Surface Book, Yoga 910, or Spectre X360

[swanysto]

I have been watching youtube videos and reading reviews for weeks now. I am usually pretty decisive, but I also don't usually pay a whole lot for a laptop, so I am having a hard time puling the trigger. The three laptops I have listed above are a culmination of research. They seem to have the best options when it comes to battery life, portability, and screen.

I have about $1,200 to spend, which puts the Yoga and the Spectre in budget. I am considering the surface book cause there are so many great reviews and the screen is really nice, even though the processor, ram, and HD are less impressive.

I will mostly be using it for business and travel. I don't run anything too demanding, mostly construction programs, office stuff, and pdf programs. However, I would like it to last a while(4-5 years like my last three laptops), since most of these laptops are not easy(or not possible) to upgrade.

What would you guys do with ~$1200?

 

[Rickyyy369]

I'm curious about this same thing. I went to best buy yesterday and tried out the SurfaceBook and Spectre X360 - I walked away feeling much more impressed with the SurfaceBook. The 4:3 aspect ratio of the SurfaceBook made it feel much more immersive. Going back to the Spectre made everything feel like it was letterboxed by comparison. The only thing stopping me from pulling the trigger right now is rumors that the SurfaceBook 2 is going to be released in the fall. The SurfaceBook is definitely lacking some modern features - namely USB Type-C and its still running a Skylake CPU - that I hope will be fixed with the SurfaceBook 2.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Surface Book: as I said in this thread ( https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/is-the-surfacebook-still-a-viable-option.2511224/ ) you need to be aware that it is not upgradeable, not repairable, and you will probably not be able to read the hard drive if the motherboard or display fails.

As long as you realize it's a disposable device and you have a good backup strategy, my boss is reasonably happy with his now that the firmware issues have been resolved.

 

[swanysto]

Surface Book: as I said in this thread ( https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/is-the-surfacebook-still-a-viable-option.2511224/ ) you need to be aware that it is not upgradeable, not repairable, and you will probably not be able to read the hard drive if the motherboard or display fails.

As long as you realize it's a disposable device and you have a good backup strategy, my boss is reasonably happy with his now that the firmware issues have been resolved.

All good points, but it seems that is the way a lot of these are going with the soldered on HD's.

 

[swanysto]

Surface Book: as I said in this thread ( https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/is-the-surfacebook-still-a-viable-option.2511224/ ) you need to be aware that it is not upgradeable, not repairable, and you will probably not be able to read the hard drive if the motherboard or display fails.

As long as you realize it's a disposable device and you have a good backup strategy, my boss is reasonably happy with his now that the firmware issues have been resolved.

From what I have read, they are not going to have a surface book 2, that is why they created the surface laptop. I think they didn't want it to interfere with the surface pro's sales.

 

[pj-]

My gf has a 910. It's good but the fan comes on pretty aggressively during moderate use like photo editing, especially when plugged in. It's a whiny sound since the fans are so small. Probably doesn't help that it's the 4k model.

If you live near a best buy you could play with all 3 options and then some.

 

[swanysto]

My gf has a 910. It's good but the fan comes on pretty aggressively during moderate use like photo editing, especially when plugged in. It's a whiny sound since the fans are so small. Probably doesn't help that it's the 4k model.

If you live near a best buy you could play with all 3 options and then some.

I went to Best Buy and played a little, unfortunately these days you get hounded by employees as if you were on a car lot. And when you politely decline them, they look around for someone else, and if they don't see anyone, they sit and watch you.

I read that about the 910 fans, but I thought there was a bios update recently?

 

[pj-]

I went to Best Buy and played a little, unfortunately these days you get hounded by employees as if you were on a car lot. And when you politely decline them, they look around for someone else, and if they don't see anyone, they sit and watch you.

I read that about the 910 fans, but I thought there was a bios update recently?

It's possible they fixed it. I'll check tonight if there's any updates and if they have any effect on the noise.

I have a yoga 710 which also had overly aggressive fans out of the box (they'd spin up to like 70% if the CPU got above 60C). I installed Notebook Fancontrol which basically solved it. I wonder if they did a bios fix for that as well..

 

[pcslookout]

I refuse to buy from Best Buy anymore.

 

[fire400]

910, i put that unit on "power saver mode" in power settings with set the screen to max brightness on the i7 3K screen model.
that fan never ever kicked back in, and I have a lot of stuff and apps running. and the battery life is excellent, too.
running on w10_64_home.

Best Buy customer service usually works well when managers put great teams in place. But don't expect to get lucky all the time. Geek Squad once told a friend of mine, that her Spectre was overheating because she had dual-boot operating systems on it, lol...
But she got a lemon unit where HP/Geek Squad just keeps sending it out on 1-yr standard warranty until the manufacturer warranty expires, which is well, could happen to anyone, when we get duds and don't get extended service contracts. But that could have been any computer from any manufacturer.

As far as repairs, it's not exactly a walk in the park.
I just swapped a screen for a brand new yoga 720 13", and the screen came from China, as rare as it was to find almost 1 month after it's manufacturer date stamp. Touch screen didn't work after the swap, but who cares, even after triple checking ribbons and circuitry damage. The adhesives and inner chassis bracket system are difficult to readjust, it has to be magically perfect, like robot perfect on adhesives & re-application without the original applicator solution.
How much did the screen cost? $350 + modding, + custom modding kits.
Hardware service plans aren't that bad if you consider time and money involved.

Go Thinkpad t470s or X1 series with Premiere, Onsite, and Accidental. Don't look back.