Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After many years of experimenting with the Surface products, Microsoft has finally launched a laptop that many people have hoped for. While the early reviews praise the efforts that Microsoft has taken to make a premium laptop, a few questions remain on everyone's mind: 1) Will the alcantara material be easy to maintain? 2) is it worth the premium price? 3) why isn't USB-C included? Alcantara Keyboard and other thoughts on design: The thin and premium design is one of the biggest selling points for the Surface Laptop (SL). This is a device that is built to last and will make your friends envy. You can open the lid with one finger. In many ways, Microsoft has tried and matched the build quality of Macbook laptops. The surprise in the Surface Laptop is the incorporation of the alcantara material around the keyboard. Alcantara, for the uninitiated, is a special material that Microsoft has been using since its Signature type covers of the Surface Pro 4's. It is the same material as used in luxurious car interiors. Sounds wonderful. But unlike car interiors, we will be resting our palms and wrists on the alcantara covers surrounding the trackpad. So, how long can alcantara last? A few searches on YouTube shows that alcantara can suffer from some wear and tears, and you can get some unsightly stains from your sweat or if you use some lotions or if your hands are busying typing while trying to apply makeup at the same time. Microsoft recommends treating this as any luxurious good and promises that the material has a better/more stain resistant finish compared to the previous keyboards. Personally, I think this is a daring step by Microsoft but I would prefer to have a metal based area around the keyboard. "Is this worth all your beer money?" and other thoughts on performance: As others have already mentioned, this is a really nice laptop in terms of performance... but only if you get the i5, 8GB version. It's not that you can't get by with 4GB of RAM, it is just that you are investing over $1000 in a computer, so you want it to last a few years.. and 8GB RAM will get you there whereas 4GB will have you staring at that little hourglass next to the mouse pointer for a long time. Okay, so that effectively puts you in the $1299 and up range. Comparable laptops would run you.... Actually, there isn't a single comparable Windows laptop out there. I think we usually like to compare computers based on the components used inside, but we forget a lot of the other things that make a laptop an enjoyable, productive experience. In this case, we have a ridiculously high definition, multi-touch screen that can take pen input with varying amount of pressure. This has a 3:2 aspect ratio that is outstanding (read: more vertical space) for browsing the web and reading when compared to the ubiquitous 16:9 ratio that makes your neck strain. Then there is the nice battery life and that, if you live close to one, you will have in person support at the Microsoft Store. When you add all of those things together, you get a one-of-a-kind laptop that does not have a match yet. Having used several laptops and tablets, I can tell you that these little things matter to me (a student who is constantly reading, annotating PDFs, taking notes and on the go). To me, this is totally worth the price... especially if you use the Microsoft student pricing. Why didn't Microsoft put in some USB-C ports? For those who are unfamiliar, USB-C is the future of USB connectors... in the most simplistic terms, think of it as a reversible USB cable (but it has some other cool features too like faster data transfer speeds). Many tech reviewers and enthusiasts were perplexed, to put it lightly, when the new Surface Laptop and the Surface Pro did not include this promise of future. Panos Panay, the man in charge of the Surface line, puts it best when he says that the world of USB-C is still too confusing. What he means is that some USB-C have Thunderbolt capabilities while others may not, some accessories may work well with USB-C cables and some may not, and lots of older technology may not play nice with USB-C. This creates a big headache for the consumer. If I buy a nice laptop, I want to be able to plug it in to whatever device I need and expect it to work. More importantly, this device is geared to the education market, and Panos made a point in the unveiling that the strength of the laptop and Windows 10S is that it can work with most of the peripherals that teachers use for teaching (i.e. a robotics tool kit connected via USB-A). In essence, Microsoft was faced with the question of "having something that works today" vs. "having something that will work in the future but probably not today." It was a risky move, and many have criticized for Microsoft not having both a USB-A and USB-C port. In my mind, I'm okay with not having the USB-C port. USB-C enabled accessories are not widely available yet, and I'm not very big on carrying multiple dongles. As a student, I know that the regular USB cables will work with my laptop, and that is good enough because my school has not invested to update all of their peripherals to be USB-C. Who is this for: This is ideal for students, especially those whose majors don't require a ton of computer processing power (i.e. liberal arts studies). Engineers might want to double check their schools' recommendation before taking the plunge. If you do get this, please upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, which should be free until the end of this year. If you are still reading this... thank you! I know there are a lot of reviews on the laptop already, so I hope answering these three questions will help you make your decision easier. I appreciate you taking the time to read my two cents, please let me know if you have any questions.