I bought a surface book 1 in 2017. Excellent hardware spec; however, it is a garbage. In less than 6 months of use the battery was completely dead. I send it to Microsoft and (for my surprise) instead of receiving my computer fixed or a new computer(like what Apple used to do), Microsoft sent me a refurbished used computer. It is like you buy a new car and, due to a engine problem, the factory return you an used one. After a year I have issue with the battery again. In other words, Surface Book 1 has a serious issue with the battery. Nowadays, the battery of tablet expanded and destroyed the screen. My recommendation is avoiding buy this piece of garbage.

It was a huge pos. Turned me off of Microsoft devices for life

The only issue I have with this laptop is the screen randomly dimming or brightening (it's not adaptive brightness) other than that, It works like any modern laptop! It's cheap to get your hands on and It's so satisfying to have. If anyone Is thinking about getting one I would say go for It(as long as It's In good condition)

I bought a Book 1 in 2016, I used it as my main private PC for some light tasks (surfing the web, home banking and trading, some photo editing, a bit of Excel and PowerPoint). During this time the Surface proved to be a very solid and reliable laptop. I brought it with me everywhere: Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Occasionally (typically when on holidays) I used it to handel large business Excel files or PowerPoint presentations, and I never had an issue. However, the machine is now 8 years old and, albeit it's still going strong, it is not compatible with Windows 11, while Windows 10 support is due to end soon. I also just noticed that the screen is detaching from its chassis due to a swollen battery. It's therefore time to replace it with a new Windows 11 unit. But I will also try to replace the battery of the Book 1, to keep it as an ancillary computer, just in case the new one fails for any reason. I bought the battery online and a few tools I was missing. Total spent was only $50 US, half of it for the battery, 25% for the heat-gun. Overall, I am happy with my Microsoft Surface Book 1, so much that my next unit will also be a Microsoft Surface.

Try out the devices with any phone cooler, It'll help withe thermals. Similar sentiment here, I had an SB2 15 before. The screen was great but also pretty painful to see it break from the battery puffing up and harder to find parts T-T.

i was today years old when i learned that it's possible to charge the tablet when it's detached😂 I'ce had this thing for years and i never noticed. Thanks for enlightening me

Can you paint with this?

The surface book is not in the same category as the Yoga. Yes they might offer more dedicated gpu and cpus but its two totally different laptops. The surface book, can be like the Yoga laptop, a regular laptop, and a tablet. So what made the Surface Book unique that is has 3 functions in one. And also these factors: 1. Removable screen. 2. Interchangeable keyboard base, you can have a few and swap them with or without graphic cards. 3. Better construction and build. Although the repair is hard, its doable. Also you don't need heat to remove the battery. The best way is, take alcohol and syringe drop under the battery where the adhesive is, after you do it well will come out. You can remove slowly by prying the bottoms of battery, remove the half of the MB screw and the battery can be remove under the motherboard by sliding out one side. And installation same way. This is how I did it. As for the screen you need two people for this, using a heat gun make someone go around the bezels not to hold in one place long, and slowly using a opening tool plastic, never metal, slowly keep going around it. Use as suction cup and keep pulling slowly, and by going around this same way, will eventually open without breaking it.

Is it worth buying in 2024 at 240 - Refurbished - Excellent condition ?

That terrible battery life is all I needed to hear; I need a tablet to walk around with all day for work. I'll be right next to the base so that's not an issue but I don't want to deal with that battery life. Great review, thanks!

10 hrs ? Holy f. I do in 3hrs lol

I ended up going down the Surface Laptop line instead, mainly for price reasons..... But yeah, the Surface Book 1 is why I fell in love with Surface in the first place. I totally understand why Microsoft went down the route of replacing the Book with the Laptop Studio....just far less things can go wrong, but I will forever appreciate what the Book 1 did.

Hello, did the surface pro 4 still doing well as drawing tablet in 2024 Im planing to buy second hand or cheaper tablet for drawing. Im still debating either to buy ipad 7th or samsung galaxy tab s6 lite or surface pro 😅

yeah but they are so cheap these days tho.. Like trash chromebook money cheap... and the screen is beautiful with it's 3:2 aspect ratio for certain stuff.. I bought a book 2 for 130$ just to read comics ( they look perfect with the 3:2 aspect ratio).. Plan it to use it plugged in so battery last as long as possible...

good for basic coding task ? book 1

i dont agree with this video i use both the surface book and duo an im happy with both

They should've kept this series alive. what they are releasing nowadays is lame.

Congrats on swapping out the battery in the tablet. My original SB1 batteries started to swell in 2020 just like yours. Unlike you, I tossed my unit out. I'm not debating buying a used SB3 because I miss using my old SB.

Yeah buddy i just picked one up for 120 dollars from Walmart. Im so excited

Doesn't the charger connect directly into the tablet? In to the bottom port that attaches to the keyboard.

They are going for £150 in some UK outlets right now (about $180) I think?

I got two surface books from recycling earlier on this year, both with swollen batteries, one screen came off fine and the other completely shattered and came away in pieces, still working, just shattered, my solution for the issue was just to rip the battery from the tablet and use the bottom case to power it, not entirely reliable, but enough for it to work properly and not be a hazard.

Nice video work buddy.

Nice review. Really gave me a good insight into considering a second hand option of this. I needed it mainly for editing photos on light room. Seems a little outdated and too risky to purchase for todays software so have decided to pass. Thanks heaps for saving me time. Cheers

Consedring to buy one used for 250 euros

In summary, just two things to watch out for, the battery needing replacing and dust gathering in the hinge

Can anyone confirm is battery 1 in the monitor or keyboard. Thanks

Found one sale for 280usd in good condition. Should i buy it?

I just bought a top spec original model surface book with a fresh battery for $108

Sir can we connect & use 3rd party usb keyboard and mouse to it?

6:30 You get insane battery life. I have a Book 2 15 and my battery is on the way out. I have begrudingly put up with it, but I am now more inclined to fix it. WOW nice job.

Just bought one in perfect condition for 80 bucks!

I will say. It depends on how the batteries have been used as well. I bought a surface book1 from my step brother for 300 and he bought it new in 2016. It has always been plugged in so the batteries are still basically brandnew. No swelling yet. Though the tablet battery is unreliable and likes to shut off at 80%, though that could be because he never used it as a tablet so the battery was never properly calibrated

How much cost to replace the two batteries?

my ssd stopped ,damm 4 months tnxs @microsoft

So you've had this thing for over 5 years and you're complaining about it that it's not good You plan on passing it down to your kids or?

Like every high tech product it becomes obsolete in time. I still have my Book 1, great for web surfing obviously for other task like content creation is Not great, awfully slow. The screen is great. In general High tech product has a life cycle of 18mths - 2 years depending on individuals.

After five years of use hardly any laptop will survive but software is truly optimised in surfaces hence still useful

Does this support windows 11?

My SB1 just died on me without warning. I suspect it is a battery issue but can't be sure. How did you glue everything back, such as the screen? Did you use a special adhesive, and can you recommend one to buy for a home repair?

Highly worth

I just bought second hand for 250. Is it worth the price?

watching on a surface pro 4, this sucks honestly. Performance is awful (16fps avg on roblox at the lowest settings), keyboard constantly disconnects without me detaching it, flickergate is awful on mine, whenever it's connected to the charger the mouse has a seizure, it takes like 4 minutes to even begin booting up when it's not connected to the charger, it was extremely overpriced for how bad performance it has and how many problems it has. It barely runs better than my school Chromebook, except my mom's ex bought it for me at launch, when it was 900 dollars, and it runs sometimes even worse than my school chromebook, which was likely bought for a fraction of the price. This computer is horrible, and I've never used a computer that had more than 4gb ram in my life. I have never used a good computer, the only other one I used was my mom's old Toshiba thing from a long time ago when I was younger. The computer was 10 years old, and it ran better than my pc. Of course, mine is about 6 years old, but the thing is, I started encountering problems like this left and right at 2 or 3 years. The condition has only been worsening. Oh, and there it is again. While I'm writing this, Flickergate problems are worsening literally as I speak. I have to completely shut off and turn back on my computer, which the computer then, after turning on, randomly decides I'm turning it off, and says, "let go of the power button, we only need a few more seconds to shut off" and then proceeds to take minutes to shut off, I turn it back on, put in my pin, get a black screen, shut off, turn on, finally get no flickergate for 4 seconds, and then it goes back on, except not when objects on the screen are moving. So I watch videos or things that have movement. Then only 1-3 hours, usually 1-2 after I come back, regardless if I've used it or not, it stops even flickering, and the pixels on the screen just become double-vision vertically always. It has 128gb of storage, except I seem to have barely anything downloaded, yet I only have 10gb of space at most, after clearing as much as I could. I have run scans from everything and found no sign of bloatware. I don't know what happened. the keyboard is fraying and separating on all ends, and I don't even notice it anymore. I have sweaty hands, like my hands sweat a little just typing, and that tiny, miniscule bit of moisture over 6 years turned the edges of the keyboard into a complete mess. I don't know what you guys are talking about. This computer is so bad, it runs nintendo 64 emulation only like twice as good as a first release 3ds. Twice as good sounds good. The 3ds is like 5% the size of the surface pro 4, and has 128mb of ram. I really only know ram about pc specs, but I know that 4gb of ram should bring it up to much more than twice as good. Flickergate just got worse again, now that same image from before is flickering up and down like it's double flickergate.

Absolutely love the Surface Book. Been using it as my primary laptop since 2016 with no major issues. Just replaced the keyboard battery today which was cheap and straightforward.

Bought a surface 3 at the start of oandemic and still going strong. The ability to use it with surface pen and doing normal pc stuff is unrivalled. Sure, its not powerful but i could atill use it for basic coding tasks.

im ended mine from the macOS Mavericks to Sierra and High Sierra..The last upgrade I made is the Catalina Patcher that runs well and highly in 64-bits leaving the 32-bit behind..so far, it supports latest and continues to runs more years to come even it is unsupported for my Macbook Mid 2010.

The same swelling happened to mine😕

Yo I was about the buy a book 1 from eBay as my budget was low but I guess now gonna go for book 2. Thanks man

Truly a surface book video

Nice review! I still have a SB1 [had 2, 1 w/ perf base that I sold ], that's relegated to use for testing, and misc A/V processing task. Im a 30 year IT guy and the SB is my favorite laptop of all time!! I'm a 2-in 1 guy so I'm partial in the sense, but I also loved the look and screen of the Book. I'm going to see how well it will hold up to be able to stream 720-1080 livestreams. It's stationary on my desk 100% of the time so I figure I'll use it until the battery goes or it no longer has any utility for me. Thanks