Surface Book 2 Task View Lag (and other high-resolution laptops included)

Has anybody found a solution? Have the exact same problem on my HP Spectre x360, and guess what it is running? Yep, Intel UHD 620 graphics card. Maybe it's because the Intel graphics card in not adequate for 4K? Hmmm....

Btw, if there is any solution, please let us know down below, guys!

still have this issue on my xps 13 2018 4k

Just save yourself some time and buy a MacBook. Windows became a joke. I was also a huge Apple hater and Windows made me so angry that I switched to Mac just out of some internal protest, and now I wish I did that sooner.

I had a Lenovo Yoga 920 fully specked, returned it because of lag. Then switched to a fully specked out Surface Book 2 15", same issues followed by constant GPU disconnecting, detachment mechanism failing to work and so on (all of that in a span of 2 weeks), returned that one. Tried a friends XPS 15, saw the same problems, said f*** it and bought a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago.

I'm just sick of troubleshooting stuff every few days, fixing, then a new update comes, steals an hour of your work time and makes even more problems.

With the Mac it's a refreshing feeling to open up the laptop and just start working. I lost 20 hours on troubleshooting the SB2, 20 hours that I could have worked and earned money!

My thoughts exactly! I became really frustrated because the SB2 didn't deliver what you'd expect from a device with that price tag and advertised as a powerful machine. And it's THEIR OS with THEIR device, geez! You'd expect to run better than any other Laptop+Windows combination!

Guess what, 2 days after my post I did just that: returned the SB2 and got a Mac instead :)) I couldn't take it anymore, was so frustrated for paying that much money for a device that actually prevents you from being productive. I was only hesitant to do that because I had a friend at the store I bought it from, and he added an extra 5% discount for me, somehow. Was thinking I'd get him into some trouble, but then I was so frustrated that I asked him if it's ok to return it. And the moment he said "it's fine", I reseted it and then next morning I went to return it. And, like you, I wish I had switched to a Mac sooner! I can't believe I worked on Windows laptops all these years :)) I am really really happy now! And I also used to say "I don't need a bigger touchpad", but this one is amazing. And even more than the size, I like it's responsiveness and force feedback for the hard press, instead of a mechanical hard press. It works the same no matter where you want to hard press, as opposed to the surface one where, if you want to do a hard press in the top part, it doesn't work unless you put some really really hard pressure (I think you might even break it if you'd do that all the time). Comparing it to the Mac's touchpad, now I realise that the SB/2 touchpad is a cheap excuse for a touchpad, even though it's better than on any other Windows laptop I've seen.

And as for battery life, I get about the same while working, BUT there are 2 things to consider:

#1 - I believe the MacBook's battery life is advertised to be less than that of the SB2's (won't search again now, so if I'm wrong...) so: points for that! I get the same, even though it was advertised to be less.

#2 - guess what, while at my desk I can simply keep the Mac plugged in and not worry! I even know people that have been keeping their Macs plugged in all day, for 4 years, and their Mac is still fine (although I wouldn't keep a device for that long). That is one thing you can't do with the surface book, because the battery heats up and in combination with the cpu also heating up, those temps make the battery in the display inflate and ruins your whole device, and you're left with a base that does nothing on it's own. And if (like most people, I guess) you didn't buy extra warranty, you're screwed. You've paid over $3000 (in US, but much more in Europe) for a device that keeps you from being productive for 1 year and 2 months, and then it also breaks.

Sure, I wouldn't go as far as also replacing my desktop with an All In One or something. I don't have an issue with Windows per say, only with the SB2 not delivering. Plus, that's working perfectly fine (the desktop), I don't have issues with it. And it's nice to have for when you need some real power and occasional gaming. Although, I was surprised to see there ARE top titles that work on Mac. I couldn't believe it! Sure, they're quite a bit behind, but still for what I play: I've actually found Rise of The Tomb Raider and F1 2017. I guess Shadow of The Tomb Raider and F1 2018 will follow. But from "didn't even think there would be top games and a Steam version for Mac" to "finding top titles"... I was pleasantly surprised!

Just save yourself some time and buy a MacBook. Windows became a joke. I was also a huge Apple hater and Windows made me so angry that I switched to Mac just out of some internal protest, and now I wish I did that sooner.

I had a Lenovo Yoga 920 fully specked, returned it because of lag. Then switched to a fully specked out Surface Book 2 15", same issues followed by constant GPU disconnecting, detachment mechanism failing to work and so on (all of that in a span of 2 weeks), returned that one. Tried a friends XPS 15, saw the same problems, said f*** it and bought a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago.

I'm just sick of troubleshooting stuff every few days, fixing, then a new update comes, steals an hour of your work time and makes even more problems.

With the Mac it's a refreshing feeling to open up the laptop and just start working. I lost 20 hours on troubleshooting the SB2, 20 hours that I could have worked and earned money!

All,

I installed the Windows 10 update yesterday and so far the results are encouraging.  All of my performance issues appear to be mitigated including the Surface Dock constant disconnect/reconnect issues.  Seems like Microsoft got this one right!  Here's my winver information after the update:

Oh, if only that was the case for everybody :( Just purchased mine like a week ago and right out of the box it updated to 1803 (plus a bunch of firmware updates). But I didn't even use it with 1803 (so I can't speak for that version specifically), I immediately joined the insider program - just the first "level", like "fixes and something", didn't go like fully experimental (actually, I did at first, but then reverted, because it had a watermark and I didn't like that). And by "reverted" I don't mean "restoring" because it didn't work (it's not the first time that "Restore previous version" doesn't work on a Surface, for me, but doing that on my desktop worked like a charm, no issues there). I had to download 1803 from Microsoft, install it, and then I've updated to 1809.

So I am on 1809 now. And I AM experiencing noticeable and frustrating lag when activating task view (3 fingers swipe up) or switching desktops. If the issue is still there in 1809, I can only assume that (at least to me) it would have still happened in 1803, if I gave that version any chance.

I'm very disappointed. I don't remember having this issue on the first Surface Book model. Which I've only used for 1 year and 2 months. Of course, that one had other (more serious issues): the battery in the display bloated and inflated the screen just 2 months out of the warranty (that one was bought by the company, so only 1 year warranty). It doesn't seem like they're built for working, but rather for recreational use. And they advertise it "for artists" and "content creators". I'm a web developer, so I would say I do even less intensive tasks than designers and content creators, which use Photoshop and Premiere Pro and After Effects all day long.

I love the design and the build quality. But other than that, it's extremely disappointing.

Even the battery life... I know the 17 hours advertised are for video playback with (probably) a pretty dimmed screen. But I would have expected at least 6-7 hours of regular use (having one or two IDEs open, a Docker environment, a NodeJS service for frontend tooling and 15-20 Chrome tabs)... but noooo, I barely get 4 hours. Not to mention that it takes over 6 hours for the battery to charge from 30% to 100%, while just watching YouTube, no intensive tasks or gaming. :( Also, in sleep mode, the battery drained 6% over 12 hours. That's 5% too much if you ask me. Oh, and the list goes on unfortunately (slow wifi etc. - the wifi speed is much better on a phone, that's ridiculous).

Used to be a huge Microsoft fan (and an Apple hater), but I've just about had it. My next super-laptop won't be a Windows one anymore, because it just doesn't deliver.

I'm sorry Microsoft, but if on an i5 8GB RAM 2017 MacBook Pro, while working on the same things, the task and desktop switching experience is smoother and more fluid than on a $3299 Surface Book 2 (of course, that's the US price, but in Romania it's about $1000 more expensive - yeah, so I've paid over $4000), I definitely need to think about switching teams... I mean, it's not like I have a choice.

EDIT: are you talking about the 13.5" version? Maybe the lag is gone in that case, there is a slight resolution difference between the 13.5" and the 15" model. Perhaps it's fine on the 13.5", but not on the 15" yet.