Why the Surface Book 2 is the Best Laptop I Wish I Never BoughtSurface Book 2 is a great laptop when it works. But that is rarely, and so many issues for a premium laptop, I wish I Never bought it.
What is the Surface Book 2
The Surface Book 2 is the second generation of the Surface Book, part of the Microsoft Surface line of personal computers. It is a 2-in-1 PC which can be used like a conventional laptop, or the screen can be detached and used separately as a tablet, with touch and stylus input.
I bought the Surface Book 2 15" with the Intel Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz - 2.2Ghz and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. Basically the highest spec machine to get the most life out of the product. I was hoping this would last me at least 5 years before I started to encounter applications and games which struggle to run due to specification requirements. I was certainly not expecting the laptop to be almost dead after 4 years.
For reference, my 10-year-old HP Pavilion DV7 from 2012 is still going strong.
Surface Book 2 Specs - Surface Book 2 15" PixelSense Display
- Intel Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz - 2.2Ghz (4Ghz Max Turbo)
- 16GB RAM 1866Mhz LPDDR3
- 512TB PCIe SSD
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 discrete GPU w/6GB GDDR5 graphics memory
Issues with the Surface Book 2
For the first year, everything was fine with the laptop, I was really enjoying my Surface Book with no regrets, however, it was in the second year that the problems started, just minor issues initially and software/firmware related. It wasn't until after the two-year warranty expired that the more serious hardware issues started to become noticeable.
The Case of the Missing Surface Book 2 dGPU
One of the first issues, quite an annoying one, was that the GTX 1060 discrete GPU would randomly disappear. It would vanish from the display properties, and the device manager and games would only run on the integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU.
The issue was caused by a faulty Windows Update which was later rolled back, fixed and re-released, however, the issue still persists, albeit not as frequently.
USB2 Devices Don't Work When Plugged into Surface Book 2 USB3 Ports
This was quite simply the most frustrating issue I have had with the Surface Book. It all started after a UEFI firmware update to version 389.2268.769.0. As a result of this update, USB2 devices would frequently disconnect and reconnect, hang/freeze or stutter. This was most noticeable on USB2 mice (who even makes a USB3 mouse?) where the mouse pointer would freeze every 20-30 seconds requiring it to be unplugged and replugged. The issues with the mouse freezing on Surface Book 2 persist after the most recent firmware update and have been reported to Microsoft numerous times and still have not been fixed.
The most reliable workaround I found for the mouse is to connect the mouse to the USB3 port via a USB2 hub. Certainly far from ideal, however, the mouse freezing problem has gone from every 20-30 seconds to once or twice per week.
Inadequate Power Supply for Surface Book 2
This was just a huge mistake from Microsoft. Under full load (gaming, video encoding etc.) the Surface Book 2 draws 127W of power, yet the bundled power supply can only provide 100W of power. The result is under full load the battery is drained. #facepalm
Microsoft "fixed" the issue by releasing an upgraded power supply in 2020, however, this was an additional cost, not a replacement program.
Screen Ghosting on Surface Book 2
Remember CRTs? Those massively heavy TVs and monitors we used before the year 2000? One of the problems they encountered (aside from breaking desks due to their weight) was that you could burn in an image of the screen if it doesn't move for a while. This is why screensavers were invented - they saved the screen from becoming burned in.
Fast forward to the 2020s and screen burn has returned - on the Surface Book 2 devices! Modern LCD, LED and OLED displays shouldn't suffer from screen burn-in because they are not using phosphorus or cathode ray tubes.
Technically the image isn't burned into the screen anymore, but rather a new phenomenon called Transient Image Persistence. Luckily, unlike screen burn, the effects are usually temporary. Transient Image Persistence, or ghosting, can occur as easily as having something remain unchanged on the screen in the same location for a duration as short as 10 minutes and is most noticeable around the edges.
This is a hardware fault and the unit should be sent back for replacement, however, mine was just outside the warranty period when I first notice the screen burn-in issues, so no luck for me. The ghosting does fade over time and isn't something that gets in the way, but certainly, not something I would have expected to occur on a premium laptop display.
Surface Book 2 Battery Issues
Now we get into the real serious issues with the Surface Book 2. The batteries. Just over the two-year mark, I noticed that the battery wasn't lasting quite as long as it used to. Not by much, but it made me think about whether to take a charger or not, normally I wouldn't take the charger as it always had enough juice to last the day. Around the 3-year mark taking the charger was a requirement since it would only last around 5 hours. Approaching the 4-year mark, batteries would be lucky to last an hour, and as of writing this post, they last around 15 minutes from a full charge.
Since the laptop is out of warranty, Microsoft doesn't want to know about it. I am using it purely on AC only but the problem with these batteries is that they start to swell, then explode. Mines not showing any signs of swelling yet, but it's only a matter of time. Because of the design of the Surface Book 2 batteries are not replaceable so I'm basically stuck with a high-end-ticking time bomb that could literally explode at any time.
Weak Hinge on Surface Book 2
One of the iconic design features of the Surface Book range is the hinge. It allows the lid to be lifted and extended, it holds the tablet in place and with the use of magnetic catches, it allows the tablet to detach. The screen can be turned around and the Surface Book can be used in tent or slate mode. This is all very cool.
The only problem is around the 3-year mark the hinge started to become a little weak resulting in a wobbly display. Itself, is not an issue, however, it looks like the connection between the tablet and keyboard base is also coming to lose since every time the screen wobbles, even by a little bit, the tablet detaches and attaches to the keyboard. And this is a really massive pain since any devices plugging into the USB (mouse, keyboard, external hard drives etc..) also detach without warning. And to top things off, the springs that hold the magnetic clamps don't always retract, so the tablet is really difficult to detach from the base.
Again, hardware faults, out of warranty, Microsoft is not interested.
Surface Book 2 Overheating
This is another software issue that was initially caused by a bad Windows Update which was later fixed, however, the issues persist even after a new installation of Windows. For some unknown reason, usually while gaming but it has occurred several times when just sat idle. The Surface gets hot, and hotter and the fans come on to cool it down, it gets hotter and hotter and then eventually results in a thermal shutdown.
Once the power is off the Surface cools down slowly and when you turn it back on the CPU is stuck on a thermal throttle of around 0.7Ghz and will not go any higher despite being left to cool overnight and being cold to touch.
This was one of the many issues with the Windows 10 1909 update, and although mostly fixed, this still happens from time to time.
The fix I found that works for this issue and to restore normal CPU frequency is to turn off the Surface Book, hold the Vol Down + Power buttons to enter the EUFI BIOS, and then save and exit. This trick seems to do some CPU reset and it works.
Lack of Driver Updates on Surface Book 2
Finally, there is an issue which affects most, if not all, modern devices, and that is how often / if manufacturers release firmware or software updates. Microsoft has been particularly lax around NVIDIA graphics drivers. The Surface will only work with drivers provided by Microsoft, especially for the Surface. You cannot use generic or reference NVIDIA drivers. Not a huge problem, but I have had several games (e.g. Doom Eternal) state that Graphics Drivers are out of date and that I need to update. How long before the graphics drivers are not supported and the games won't run at all?
Conclusions
Overall the Surface Book 2 is a great laptop and I really like it, when it works. But that is rarely, and so many issues for a premium laptop, especially the failed, non-replaceable batteries. Unforgivable.
I will no longer buy any laptop or mobile phone that does not feature user-replaceable batteries and storage.
