maybe you should drop the screen brightness though.
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Yes! The screen thing kills me. Why do I have to get a 12" device to get oled, Samsung, why? I had an S7+ and now I have an S8. I like the smaller one so much better, except for the screen.
Also, why canāt I get 16/512 in an 11" device? My absolute favorite little machine was the yogabook c930 with the full eInk screen instead of the keyboard, but it only had 4GB RAM. Even the Surface Go maxes at 8GB, which is probably fine, but I want moar!
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I get you. And if you do turn down the brightness the explosions, lasers, supernovae, and lens flares in spaaaaace (ala Abrams), arenāt nearly as nice.
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Sounds nice, but Iām looking at the Lenovo Yoga book, for my needs. If only it had a little more grunt esp in video
I am breaking the news to you all that I am leaving the Surface Pro family. @Eltos caught in my posts on Reddit that I was bedazzled by a pricey laptop from ASUS, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16. I will be keeping the Surface Duo around for the ride, but the Surface Pro 8ās days are numbered. What made the sale a lock is the Zephyrus features a full 16-core Ryzen processor in it using the very same die configuration as the full-fat desktop flagship processor.
Oh, and mini LED on the display at top and the Surface Slim Pen compatible touch and āpenabledā second display at bottom may have also had a hand in winning my undying affection. I already had a plan for a laptop since I am needing more performance and screen space lately. The Surface Laptop Studio 2, originally in the contention with its Core i7 13800H, is now not even close to its off-the-charts performance, so adios, sir slowpoke.
I can now carry a full high-end desktop level of performance at just around five-and-a-half pounds. Just a year or so ago, the same performance previously would take at least 30 pounds of stamped sheet metal tower cases, whizzing heatsinks and coolers, and hundreds of watts of power. I love performance so I was drooling when I learned this silicon beauty hit the scene. You can see the full story here from NotebookCheck and it marks a new chapter for AMD who has seized the coveted notebook performance crown:
Because AMD has won the efficiency battle long ago, they finally decided to pull no punches and lay down the law with all the cores in the laptop market. The results are startling as you can see in the Passmark laptop line-up. At unlimited TDP, at a whopping 20% less power and 33% less cores, the 16-core Ryzen 9 7945HX outperforms Intelās 24-core flagship handedly. The Ryzen 9 7845HX, 12-core processor, not even the flagship, also does not too shabby, and very nearly outperforms the 24-core models too at half the core count. Ouch, Intel.
At lower power regions especially battery, Intel isnāt even in the running. At even less power like in sub-15-inch laptops, the margin widens further. To put this into greater perspective, the 7945HX easily outperforms my Ryzen 9 5950X, a desktop processor, on my home server. It also outperforms Intelās previous generation Core i9 12900K, a desktop processor that draws 238 watts at peak load.
I had always figured Intelās efficiency cores were Intelās copout to hide the defects of their 10nm process woes. 13th Gen of urgent necessity has fixed many of these issues so Intel could get their server chips out the door because hardly any server operator in their right mind would want a heterogenous core configuration. Even with the fixes in place, they are still well behind AMD.
Food for thought about the core configuration: even Appleās M series, their high-performance processors in their tablets, laptops and desktops, shifts from less little or efficiency cores to more big or performance cores when compared with A series in their smartphones. Laptops are not smartphones so the only reason for slow efficiency cores would be to add a marketing bullet point: more cores.
Indeed, a pattern of desperate decisions is forming. Intel is falling into the same trap AMD once did of quantity over quality (Bulldozer and Piledriver) though nowhere as precariousā¦ yet. They are not anywhere close to a Pentium 4 or Bulldozer āthis is fineā scenario quite yet, but we can see one shaping up in the next generation or two if they do not right the sails and like quick.
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I think you mean dazzled. I think bedazzled is putting sparkly stuff all over. 
Anyway, did I overlook how much you ended up paying for this beast?
So your configuration has both screens touch- and pen enabled? (I noticed the ultrabookreview sample had a non touch upper screen )ā
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The second screen.
Ah yes I misread. Its a cool laptop have fun with it. 
Would like to see Asus adding a thinkpad-like nipple on the keyboard. And/or top screen touch+pen support since the touchpad seems to be an afterthought.
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I actually got it because I wanted a second screen while still having room for a real physical keyboard and not some janky virtual touch keyboard.
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Nothing wrong with crushing on Liz Hurley
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Iāve been pondering long and hard about why I have a MBA I use daily and an iPad I use very occasionally when travelling and for note taking in meetings. The holy grail of a single device as a tablet and a laptop with real all day battery life and no heavier than the MBA seemed quite hard to find.
So I found a HP renew dragonfly G2 which sounded perfect for Ā£1k. It arrived DOA, so is going back tomorrow.
The search continues!
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Great tale! That is the quest that unifies us on this site.
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I still think, for the majority of us the SP8/SP9 is probably the best weāre going to get for this particular quest. At least, if you can stand the Surface Keyboard and Slim Pen.
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I tried the SB9, battery life was very bad, 5 hours ish I think in real life usage, nothing very taxing apart from Office and web browsing.
I think youāre right James - despite all the other copy cats and even innovative designs (HP Folio, Dragonfly, Yoga Book 9i, Yoga Fold, etc.) the Surface Pro design sits at the head of the class. Like @Bronsky, Iād love to see a 10-11" Surface Pro 5g nearly borderless design for max portability and yet dock it all day for your real jobā¦
Between iPads and Windows devices, Iāve used almost every kind of keyboard: stands (Magic Keyboard), solid bases (Brydge), folding cases, covers, and various folding portable keyboards, and the current signature keyboard with pen tray tops them all. Would I prefer just a keyboard with a siloed pen - of course - but thatās not ever going to happen again. Samsung wonāt even do it regularly with their full on laptops, much less a tablet in disguise.
Agreed. Itās an acceptable solution. Not ideal, but acceptable.
Agree to disagree. I like the Magic Keyboard far and away better than any of the other options. The pen tray addition is nice, but itās still not a great keyboard by any stretch. Iād love to see a similar implementation on a Magic Keyboard style keyboard, but as is, Iād prefer the magnetic attachment with MK over the floppy cover.
I agreeā¦because Iām always disagreeableā¦ 
The vast majority (80%) of the time I am using my SP8 at my desk connected to a real keyboard, mouse, and dock. So for me, the portability the signature keyboard affords me is paramount. Besides, I used it for my two week out of office experience last month and found it to be a good keyboard. I just donāt like a keyboard that weighs more than my portable device doesā¦
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