A powerful portable desktop PC

I always wanted Microsoft to build a laptop, and it finally went ahead and built one without any tricks earlier this year. The Surface Laptop has no gimmicks, no kickstand, and no detachable screen. It’s simply the best laptop you can buy right now. 

So that begs the question: why has Microsoft created another heavy, gimmicky, yet powerful Surface Book? The answer lies in who the Surface Book is for, and it’s certainly not for everybody.

The best match for Microsoft’s new Surface Book 2 is Apple’s MacBook Pro. Providing an answer to Apple’s option, but with Windows-specific strengths like a touchscreen and detachable display, is really why the Surface Book 2 exists. The new 15-inch model goes one step further in matching and even beating Apple’s latest MacBook Pro lineup on paper. It’s a hefty and powerful laptop just like the original. It’s also a tablet, thanks to that detachable display. Its high-end graphics card and support for Xbox controllers also make it a miniature Xbox One for gaming on the go. Believe it or not, the Surface Book 2 is the first portable Surface computer that you can actually play the latest games on, but it’s more complicated than just that.

Starting at $2,499 ($1,499 for the 13.5-inch model), the 15-inch Surface Book 2 is $100 more than a comparable MacBook Pro and is at the very high end of the laptop market. The top model with 1TB of storage is $3,299, so you’re going to spend a lot of cash if you want this new 15-inch version. Is it worth the high price for what the Surface Book 2 offers, or is this just another laptop / tablet hybrid that overextends itself with gimmicks.