

The SB solves both and the SP4 only one. They use fully blown NVE drives and crazy good numbers. The SP4 basically has the same battery to power usage stats as the the SP3. I really don't get what the battery complaints were. If you use it like a laptop it gets laptop power usage and longevity, if you use it like a tablet it gets middle of the road tablet power usage.

SP1 sucked power like no other, but as long as you're not trying to get tablet longevity on a laptop workload I really can't grasp the complaints. Though I don't know if the complaints were with Windows 8 or 10. Power management is great in 10 with my S3.

 

[giantpandaman2]

The battery life on the SB is extraordinary. The only thing that drains it "quickly" is using a lot of wifi. Wifi off and I can easily get 16+ hours. With it on I get around 10-12.

The SSD is plenty fast. If people need a faster SSD they probably need more power...and should get a desktop. Benchmark numbers are always a little problematic as they don't match real world usage very well.

The only serious problem I've heard about is crashing connected to the dGPU. As I don't have a dGPU equipped SB I'm not sure if that's been cleared up by the multiple firmware updates that have been released.

 

[gus6464]

Work got me a Surface Book today. This is the ultimate windows laptop. Build quality is second to none, very fast, and the touchpad on a Windows machine finally hits perfection. I also like the longer travel of the keyboard. You feel every keystroke. MS has hit a grand slam with this machine. I got the i5 with dgpu.