Microsoft Surface Book 2 tests show throttling and charger issues

While Microsoft’s Surface devices are often praised at face value, many of them suffer when delving a little deeper into a breakdown. It seems that the Surface Book 2 is no different, revealing processor throttling and battery issues.

While sleek devices, Microsoft’s history has proven a little tricky with its Surface brand, often resulting in troubling widespread issues, which have collectively resulted in a quarter of Surface owners experiencing issues at some point within two years of use. This even extends to repairability, in which the Surface line is notorious over at breakdown website, iFixit.

The Surface Book 2 is no different, with Notebookcheck uncovering that underneath the improved design and faster components on paper, comes a throttled quad-core i7-8650U processor. As a result of poor cooling, the system struggled to keep up with benchmarking software, CineBench R15 Multi-Thread, which ultimately led the dual-core i5-7300HQ to display better, more consistent results.

Alongside the performance issues comes battery problems, in which the laptop consumes more power than the charger can provide, leaving owners with no choice but to place the Surface Book 2 down, even if they are in the middle of working.

While on paper, it includes a top-of-the-line CPU and a GTX 1060 SKU, Notebookcheck concludes that the laptop is also held back against competitors due to its inferior 21 ms Panasonic MEI96A2 3:2 IPS panel, which hasn’t improved since its predecessor.

KitGuru Says: For devices that are touted to be perfect for a professional environment, these issues would only slow workflow down to a halt. As a happy Surface Pro 4 owner, it’s sad to see Microsoft not keep up when every Surface device initially looks promising. Do you own a Surface product? Have you had any problems?

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