Surface Book versus MacBook Pro

Billed as a MacBook Pro killer, the Surface Book shares a similar machined metal unibody construction, island-style keyboard, high resolution display and glass trackpad as its competitor. With its sharp, angular wedge profile, you'd be forgiven if you thought the Surface Book is a futuristic creation of famed Apple designer Jony Ive.

Yet while the Surface Book may borrow from Apple's design ethos, Microsoft is positioning the laptop as a clear competitor to the MacBook Pro. In a direct comparison, Panos Panay, head of hardware at Microsoft, proudly proclaimed that the Surface Book performance is twice as fast as the MacBook Pro.

And the similarities end here, as Microsoft and Apple take radically different approaches when it comes to the vision of tablet and laptop computing.
Design

Even though the Surface Book and MacBook Pro share similar 13-inch frames, silver body and machined metal unibody construction, the Surface Book looks more modern with its sharp edges, and dramatic wedge design, compared to the softer curves on Apple's notebook.

The Surface Book also has a more pronounced hinge design, which Microsoft is dubbing the Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge. While the hinge adds to the tech-inspired design of the Surface Book, it's not an entirely new design. The Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge looks a lot like the watch band hinge Lenovo introduced on the Yoga 3 Pro, except that the Surface Book hinge doesn't rotate the full 360 degrees.
When closed, the Surface Book has a wedge profile, and there is a slight gap between the display and keyboard that adds to the minimalist, airy design. The downside is that the open space can attract dirt and dust when transporting the notebook in a bag.

Both the MacBook Pro and the Surface Book come with a backlit keyboard and island-style key arrangement. Microsoft marketing was in full gear during the keynote to highlight the Surface Book's comfortable typing experience, noting deep key travel, quiet typing sound and large, glass trackpad. Apple's MacBook Pro has historically come with a good keyboard and a very responsive glass trackpad. However, unlike business-class notebooks, neither keyboard is spill-resistant.

The 3.34-pound Surface Book weighs about the same as the 3.48-pound MacBook Pro. Impressively, despite having a removable tablet display, the Surface Book only occupies a slightly larger footprint than the MacBook Pro. The Surface Book measures 12.3 x 9.14 x 0.9 inches (31.24 x 23.22 x 2.29cm), while the MacBook Pro measures 12.35 x 8.62 x 0.71 inches (31.37 x 21.89 x 1.80cm).

There are three design elements that set the Surface Book apart from the MacBook Pro.

First, Microsoft brings touchscreen functionality to the Surface Book. Apple, on the other hand, forces you to choose between touch on the iPad and traditional keyboard and touchpad inputs on the MacBook franchise.

Second, the screen detaches. The form factor is actually similar to the Surface Pro 4, but rather than a slim Type Cover, the Surface Book utilizes a more solid and traditional keyboard dock constructed of metal. The keyboard dock is more similar to the keyboard base of a traditional notebook, like the Apple MacBook Pro, or HP's convertible Spectre x360, making for a more stable laptop experience when Surface Book is used on your lap.

And third, once the screen detaches, users can interact with the display using touch or the new Surface Pen.

In terms of form factors, users can use the Surface Book as a laptop, with improved lapability compared to the Surface Pro series, as a tablet, in display mode with the screen docked and facing away from the keyboard or in tablet mode with the screen docked on top of the keyboard.
Performance

To get the maximum performance out of the Surface Book, you'll need to keep the tablet docked to the keyboard, as that's where the discrete Nvidia GeForce GPU is housed. To keep performance speedy, the GPU makes use of GDDR5 memory.

The discrete Nvidia graphics found in the dock is in addition to the discrete Intel HD Graphics that's part of Intel's sixth generation Skylake architecture on the tablet portion of the Surface Book.


For its design novelty, Microsoft isn't the first to envision delivering more power to computer users through a dock. Before Lenovo launched its ThinkPad Helix, the company had a prototype convertible with an ARM processor on the tablet portion, allowing the slate to be used as an Android tablet with longer battery life. When docked to a keyboard that housed a more powerful Intel Core i5 processor, the prototype convertible would switch to the desktop-class Windows OS when in laptop mode.

Another device with more powerful docking capabilities is the MSI GS30 Shadow gaming notebook with its graphics dock. Unlike the Surface Book and prototype Helix, the MSI GS30 is just a plain laptop, and not a convertible device. When the notebook is docked to its base, which houses speakers and a more powerful graphics card, gamers will get desktop-like gaming performance from the laptop.

Apple will likely update its MacBook Pro to Skylake in the future, but the exact refresh timing is not known. Currently, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is powered by Intel's fifth generation Broadwell architecture and Intel Iris Graphics 6100, so performance isn't quite as zippy as with Skylake. Additionally, there is no option for discrete graphics on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. For discrete graphics, you'll need to move up to the larger 15-inch model.

Another benefit to Skylake is that the integrated graphics can drive up to two additional 4K displays simultaneously, which is beneficial for small business owners who desire the flexibility of a tablet when on the go, a laptop for productivity and a multi-monitor workstation setup when at a desk.

Microsoft didn't mention the specific Nvidia graphics chip that is bundled with its Surface Book, but likely the company is using software optimization to extract the most performance. Small business owners who work with copious amounts of data, edit photos and videos or play games on their down time may benefit from the power of having a discrete GPU, and this is where the Surface Book edges ahead of the smaller MacBook Pro and even the Surface Pro 4.

"Ounce for ounce, this is the fastest 13-inch product ever made," said Panay in his keynote presentation, noting that performance is roughly twice that of a MacBook Pro.
Battery life

Microsoft made a big deal about the battery life of the Surface Book. Microsoft boasts that the laptop will be able to achieve 12 hours of battery on a charge, which is two hours longer than the 10 hours promised by Apple on the MacBook Pro.

Small business owners who work remotely without access to a power outlet will appreciate the battery boost. To put that in perspective, that's roughly a day and a half of battery life if you abide by the eight-hour work day. It's unclear how Microsoft measures battery life, and whether the discrete GPU will have any adverse affect on battery numbers.


Another big improvement Microsoft made to battery life is with standby time, with Panay claiming that the Surface Book will experience no power drain when the lid is closed in standby mode.
Power of the Surface Pen

Another key differentiator between Surface Book and the MacBook Pro is the inclusion of the active stylus. Like the Surface Pro 4, Surface Book comes with the Surface Pen, and Microsoft made improvements to its pen that makes inking easier.

One improvement is the inclusion of the eraser at the end of the pen, which Panay claims comes with enough friction to feel like erasing with a real eraser.



Overall, the pen is an evolution of the Surface Pen on the Surface Pro 3, offering 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity and allowing you to quickly launch into OneNote with a click of a button.

These features aren't available on Apple's MacBook Pro. For inking capabilities, you'll need to invest in the iPad Pro, but Apple Pencil is an optional accessory that's not included in the price.



Display

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, giving the display a 16:10 aspect ratio.

The Surface Book has a 13.5-inch screen with 267 pixels per inch, making for a crisp display. This means that Surface Book has slightly more pixels than the MacBook Pro, coming in at 3,000 x 2,000 pixels.

The Surface Book's display aspect ratio is similar to an A4 paper, and Microsoft says that this is the same 3:2 aspect ratio found on the Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4.

This aspect ratio makes it more natural to use the Surface Book in tablet mode, as it feels more like a printed sheet of paper, but the screen isn't optimized for video consumption. You'll see letterboxing when watching 16:9 aspect ratio videos. In laptop mode, small business owners may appreciate the 3:2 aspect ratio as it could mean less scrolling on the Surface Book for productivity tasks, like browsing web pages and working in spreadsheets. This aspect ratio is also shared by Google's Chromebook Pixel.
Connectivity, ports and expansion

Both the Surface Book and MacBook Pro with Retina display comes with similar internal specs. Both computing devices can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM, 128GB to 512GB of solid state storage, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

There are a few notable differences between the two devices. The first is that while the MacBook Pro comes with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader and HDMI port, the Surface Book comes with a more limited selection of ports as it lacks the dual Thunderbolt ports and swaps the HDMI port for the Mini DisplayPort standard.


The Surface Book has two sets of cameras: a 5-megapixel web camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera. The MacBook only has a more limited 720p FaceTime HD camera.

Small business users will likely benefit from the dual camera systems on the Surface Book, which can be used for video conferencing, documentation and scanning. However, the MacBook's included HDMI port may be more convenient for outputting video than Mini DisplayPort. The screen aspect ratio will boil down to a matter of preference, but both devices come with pixel-dense screens (267ppi on the Surface Book compared to 227ppi on the MacBook Pro).
Conclusion

In terms of sheer performance, you may be getting more out of the Surface Book, but when you add in more storage and memory, the $1,499 (£983, AU$2,091) starting price quickly jumps to $2,699 (£1,771, AU$3,765) on a fully configured system. Apple's system has a lower $1,299 (£852, AU$1,812) starting point and tops out at $1,799 (£1,180, AU$2,509).

Even though you may be paying less for a MacBook Pro, you may end up paying more if you need a tablet and decide to add an iPad or iPad Pro to your gear bag. What really matters is if you value the flexibility of having a tablet in a single device, and if having a touchscreen and pen support are important to you, then the Surface Book easily outshines the MacBook Pro.


Curiously, even though the Surface Book is targeted at more productive tasks, it lacks the face scanning RealSense 3D camera on the Surface Pro 4 and the fingerprint reader found on the optional Surface Pro 4 Type Cover to make it a truly compelling enterprise or business laptop.

Essentially, the Surface Book could be considered a slimmer Surface Pro 4, with a larger screen, that eschews the kickstand and Type Cover in favor of a sturdier keyboard dock.