My Surface Book story starts out awful, but gets better.
First, I pre-ordered a i7/8GB/256GB unit. I then got the sinking feeling in my stomach when I realized I would be out of town on 10/26, and wouldn't be back in town until 10/29. The Microsoft store said they'd only hold the unit for 48 hours before releasing it. So, I called on the 23rd, and they promised that they would keep it until Friday. Given that people sometimes 'forget', especially when a device is in high demand, I texted the store manager when I was out of town and she promised to hold the unit. That was great customer service, very thrilled with the Frisco, TX Microsoft store.
So, I come in town - and as promised the device was waiting for me. It didn't start off well. The battery was flat, and when I booted up the machine I found out it was in an odd state. It was at the lock screen (but I hadn't created an account) and there was a default account on the screen. The video driver was sluggish, everything was super slow, and I couldn't connect to Wifi or anything. I reset the device (Power + Volume), and it finally rebooted and went to the setup process. Phew! Got everything working, installed updates, installed Visual Studio, and my umpteen development tools, Office, etc. - and then disaster started. The system would lock up randomly. Hard crash, no BSOD or anything. It was completely unusable. About 10 minutes on average, it would hard lock. With a sinking feeling in my stomach as I read through various forums, it appeared as if I had a lemon with a HW defect.
I packed it up and took it back to the store. Unfortunately, the tech there confirmed that this was a unit with a HW issue. He said that there were two other units that had the same issues. They didn't have any other units in stock - so they were going to have to start the replacement process (3-5 business days). This bummed me out because I was supposed to be out of town next week, and I had really hoped to have my Surface Book so that I wouldn't have to lug my Lenovo W541 (almost 6lbs of Quad Core i7 nVidia Quadro power - also only 5 hours of battery!). I had wanted my Surface Book for the trip. They took pity on me, and one of the guys came from out back with a replacement machine(!). Turns out that someone else had pre-ordered, but had not come to pick up the machine even after several contact attempts, so they swapped out the machine for me! What awesome customer service. This was the Frisco, TX store. Wonderful people there.
I was still a little concerned - this was another pre-order unit, and maybe there was a batch of bad machines out there, and maybe this machine and my old one were built with the same defective HW batch. Who knew? But I am pleased to report that this one booted up immediately to a proper setup screen, and so far has not locked up even once. So grateful.
So how do I like it? I love it! It has its bugs. The display driver occasionally freaks out when the screen is detached, Edge has all sorts of issues, sometimes I lose touch on the clipboard when I reinsert it in draw mode. The unit doesn't seem to sleep properly either so I'm going to have to get hibernate put on this machine. Deja Vu with my Surface Pro 3. Why can't Microsoft get this right at launch? I don't know.
But on the positives - keyboard is excellent! Minus some odd decisions about the PgUp/PgDn and Arrow Key design, I really like the board. One of the best keyboards I've used on a laptop. The trackpad is nice - has a little bit more lag than I'd like - and I miss the Trackpoint from my Thinkpad tremendously.
Lapability is great - screen doesn't bounce. I don't know what people are doing to make the screen bounce but it is rock solid for me even when typing up a storm. Battery life: Not too sure about yet, because I've been installing and thrashing the HDD with indexing. Don't want to make any firm conclusions until things settle down (get maybe 7 hours on it right now with current usage). Still better than my 5!
The screen is fantastic. Best screen I've used on a computer. I've had a rMBP 15" (first year), and it wasn't nearly as beautiful as this display. Of course there are some Windows programs that positively freak out with the 200% scaling, but hopefully more and more apps are updated to work properly.
Enjoy the multitouch trackpad gestures, almost like my days in OS X and Macbooks. Missed that.
I also missed my Surface Pro 3's touchscreen when I moved to my Thinkpad (needed a discrete GPU for my work). I was one to scoff at touchscreens on computers, until I got my Surface Pro. Then I suddenly saw the value of it. Glad to have it back. Cannot tell you how many times I poked at my Lenovo's screen just to get no response!
I also missed the Surface Pen. I loved doing document (PDF) reviews and using the pen. I'd often be in a meeting and would use the pen to fill in notes in the agendas, reports, etc. Was weird not having it on my Thinkpad. Sometimes I'd take the Surface Pro 3 with me, and you can only imagine how heavy my bag was with computers (around 8lbs of computers!).
I love the way this thing looks and feels. It feels chunkier than you would initially expect. It's odd, because when I pick it up, I expect that I'm going to pick up a Macbook Air (I have an 11" one that has been circulated down to my older children), but instead I have to remember that I have to compare it to a 13" Macbook Pro's heft, and then everything makes sense. Not sure what it is - but the unit feels dense, which is good. Very hefty feeling, even though it technically isn't very heavy at all.
Haven't used the Clipboard by itself much yet. I plan on doing more with it soon.
So far, I am still in love with it. I am on the fence on perhaps returning this in the 30 day window to get the 16GB model, or whether I should keep it and trade it in and upgrade to the SB2 next year since they will refine a lot of the issues with the machine. Not sure, will continue to see how this thing works for me for the month. Either way, I am expecting to keep the SB, just a question of whether I upgrade. Thanks to the MS Store's 30 day return window, I can make the decision after my upcoming trip.
I know there's been a lot of frustration (and I would be one of those stories, if the Microsoft Store didn't have a replacement unit for me), but when this thing works - it is a fantastic experience, and I believe only going to get better. Too bad they didn't launch with the kinks worked out. Maybe next time.