A book you can judge by its cover: How Microsoft is giving Apple a run for its money

Microsoft Surface Book 2

From £1,500, microsoft.com 

For many years, Apple has had the ‘outrageously expensive’ end of the laptop market sewn up. No wonder it makes the fruit logo on the back of its models light up – if you’re spending the price of a second-hand car on your machine, you want the world to know about it.

It’s the parents I feel sorry for. Every time I walk into my local trendy coffee shop, which is infested with youngsters with ‘interesting’ haircuts, all doubtless working on some edgy film script, I look at their Apple equipment and wonder: ‘How much did your poor mum spend on that?’

The Surface Book 2, a ludicrously over-the-top laptop cum tablet, where the top-end model costs £3,000 (and even the ¿cheap¿ one comes in at £1,500)

The Surface Book 2, a ludicrously over-the-top laptop cum tablet, where the top-end model costs £3,000 (and even the ‘cheap’ one comes in at £1,500)

Apple fans have this ingrained masochism, where they love to be punished by their favourite brand – hence the chorus of delight that greeted the pointlessly expensive iPhone X.

But can any sane human being actually spend two or three grand on a laptop? Microsoft hopes so – it’s parking its tanks squarely on Apple’s turf with its new Surface Book 2, a ludicrously over-the-top laptop cum tablet, where the top-end model costs £3,000 (and even the ‘cheap’ one comes in at £1,500).

The gimmick here is that it’s a convertible: you can detach the screen and it becomes a sort of rocket-powered, Windows-toting iPad, or flip it round to watch HD films at your desk. You feel a bit stupid having something that powerful when you’re just Googling stuff on the sofa while you watch telly – and I practically had a heart attack any time the children went near my review unit.

But this isn’t aimed at your average PC user: the tablet element has been built for drawing on screen with a separate stylus and 3D design apps, and it’s clearly aimed at creative types (the ones who draw a salary, that is, as opposed to those who sit around in coffee shops all day).

The gimmick here is that it¿s a convertible: you can detach the screen and it becomes a sort of rocket-powered, Windows-toting iPad, or flip it round to watch HD films at your desk

The gimmick here is that it’s a convertible: you can detach the screen and it becomes a sort of rocket-powered, Windows-toting iPad, or flip it round to watch HD films at your desk

It’s a delight to use: Microsoft might not have the same pull with those creative types as Apple, but this is a luscious machine, with a gorgeously high-res screen, incredible responsiveness and a strokable magnesium finish.

It’s undoubtedly the best two-in-one laptop out there – but for this money, it ought to be, as you could buy a very decent laptop AND a top-spec tablet and still have change.

 

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