It was the original Surface Book launch event in 2015 that sealed my love for Microsoft's homegrown line of laptop/tablet hybrids. The company's earlier convertibles had certainly piqued my interest, but the Book, with its detachable tablet/clipboard and funky dynamic-fulcrum hinge, demonstrated a willingness to challenge the convention that I hadn't seen since the very first Surface in 2012. Of course, it didn't hurt that the thing was utterly gorgeous, either.
Flash forward to 2018 (past an upgrade that mainly focused on the Base) and the Surface Book 2 retains almost all of the good looks of its progenitor. It also propels its already-ponderous physical presence to new heights, with my top-shelf 15" review device dwarfing the 15" MacBook Pro '17 that forms the backbone of my everyday carry. But the Surface Book 2 also strikes a balance of new and old that the MacBook utterly misses: there's a blend of USB-A and USB-C ports on Microsoft's machine, as well as an SD card slot and the magnetic charging cable that Apple ditched in 2016. And because the Book does double-duty as a tablet, there's a full-size touchscreen in laptop mode, rather than the TouchBar I still find of dubious usefulness on the MacBook.
This isn't a Surface Book 2 vs MacBook Pro throwdown, but as someone who's carried both side-by-side for the past ten days, the comparison is unavoidable. It's also one that Microsoft made, loudly and repeatedly, at the Surface Book 2's launch event. So if you're looking to shell out big money for big performance, and you're wondering just what it's like to live with Microsoft's newest mobile monster, click on through to the MrMobile review up top for the 10,000-foot view. Then when you're ready for the deep dive, check out Daniel Rubino's official Surface Book 2 review right here on Windows Central!