On Monday I got an email from Microsoft telling me that a $2700 Surface Book was waiting for me at my local FedEx. I hurried over to pick it up and then I immediately went to the Apple Store in town to buy (what I thought was) as comparable MacBook Pro.
Before entering the Apple store I opened up the Surface Book and checked the specs; 512GB SSD Intel i7 2.6GHz, 16GB of RAM. I then looked up the actual value of this laptop on Microsoft's website; $2700, wow....
I went in the Apple store and started looking at 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros. Every 13 inch MacBook Pro had an i5 processor and was significantly cheaper than my $2700 Surface Book. Luckily I found a 15 inch MBP that appeared to have almost identical specs; 512 SSD, 2.5GHz i7, and 16GB RAM. The price was $2500, $200 cheaper than the Surface Book but it was close. Before I swiped my credit card I showed the Apple employee the exact specs of the Surface Book and asked if the processors were comparable, he said they were, but we both ended up being wrong.
I got back to the studio and started filming speed tests in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere. The tests did not go well for the Surface Book. In Photoshop and Lightroom, the MacBook Pro was able to burn through jpeg and raw files at twice the speed of the Surface Book. In Premiere, the MBP was able to render 4k footage with up to 4 effects on the fly while the Surface Book couldn't even play 4k footage smoothly at 1/8 resolution. As one of the last photographers I know using Windows, I left defeated that night.
Later that night one of our writers pointed out that although both processors are Intel i7 chips, the Apple chip is a quad core while the Microsoft chip is only a dual core. This explained why the Apple was twice as fast, it has a processor that is literally twice as fast.
Once I figured this out I felt better because I knew that Apple didn't have some magic software that could make its hardware twice as fast but I also felt worse because the MacBook Pro was actually $200 cheaper and it was still twice as fast as the Surface Book.
If you're deciding which laptop is better based on power alone, the MBP is the clear winner. If, however, you are looking at all aspects including design quality, included accessories, touch capabilities, and of course the fact that the Surface Book is a laptop and tablet in one, the decision isn't so clear.
As someone who appreciates design and craftsmanship, I've always admired Apple products. Every aspect of an Apple laptop feels completely thought-out while my plastic Windows laptops feel cheap and disposable. In the video below I compare the design and craftsmanship of each laptop.
At the end of the day the Surface Book is an amazing achievement. I don't understand how they made that magnetic hinge, it works so well that it's a pleasure every time I detach the screen from the keyboard but the poor battery life of the tablet portion of the Surface Book makes it pretty useless to use without the base. It's also not the power house that I thought it would be. 4k video footage is quickly becoming the new standard and the laptop was unable to edit it without rendering first, that alone would keep me from spending $2700 on it but I realize that the average Surface Book user, and even the average Fstoppers reader, does not edit 4k video footage. For you, the Surface Book may be powerful "enough" but that's up to you to decide.
Because the Surface Book is so expensive, and the tablet portion has such limited battery life, I personally lean toward the Surface Pro 4 myself. You can read my full write up on the Surface Pro 4 here and you can watch my comparison video between the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book below.
LOL... sorry Lee but you are going to get tagged a Apple fanboy. I know you're not but clearly not everyone does or is able to see past their own bias ;)
As for the comparison, you are on the money and unfortunately so... I was planning on going Surface Book until I noticed the core difference. I'd rather stay the same platform as I have on my tower (win 10)...
The surface book is for people that want a small but powerful laptop with a pen... if you want more power you need to go bigger.. Microsoft compared this with MacBook 13ich which is slower...
But... Microsoft themselves compares the SurfaceBook to the MacBook Pro in their own marketing!
Noo they did not, they compared it to the 13ich one XD get your facts right
IN THEIR MARKETING, you less-than-smart person. Of COURSE they're going to say the surfacebook is better. That's called advertising. All about statements, none about facts.
I might have an good alternative to the mac pro 15" retina.
I just came across the Dell XPS 15 which was updated a couple weeks ago, because I want to ugrade from my almost broken 5 year old Macbook pro 13
It's similar in price (highest version) to the MBPR but has the new Intel Skylake CPU, a Nvidia GPU instead of AMD then the MBPR. And according to Dell the the display is a 4k touchscreen with 100% Adobe RGB.
I hope someone has hands on the new XPS15 for content creating and such.
It's only a good alternative if you don't want MacOS.
the operating system is the least problem for me. I'm using Mac OS for over 7 years now and Windos for god knows how long. :D (PC+ MBP)
No problem with both os at all. It's more important what I get for my money. The XPS15 just seems specwise better imo. (I want to test before buying of course)
And many programms are crossplattform anyways (Adobe,C1,C4D etc) . So I dont see the OS a problem.
I own the previous model (XPS 15 9530 late 2013) and seeing the specs of the new XPS (9550) is making me want to upgrade.
Lee, this article is terribly inaccurate. I won't place all of the blame at your feet... part of it is due to the way tech companies obscure specs. But some basic research could have clarified a lot of information for you.
Issue 1. The 15 inch macbook pro uses a quad core processor. the 13 inch macbook pro uses a dual core processor. This is readily apparent on the apple site.
Issue 2. The prices are different. But microsoft never claimed that it was twice as fast as a compatibly priced macbook (although that is implied.) Rinse and repeat this comparison with the highest specced macbook pro 13inch... the 3.1ghz turbo i7. We shall then be able to verify microsofts comparison. This model is not sold in stores to the best of my knowledge. Order it online from apple.
The difference between the quad and the dual core processors is the thermal envelope. It is obvious that with the bigger body you can fit in more thermal cooling for the two extra processor cores.
Yes, different thermal design above all. The Surface will most likely throttle more than the MacBook Pro.
Question, what are the video card chips in the two computers? Video cards are giant graphics processors so your software may be offloading some of the work to the video card which could also explain the speed difference.
I spoke to Adobe and they told me when GPU is used and every test in this video should be 100% processor.
Hmmm so even with the color effects, GPU is still not used with premiere?
It depends on the effects and your settings. GPU powered effects have a small symbol in the effects list.
wow that's a shame about the surfacebook. I really like my surface for business purposes, just to run what i need to run but for editing and workflow, Apple is still king. We have old MacPro Towers (silver aluminum) from back in the late single 2000s, and a brand new PC with all the trimmings and the Macs destroy it. Photoshop on windows is way too glitchy and just doesn't run right. I moved from a mac to the PC to get our post production team all aligned on one platform and me (the guy just interfacing and making things run smoothly) just on something that i can do some work if needed and i hate it. I've worked on both for a very very long time, but i have to say that apple did something great with their machines and workflow capabilities. as long as they don't screw it up with software "improvements" i think it'll mostly be like that. They can cram better stuff into a smaller box... usually. I still love my surface though. Touch screen, baby.
This is a very good review, I also think you should compare the performance of the standard i5 dual core Surface book against the i5 dual core Macbook pro 13 inch, this might be close and more interesting!
I'm an Apple user for so many years and never ever looked at any other product, but I think Microsoft has made an interesting product here, maybe with some improvements they will have a really good contender to the macbook with the extra option of being a tablet, that's impressive!
"If, however, you are looking at all aspects including design quality, included accessories, touch capabilities, and of course the fact that the Surface Book is a laptop and tablet in one, the decision isn't so clear." So I should ditch processing speed for a touch screen? Enjoy the war.
Well that completely depends on what you are doing on your computer. My parents would choose a detachable tablet over raw power any day. Being that I am constantly editing 4k footage, I would choose the power for my main computer obviously but I choose convenience in my secondary computers.
It is a shame that this comparision isnt even close to accurate...which is why Apple users continue to feel their products are better.
A decked out 13" Macbook Pro costs $2200. So yes it is $400 cheaper but doesnt have touch screen support, stylus support or a detachable screen. It would be prudent to compare proper products rather than simply listen to the Mac Genius at the store. Took me 2 mins on the Apple Store website to find what you should of bought to make a fair comparison as the 13" mac pro doesnt have a discreet GPU or Quad Core like the 15". This is more improper research than poor marketing from MS....
As I said in both the video and the article, that option wasn't available in the store. I'm going to try to get my hands on this and try again though.
I hear you and I do get thay the specs can be a touch misleading...but so is the title if this article which is undoubtledly comparing Apples to Organges and is one of the first "reviews" of the Surface Book...meaning you will gets tons of traffic with an article that isnt comparing products that are in the same category.
I don't think the MBP 13 is in the same category either though. Obviously the Surface Book has some pretty revolutionary features that the MBP doesn't. Now, if the Surface Book is faster than a similarly priced MBP AND it has all of these amazing features, that's a game changer.
It is better then a similarly priced MBP 13ich!!! If they made a 15ich guess what it would be faster!!
But why would you? If I'm a professional, the's no way in hell I'm going for the 13" if I can help it. This comparison is made on price:power, NOT equality. So you don't have a quad core. Too bad; Macs do.
Side note: tread carefully in these comments; it's quickly turning into PetaPixel.
Overall I thought this was a fair comparison under the misconception that the CPU's are roughly the same. Obviously they are different but like Lee, I was also under the impression that the Surface Book had a quad core i7. So really nothing against MS here. You simply can't make a dual core compete with a quad core on some tasks.
I read this article, then I read the comment. People are complaining on a fair comparison. Should have done more research. SO I went to Microsofts page and looked up the Surface Book http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.325716000. When trying to build out the machine it only said i7. Nothing about dual or quad core. So I have know problem with this article and the results. Yes it wasn't a fair fight. But Microsoft wasn't showing all of it's stats. But this can be said. The MBP is faster, more reliable at a lesser cost. As a full time photographer and a photo student I know reliability and speed are the most important part of my post processing. Sorry. Dollar for dollar the MBP wins.
It's the Surface Book not the Surface Pro 4
Exactly! After our test I went to the Microsoft page to check the processor and was left searching other blogs to find out if the i7 processor was in fact dual or quad core. As Lee says above, I think Intel should update their labeling to make this even more clear but it's a shame Microsoft doesn't label it on their own sales page.
I think a workstation laptop would be fairer.
I'm actually shocked, that a Windows Laptop/Hybrid with that price tag is soooo slow.
This article is exactly why creative people should not try to act as if they are tech reviewers–leave that for the tech people. Dani Diamond posted an excellent article of the SurfacePro 3 on F-stoppers a while back that reviewed the *use cases* and *experiences* it created for a working photographer. Sadly, the article was taken down within a few hours without apparent reason.
This is absolutely an uneven comparison. You specced the Surface way past the point of diminishing returns on investment and then complained about the price to performance ratio. A more fair comparison to the 15" MBP would be the Dell XPS15–a similarly specced model would be $1800. A more fair comparison to the Surface Book would be the 13" MBP–a similarly specced model would run $2500 and would be lacking the touch screen and pen/tablet functionality (but have a better thermal design), or even a max sec 13" MBA.
My workstation is still a Mac, and my next one will be as well. There are certain parts of the Mac operating system and environment that cannot be replicated in Windows. Mac hardware and PC hardware are actually both fairly comparable values if you do your research to figure out which upgrades are actually necessary or worth it. I've moved over to the surface for on-the go and personal work because the pen and touch functionality offers something that Apple has dropped the ball on being able to offer.
The form factor and functionality are the selling point of a surface, but the performance will never match that of a full-fledge laptop.. even if they put the same chip in, the thermal design is just inferior. This is an issue between Notebooks (MBPs) and Ultralights (Airs)... not Microsoft vs Apple.
Are we sure that Adobe products are not better optimized for better performance on Mac OS vs Windows? We see similar things happen with other software products that are still desktop based versus web based. web based products generally are the same across the board since the server is driving the processing power and only the browser is a single factor however in desktop applications there are many factors that can inhibit performance.
Adobe products I have a feeling are optimized for better performance on Mac OS over Microsoft in regards to how the operating system serves memory on demand to the application when requested.
Everyone is forgetting the operating system as well. That plays an important roll on how the hardware interacts with the software. Hardware specs mean something to a certain point but the software controls it all. :)
You should have compared these to a normal €500 laptop as well. Since the Apple and MS are terribly overpriced. It would be interesting to see what the extra €2000 gets you..
This is a great point
But that €500 laptop would have shitty build quality. MacBooks and Surfaces are built from aluminium and magnesium. Laptops with similar build quality like Dell XPS and Lenovo Yoga are in same price range as the comparable MacBooks and Surfaces.
Yes, because you install your apps on the aluminium...
And this is why my friends the Razer Blade 14" is a better competitor to the Mac Book Pro. This is where I believe Mac is not gonna match a Windows based laptop with the same form factor
Thanks Lee! I was gonna replace my 15" Macbook Pro with the Surface Book. I guess I'll have to wait for Microsoft to come up with a machine the competes against the 15MBP.
Cheers!
Well of course... they did say this was to compete against the 13ich model.. no one but lee thought it was competing against the 15ich... if you want a small but powerful laptop surfacebook is the way to go, and it has a freaking pen! And you could change the GPU if Ms release new ones later on
It's unfair, for sure, to compare two computers with dramatically different processors. That being said, it IS perfectly valuable to compare the two competing top end laptop-style devices. If you're trying to choose whether a Surface Book Pro or MacBookPro is going to work better for you, this answers that question; it shows that the Surface Book Pro is not a contender for serious use, and that's the point. (Disclaimer: owner of a 15" MBPR)
It is.. if you have the MBP 13, and surface book has a far better screen... like my surface pro 3 is like paper
Ok, but at that point you're comparing items with vastly different prices.
Indeed but pricing is hard one when they have completely different specs, build and other such things as pen, water cooling
True, they are different products. But it's very valuable to know something like "this costs the same as a MBPR but is WAY slower, but allows you to use touch, etc. Or you can spend a lot less money and get similar speed performance, but not have touch." I think it's still valuable.
While I commend you on the time you took to make this video, then even go back and explain that you made a mistake with the CPU's This video should just not exist because no matter what you say at the start of your video your still comparing 2 different generations and cores of processors.
People need to get over Screen size in comparison videos as well, Screen size does not effect performance of the over all CPU.... Hook them both up to a 180inch TV and then the screens are the same size.
The only thing I can think of where you would always choose the Macbook over the Surfacebook is that you can Duel boot Mac OSX and windows, Shit you can even run Windows in a virtual environment on mac OSX...
Apple was smart not to let the OSX be placed on any other type of hardware but their own.
This comparison exists not because the specs are the exact same, this comparison exists because they are similarly priced products.
Yeah I guess... but if you wanted to really do a price comparison you would add another 600 bucks onto the macbook... reason being, you would have to buy an ipad to even come close to what the Surfacebook can do. While you make the argument that this is not a spec comparison and more about two similarly priced products, you miss the fact that the surface is 2 products in one. Its a tablet that beats out an ipad, and its a work horse PC thats on lvl with a macbook, your getting two products really for the price of one apple product.
I'm trying not to say one is better then the other, in my opinion if I am going to work It will be a a desktop I've built because for 2,300 bucks I could make anyone a sick gaming/editing computer that will outlast both of these products.