Microsoft’s Surface Book is as good as it gets for hybrid devices. You can’t buy a better one, even if it still has a few irritating bugs.Hybrids are popular. They are the only growing PC segment. There is no doubt they are what many people want from a computing device.
And yet there is something wrong with the hybrid format. Wrong could be the wrong word here. Perhaps unsatisfactory better fits the bill.
The problem is that all hybrids involve some form of compromise. In most cases you don’t get the best laptop experience, nor do you get the best tablet experience.
Many users are happy to tradeoff these experiences in return for having two devices in one package.
This tradeoff plays out in a different way with the Surface Book. As my earlier post says, it is an excellent Windows 10 laptop. In practice I found once the review was over, I only ever used the Surface Book as a laptop.
Sure detaching the screen is clever. But I never need to do this apart from testing to see how it works. [1]
And there’s the problem. The Surface Book is a great Windows laptop, the extras that turn it into an OK tablet add a lot to the cost. Prices start at NZ50. That’s 00 more than you’d pay for something with the same specification that doesn’t double as a tablet.

Surface Book underlines the problem with hybrids was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.Filed under: Mobile Tagged: hardware, Microsoft, PC, Windows