Microsoft's Surface Book - Still a Long Way to Go

Back at the end of 2015 Microsoft announced the Surface Book - a premium laptop with a detachable screen that could be used as a makeshift tablet.  Reviews have been highly favorable overall and it appears that Microsoft has succeeded in re-defining the market ... however ...

I was walking through my local retailer in early December and noticed they had the base model Surface Book available.  (i5 CPU, 8GB Ram, 128GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics).  After playing with the Surface Pro 4 and the Book for about 20 minutes I decided to pull the trigger and buy the Book that day since the store only had 2 units in stock at the time.  After 4 months of using the Surface daily I have come to regret my decision.  Why?

Reliability - and quality.  The design and build quality of the Surface is impressive including a solid magnesium case, a keyboard that is a pleasure to use and the Surface pen is well balanced and functional.  I also do not have issues with Windows 10 and find it to be a noticeable improvement over 8 and 8.1.  The issue lies in using the actual device as a daily driver.  Microsoft has released multiple updates attempting to address issues such as battery drain, power and sleep problems, and display flickering.  I have applied all of these but continually am running into one MAJOR issue which is disconcerting considering the price point of this device.

When cold booting the device it continually cannot find the internal storage and boots into the UEFI.  This issue is random and can occur everyday for a week then will seem to disappear for 2 days and of course come back.  When it refuses to boot it can take anywhere from 3-10+ exit and restarts until the system will boot into Windows 10.  Checking online there are a decent number of users having issues with the hardware. 

PROS: Design and physical build quality is attractive and solid.  2 in 1 device for occasional tablet use that performs well as a notebook.  Windows 10 is a plus over 8/8.1.

CONS: Some growing pains early on it appears with software, drivers and hardware.  Somewhat expensive.

CONCLUSION: As of right now, I would caution any would be purchasers to wait a bit to see if the experience of some early adopters is an anomaly or not.  I have already sent my Surface Book back for exchange.  When the new one comes will update if there are any issues or not.