The keys deliver a solid 1.5 mm of travel, which is deeper than the Surface Pro 4's 1.4 mm. I've typed on hundreds of laptops, and the keyboard on the Surface Book is better than average. A trailer of Batman v Superman was sufficiently loud, but the strings crackled a bit on max volume. Positioned on the tablet portion of the device, the speakers on the Surface Book didn't wow.
My only complaint is that the screen is so sharp that sometimes I lost the small cursor when navigating the desktop. Whether I was scrolling, pinching to zoom or slicing watermelons in Fruit Ninja, the Surface Book was silky smooth. The panel also benefits from Microsoft's PixelSense technology, which provided the smoothest and most responsive performance I've experienced on a Windows 2-in-1. Only the Radius 12 is more colorful (99.8 percent) in this price range, and it's just about as accurate. That edges out the MacBook (91.2 percent, 1.2 Delta-E) and the XPS 13 (96.6 percent, 5.1 Delta-E). The display reproduced 98.5 percent of the sRGB color gamut on our testing and scored 0.57 on the Delta-E accuracy test (0 is best for less errors). The Surface Book also outshines the XPS 13's panel (295 nits, 3200 x 1800 pixels). R egistering 387 nits on our light meter, the Surface Book is about as bright as the 13-inch MacBook Pro (389 nits, 2560 x 1600 pixels) and brighter than the Toshiba Radius 12's sharper 4K display (338 nits, 3840 x 2160). Sharp, bright and colorful, the Surface Book's 13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000-pixel display is easily one of the best in its class. That's because Microsoft strangely decided to make the default setting to not change to tablet mode when you undock the slate. My biggest issue with the Surface Book in tablet-clipboard mode is that it doesn't automatically pop open the virtual keyboard when you tap on your web browser's address bar or another text field. MORE: Best 2-in-1s (Laptop/Tablet Hybrids) Or you could give a presentation in this reverse mode if you don't want the keyboard showing. If you want to draw on the display with it slightly elevated, you can easily reinsert the display/clipboard so that it's facing away from the keyboard and push it down toward the deck. The good news? The "muscle wire locks" Microsoft employs are quite secure When I lifted the system by its display, I felt very confident that it would not detach. (You'll be asked to close those apps.) Makes sense, but it seems like an unnecessary burden for the integrated graphics version of the Surface Book.
The discrete-graphics version of this device can't continue to run apps that use the dedicated GPU when detached, because the graphics card is located in the base. But there's a reason for Microsoft's unique approach here. Other 2-in-1 devices, including the Surface Pro 4, make it easier to switch modes - you just pull the magnetically connected top and bottom pieces apart. To enter this mode, you press and hold an eject button on the keyboard and wait a second or two until a "Ready to Detach" notification appears on the screen before you remove the slate. Yes, you can use it to watch movies and play games - if you want to hold a huge 13.5-inch display - but it's really designed for taking notes and drawing with the included pen. It's telling that Microsoft calls the removable slate portion of the Surface Pro a clipboard rather than a tablet. My only other nitpick with the design is that the audio jack is located in the top part of the design, which looked awkward with my headphone wire dangling. The left side of the Surface Book houses two USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader, while the right side has a Mini DisplayPort and a Surface Connect port, which is for power and connecting to the optional dock.