Iām not getting what exactly the condition of these is? If it started life as a warranty replacement but itās new, does that mean it was meant to go to someone to replace their broken computer but then didnāt?
It looks simple to figure out. Below the price, it shows Condition New
If youāre in the market for one, this is a good deal. For the pricier configuration:
New (Amazon) is ~$1900
New (Microsoft) is ~$2500
New (Best Buy) is ~$1900 (and only 256 GB storage)
The brand-new Surface Book 3 with similar configuration has about 10% more processing power and 35% more graphics power, as well as twice the RAM. They also redesigned the mechanism for attaching and detaching the tablet from the keyboard dock, which is supposed to be substantially faster. The comparable configuration, where available, is also retailing for about $2500. If youāre not going to be doing a lot of intense AAA gaming or something else that demands extreme graphics performance, or any use case that would require more than 16 GB of memory, this will probably be fine for you, and half the price.
That being said, you can get a workstation or gaming laptop with better specs than this for <$1000. Here the big appeal is the detachable tablet and the 3:2 display, which are essentially unique with these specs. Youāll likely also want to shell out for a Surface Pen to use this to its fullest potential, which is around $70-ish depending on where you buy it.
Personally, if I were in the market for a new laptop, Iād be extremely tempted (and even though I donāt, I still am).
$1300 with only 256. But at $1300, it seems like I could get a more powerful device for that much money? Am I wrong? I mean, Iām in no way a Mac guy. But you could even get a pretty solid Mac for $1300? Again, am I wrong? Just seems like these are still high priced for what they are. But I will admit, Iāve never used one, so Iām curious what others have to say. Please share???
Has MS hit a "home run"with any of their Surface line? Which model?
You arenāt purchasing for the power but for the form factor, touch/pen screen, detachable tablet, etcā¦ There are no Macs that are anywhere near comparable. The closest thing Apple has would be the iPad Pro plus āMagicā Keyboard and that puts you exactly in this price range.
Correct. Youāre trading off some performance against portability and touchscreen tablet. I got a top of the line first generation Surface book (1tb ssdās, best graphics card available) about 9 months ago on Woot. I use it exclusively for work. Specifically fieldwork and travel. I generally run their Drawboard PDF software, and a full version of Autocad (2D files only, but generally large), plus normal office suite software. It performs perfectly. Cad gets a bit cranky, but Iām not doing production on it. Only opening files and looking around in them. I still have a desktop computer and heavy semi-portable laptop for production Cad.
I take this to meetings, use it to take field notes, and markup pdfs by hand directly. Its light, boots up quickly, and performs well.
Personally Iām always going to have applications that need more graphics and processing power than a form factor like this can support. But this computer replaced me plotting rolls of plans, noting them by hand, and scanning them in to share or record. Seeing how Iāve not set foot in the office for 2+ months, and havenāt missed a beat, this laptop has paid for itself.
If itās truly ānewā then why doesnāt it come with a standard warranty?
They were used as replacements for warranty issues. They are no longer needed so theyāve been let go to retail but without the warranty.
the surface book series is excellent. Got my daughter the i5 surface book 2 for college, it blows away her classmates laptops of any kind (including apple). felt like I was ātalked intoā getting it by the best buy sales guy when comparing the HP and Lenovo models that were also convertable tablets, so glad I spent the extra money to get her this.
Thanks for the insight.