Surface Book 1 in 2023: Think Twice

The Surface Book 1 Performance Base was originally released in November 2016. It was a decent upgrade from the original model, including a larger battery and a more powerful GPU in the base. Despite these upgrades, how does it stand in 2023? The answer comes down to battery aging.

Feel free to ask any questions down below!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:36 Target audience
2:04 Hardware/Specs
4:37 Battery failure and repair
6:40 Conclusion

[ThomasPolech]

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.

[bdjtech]

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

[slomojo]

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.

[myerwerl]

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.

[macentire]

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

[zealpain]

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

[colinstech]

I live with a surface pro 4 i7 with 8GB. It’s such a powerful device for what I bought. Lasts 4-5 hours which is a whole school day for me.

[MikeBeeTV]

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!

[rahilahmad]

6:18, Thankyou for that honest review. Can you please tell if you got any warranty when you bought it in 2019 & what was covered in that warranty ? Thnx loads🙏😃

All these Microsoft Surface devices look beautiful but it's obvious there will be problems down the road after just a few years because of its design and of course, Programmed Obsolescent .

[Plainapple]

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.

[amybella]

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.

[adeebmd]

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.

[kraftwels]

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

[Icybubba]

I ended up going down the Surface Laptop line instead, mainly for price 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.

[kaloloL]

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

[Cakebattered]

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.

[AleksandrStrizhevskiy]

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?

[SagarMorakhia-nuso]

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

[motorcity]

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?

[JamesTrostel]

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