Microsoft may have just personally revived the Mac-vs.-Windows debates of yesteryear with its introduction of the Surface Book, the first-ever laptop to come out of Redmond, Calif. With its silver chassis and 13.5-inch display, the Surface Book invites comparisons to Apple's MacBook Pro. So how does the Surface Book stack up against Apple's 13-inch professional laptop?
Design: Surface Book's Display Pulls Double Duty
At 12.3 x 9.1 x 0.5-0.90, the tapered Surface Book is just a little bit larger than the 13-inch MacBook Pro (12.35 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches). Of course, that modestly larger size allows the Surface Book to accomodate a slightly larger 13.5 inch display -- Apple's laptop has a 13.3-inch screen. Despite its larger footprint, the Surface Book weighs in at 3.3 pounds compared to 3.48 pounds for Apple's laptop. When you add the optional GPU to the Surface Book, it weighs the same as the Mac.
The Surface Book has a design trick up its sleeve that the MacBook Pro can't match -- the display is detachable with the long press of a keyboard button, allowing the Surface Book to double as a 1.6-pound, 0.3-inch thick tablet. By way of comparison, that's slightly heavier and thicker than the iPad Pro, though the tablet portion of the Surface Book boasts a larger screen. More to the point, if you try to remove the screen from your MacBook Pro, you've got an awkward call with Apple Care in your future.
Display: PixelSense Takes on Retina
Because it's detachable, the Surface Book display is also responsive to touch, something Apple's MacBook Pro can't claim. The PixelSense screen on the Surface Book offers a 3000 x 2000 pixel resolution, of 267 pixels per inch. The MacBook Pro counters with a Retina display with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, or 227 pixels per inch. Note that even the 15-inch MacBook Pro's resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels isn't as sharp as what the Surface Book has to offer.
Of course, it's not just the pixels but what you can do with them. In our testing, the 13-inch MacBook Pro recorded 389 nits, which is 130 nits brighter than the average notebook; it also displayed 91.2 percent of the sRGB color gamut. For its part, Microsoft says the display on its new notebook will show 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut. We look forward to testing that claim.
Processing Power: Meet Skylake
Microsoft is also eager that the processor powering the Surface Book get put to the test. The Surface Book runs on either a Core i5 or Core i7 processor from Intel, part of the chip maker's new Skylake generation of CPUs. Apple gives users a choice of either a 2.7GHz dual Core i5 processor or a 2.9 dual-core Core i5 chip in its 13-inch models. The MacBook Pro outperformed other Core i5-powered notebooks when we reviewed that model earlier this year.
It's not yet clear when Apple will update its MacBook Pro lineup to Intel's 6th-generation CPUs, so the performance gap (at least on paper) could shrink.
One thing the Surface Book will clearly offer over the MacBook Pro is greater capacity. While the base models of both laptops feature 128GB of storage (both use PCIe-based flash storage), the MacBook Pro tops out at 512GB; you can opt for 1TB of storage with the Surface Book, provided you're willing to pay up for it.
The Surface Book features Intel HD Graphics 520 by default, though you can add an Nvidia GeForce GPU. The 13-inch MacBook Pro offers integrated Intel Iris graphics; a discrete GPU is available on the 15-inch model.
Battery Life: 12 Hours or Bust
Microsoft says the Surface Book can last for 12 hours of video playback. If the tablet can live up to that claim -- and only testing will be able to tell us for sure -- that would put it on par with the MacBook Air among the longest-lasting notebooks. When we put the battery inside Apple's laptop to the test, it endured for 12 hours and 4 minutes, nearly 4.5 hours longer than the average laptop. Microsoft's claims aside, the Surface Book faces a formidable opponent in the MacBook Pro when it comes to battery life.
Keyboard and Trackpad: The Force (Touch) Is With Apple
Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro sports a Force Touch trackpad with multiple levels of sensitivity that can activate additional features, at least for apps that have been updated to support Force Touch gestures. The Surface Book doesn't offer anything like that, though it does boast a glass trackpad and backlit keyboard. Microsoft would probably also point to the screen's touch interface and pen input as the Surface Book's calling card.
Price: What Will An Extra $200 Get You?
This is one instance where Mac customers walk away with a relative bargain. The base model MacBook Pro, with its 2.7-GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB flash storage drive costs $1,299. The lowest-priced Surface Book -- powered by a 6th-Generation Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and featuring 128GB of storage -- costs $200 more.
For that same $1,499 price tag, you could upgrade the storage on the MacBook Pro to 256GB. Then again, only the Surface Book doubles as a tablet.
If money is no object, a Core i7-powered Surface Book with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage will run you $2,699. That's $200 more than a 15-inch MacBook Pro featuring a 2.5 quad-core Core i7 CPU with discrete graphics, 16GB of memory and a 512GB hard drive.
Chipset And Storage Variants
The Surface Book is powered with Intel Skylake chipset featuring sixth generation Core i5 and Core i7 processors along with RAM options of 8 GB and 16 GB. It is available in three SSD storage versions of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. The Core i5 and i7 variants are available with Nvidia GeForce graphics. The Surface Book is also available in another Core i5 variant that features Intel HD graphics. According to Microsoft, the performance of the Surface Book is two times faster than the MacBook Pro, Business Insider reported.
The different variants of the Apple MacBook Pro 13 are powered by the fifth generation Intel (Haswell) Core i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM, Slash Gear reported. Like the Surface Book, the Apple device also features SSD storage options like 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. All the variants feature Intel iris graphics 6100.
Camera And Connectivity
The Surface Book comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera that supports full HD recording and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The MacBook Pro features a 720 pixels FaceTime camera at the front, but it lacks a rear camera.
The Surface Book is enabled with two USB 3.0 ports, a SD card slot, Surface Connect, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a mini DisplayPort. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 ac and v4.0 Bluetooth. Microsoft Surface Book also comes with an intuitive Surface Pen stylus, a feature that is not available on the MacBook Pro 13.
The connectivity options present on the MacBook Pro 13 include MagSafe 2, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI port, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a SDXC memory card slot. It also features Wi-Fi 802.11 ac and v4.0 Bluetooth.
Bottom Line
The Surface Book clearly has some advantages over the 13-inch MacBook Pro, including a sharper display and (for now) faster CPU. Plus, only the Surface Book offers optional discrete graphics. The MacBook Pro benefits from a more capable trackpad, proven long battery life and a lower price. The choice of operating systems, between OS X El Capitan and Windows 10, is another big deciding factor.
It might all come down to how much of a premium you place on the Surface Book's ability to double as a tablet, as well as its pen input. But it certainly looks like a very strong challenger to the Retina MacBook.