Microsoft’s dream machine, the Surface Book, has only been out of the gates a couple of weeks but that’s long enough for many of the world’s tech critics to have given the new laptop hybrid a test run. The results are in, and for the most part Microsoft will be pleased with what people have to say – most of which consists of an abundance of superlatives marked with a few quibbles here and there. Here is a round-up of what folks have said so far:

Tom Warren of The Verge calls the Surface Book an “evolved” laptop though does add that the price tag ($1,499 to $3,199) should mean it has to be something special. His first thoughts are that it looks a “little odd” given that the device “has picked a 3:2 aspect ratio instead of the wide 16:9 or 16:10 ratios found on most laptops.” Because of this, he says, it takes some time getting used to, but once he was settled the Surface Book he says is great for spending hours surfing the web given its vertical prowess. He is equally impressed with the keyboard/trackpad, and in terms of power he says it performs well. His gripe: the device has been crashing on him quite a bit, and he feels Microsoft may have rushed to get it out there.

Mashable mirrored this saying that the Surface Book is a, “Very good premium laptop that is an occasionally unnerving mix of brilliance and pre-production hiccups.” Evolutionary design, they say, makes the device equally pleasing on your lap or on a desk (something the Surface tablet range has occasionally been criticized for), but like Warren the reviewer wasn’t keen on a gap that appears when it is closed (what might get in there?). They are also pleased with the power, typing and trackpad, but concerned with the crashes they experienced. Mashable was impressed with the stylus and how the machine makes drawing easy: “On the desk, in your lap or in the crook of your arm, the screen tips gently toward you. It’s not a perfect drawing angle, but pretty near it.” As for battery life, Mashable gives the Surface Book a B, saying the 12 hours purported is more like 7 or 8 ( still pretty good).

Over the pond to Gizmodo UK the reviewer said he was so enamored with the Surface Book he’s considering going back to Windows. The reviewer heaped  honors on the device saying, “This is probably the most beautiful display I’ve ever seen on a computer, and its rated contrast ratio, which is an indication of the widest gamut of light and dark the screen can represent, blows all other competitors away.” Impressed with the keyboard as everyone else was Gizmodo UK did say that the trackpad can be at times “jumpy”, making him resort to employing the mouse. Another downside they said was because the device is top heavy having it on your lap can cause it to sway forward.

On playing games Gizmodo thought the Surface Book was just ok, saying, “I played a few graphics intensive games like Tomb Raider, and found that they hummed along nicely at high frame rates with the graphics set to medium quality. At high quality, however, performance got pretty choppy. So you can play games, but it’s not able to handle graphics-intensive maxed to 11.”

Sound bites

Wired:
“The Surface Book does all the basic things so well that it’s frustrating to see it get all the funky, different stuff kind of wrong.”

USA Today:

“Microsoft claims that Surface Book is up to twice as fast as the MacBook Pro. While I’ll leave it to others to conduct comparative benchmark tests, I can tell you the Surface Book feels plenty snappy…While the new Microsoft hardware compares very favorably to the MacBook Pro, the decision of whether you want Surface Book or Apple’s premium laptop comes ultimately boils down to another important factor — do you buy into Windows or favor Apple’s Mac OS X operating system?”

ZDNet:

“The Surface Book is a really beautiful device. I really like the keyboard. The keys are well-spaced and it’s comfortable and fast for those of us who live to type and type to live.” But, “I can’t type on my lap using the Surface Book, though I can read and watch videos with it there, as I can hold onto it.”

Ars Technica:

“This is the machine that I’ve wanted Microsoft to build ever since it embarked on its Surface adventure in 2012.

The good

Great screen

Great keyboard

Great trackpad

Clean, elegant design

Detachable clipboard

The bad

Base system has no discrete GPU

No Windows Hello software support yet

It gets terribly expensive

The ugly

Weird bugs when detaching the screen, which simply must be fixed by the release date.”

PC World:

“Microsoft’s stunning laptop, gives you everything you want—showing up all the vendors who said it couldn’t be done.”

Yahoo:

“I’ve now spent a couple of weeks using the Surface Book and think Apple should be on high-alert: The MacBook Pro has some very serious new competition.”

Engadget:

“I would one day like to see a laptop with the Surface Book’s build quality, battery life and performance, just a little lighter and with better endurance as a standalone tablet. For now, the Surface Book is at its best as a laptop, which really is the whole point.”

Photo credit: Microsoft and Adam McGhee via Flickr