Raees Technical and Commercial Informatics.

Typing at work on Microsoft’s new 15-inch  Surface Book 2 , I can’t shake the feeling that this thing’s not for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful laptop, it’s beautiful, and the workspace its giant screen affords made me completely forget I wasn’t seated at my desk with my usual 34-inch extra-wide display. So sure, the thing is  for  me, in the way that a very expensive sports car will most definitely sit in city traffic for hours right next to a yellow cab. But do I need the thing, and should I spend $3,300 on it? Of course not. When the  original Surface Book  first arrived in 2015, its unique detachable screen concept felt like a revelation—at the time it seemed genuinely innovative in a way that might bode well not only for users of the machine but for Microsoft itself. The thing was cool, and as an emblem of the types of futuristic computing experiences Microsoft claimed it was trying to create, it was impressive. For design nerds and tech enthu...

Typing at work on Microsoft’s new 15-inch  Surface Book 2 , I can’t shake the feeling that this thing’s not for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful laptop, it’s beautiful, and the workspace its giant screen affords made me completely forget I wasn’t seated at my desk with my usual 34-inch extra-wide display. So sure, the thing is  for  me, in the way that a very expensive sports car will most definitely sit in city traffic for hours right next to a yellow cab. But do I need the thing, and should I spend $3,300 on it? Of course not. When the  original Surface Book  first arrived in 2015, its unique detachable screen concept felt like a revelation—at the time it seemed genuinely innovative in a way that might bode well not only for users of the machine but for Microsoft itself. The thing was cool, and as an emblem of the types of futuristic computing experiences Microsoft claimed it was trying to create, it was impressive. For design nerds and tech enthus...