Where are you Microsoft???

There is a chance, however that would be more due to read speeds being slow, which are not. These drives actually read quite fast so slow boot time is probably bad optimization. I also, however, have a bit slow boot time unfortunately.

I have this same issue with my Surface Book (i7 256gb 8gb ram). It takes way too long to boot up. Is the slow boot-up speed due to the quality, or lack thereof, of the SSD?

Hi everyone

I have lots of updates. I went and spoke to the Microsoft store representative and manager. He allowed me to exchange my surface book for another of the same exact type. I went ahead with this and now I am on a lot 1544 surface book vs. the old one which was lot 1542.

He also offered to allow me to exchange my surface book for any other machine in the store - ie. dell xps 13 or Lenovo yoga 900. The issue is that the refund would have only given me store credit and I don't have much to do with a thousand dollars in store credit.

Before completely shutting down that idea, however, I ran benchmarks for SSD speeds on the yoga 900 and xps 13. To my surprise, both the yoga 900 and xps 13 use the same Samsung ssd with the same nand design. Pr2459 you must be lucky to have the LiteOn ssd because the store models had Samsung for sure. Due to this, I actually experienced the same junk write speed on both machines and an actually slower read speed than the ssd in the surface book. I have images and I'll try to upload them of the benchmarks. When I saw this, I realized that unless I bought a mac or a 512gb ssd, I wasn't going to see any faster ssd speeds so I stuck with the surface book. I was also given the opportunity to replace my surface book for the 512gb ssd one, but I would have to pay the difference for the upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have 700 dollars for such an upgrade, nor do I need that.

My new surface book has been used very little and the only thing I have to report is that the SSD in it is even slower than my old one. While the old one managed to squeeze 310MB/s in sequential write, this one only squeezes 260-280MB/s. That is quite pathetic and I'm very unhappy with it. I'm not sure what I will do, I'll give it more time. Maybe it'll speed up to at least 310MB/s. It seems that no PC oem has any idea how to match Apple in SSD speeds.

The trackpad has been behaving more normally on this device and the device has been sleeping quite well. Albeit I haven't used it much since it was thanksgiving, it seems that the device actually sleeps and doesn't drain the battery. I will report more findings as time goes on.

Lenovo Yoga 900:


Dell XPS 13:


Edit: My SSD has sped up to exactly 311.7 MB/s on seq. Write. Must have still been indexing. I haven't experienced other issues except the usual battery drain. will keep everyone posted. 

I have a Dell XPS 13 which uses a LiteOne ssd. It boots or comes out hibernation lightening fast. SB I have wait, wait, wait. It is much much more than noticeable. I paid $1300 for the Dell. $2000 for the SB. Why can't MS uses the faster SSD? The only reason I am switching to SB is because the Dell handwriting on screen is horrible. But everything else on the Dell is 10x smoother/better.

This is why I even bring the SSD issue up... Most flagship machines are equipped with a fantastic SSD. It is what makes them lightning fast! Why did Microsoft settle for this older technology? And why are we paying a thousand dollars more for it?

Edit: Officially have blue screened after trying to undock with all firmware updates present. Picture included - has to do with display drivers.

Thanks guys for responding so quickly!

I just docked my surface back into the keyboard and the touchscreen gave out completely. No finger input, no pen input. Only trackpad and keyboard. OHH THE IRONY.

Anyway to respond. I don't believe microsoft will refund me, which is what I'd like at this point. I would like my 2200 dollars back. Only BestBuy could do that, and since I'm past 15 days there's no way they'll refund me.

Anyway you guys are correct! I will be taking in the surface book for inspection on Monday (tomorrow) to the store where I spoke with the manager. He will run software diagnostics and will inspect my device.

Here's my issue with this solution, however. A lot of these issues are plaguing all surface books - ie the SSD issue since almost all of them ship with the slow samsung NAND. He will definitely not be able to fix this for me and replacing the device won't help unless he magically pulls out a rare toshiba drive equipped batch. The trackpad issue can't be fixed by him. I tried the delay after typing on the store display model and I experienced the same 1-2 second delay. I will try the click and drag, but I'm going to assume it is a driver/firmware issue, which he will not be able to fix for me. This is for microsoft to fix. And on top of all, some of the intermittent issues, like the touchscreen giving out when docking don't happen all the time and from experience, especially don't happen when you are trying to show someone of importance (just how the universe works). So I have a feeling that he will tell me sorry, this is what all surface books are like and for me to wait out the updates from microsoft. Or he will attempt to replace my surface book, but chances are I will receive the same issues with a new unit as they are issues globally on all surface models.

What do you guys think?

What do I think?  I think Anand Tech blew the SSD thing totally out of proportion with their review of the Surface Book and their SSD evaluation.  SSD speeds are so fast that a person using a Surface Book would never know what kind of SSD he had or be able to judge the speed difference in actual use.  I looked and I have the Samsung SSD.  My Surface Book did not become suddenly slower now that I know what model SSD I have.  It still runs bat-out-of-H*** fast.  I write software using Visual Studio 2015. I actively trade stocks every day using Interactive Brokers real-time Trader Workstation. I use Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop CC with my photography.   I'm just as happy with my Surface Book i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD, as I was before I knew anything about SSD models!

Okay I mean that's totally fair that you find it fast enough for your use. However I must say that my desktop with an actually good SSD does boot faster and run faster than this. Actually quite noticeably. And you haven't tried the surface book with the toshiba drive have you? Well then you wouldn't know that it is possible to have a faster surface book. And also you feel that it is fast because this SSD's read speeds are actually quite fast. You will, however, notice a significant lag when copying files to it. That's what a write speed will affect. You might not be a person who writes a lot to your ssd, but some people do and they will be affected. For a laptop that costs as much as some other major flagship devices, don't you expect it to perform as such? Currently it doesn't. The demo where they copied a 3gb sized file where it was fast - that was done on a toshiba drive. You as a customer won't see those speeds with the samsung drive. You might be happy with what you have, but it doesn't mean everyone is. And it doesn't mean microsoft made a good choice by going with a cheaper/slower drive.

I also write software. It runs fine, but wouldn't you want your bat-out-of-H*** expensive laptop to run as fast as it could, not just good "enough"? Not running an SSD from 4 years ago?

oh - and most importantly I just noticed you have the 512gb model. The 512gb samsung ssd writes almost twice as fast as the 256gb model and almost 4 times as fast as the 128gb models. That's another reason you are experiencing a faster ssd than some of us who don't have it. And for those of us who didn't buy the 512gb model, is it fair that we get a slower drive versus the Toshiba drive that reads and writes at the same speed for every size across the options?

OK.  I fully appreciate where your coming from and I have no argument.  I'm completely happy with mine and you are not and definitely have issues to discuss with the Microsoft Store.  If you can get Microsoft to replace your machine, and I think you can, then at that point maybe you might also want to consider an upgrade to the 512GB model?  Just a thought.  In any event I wish you the very best at the Microsoft Store my friend.

Gary in Atlanta

Thanks Gary! I appreciate the good wishes and the luck. I'll see what I can do at the store tomorrow. I'll consider the 512gb model, but of course money is always an issue. For me, this machine was a graduation present :) and I really really want it to be the best thing ever because man it is a cool machine with a cool design! But if I must give up on it then I'd be looking at the yoga 900. We'll see!