It appears that the Microsoft Surface Book 2 is the laptop to beat for the holiday season. Since its release in mid-November, Microsoft’s star device has landed great sales and critical acclaim.

Matt Weinberger of Business Insider is one of the Surface Book 2’s biggest fans, claiming it to possibly be his favorite computer ever. He further notes how Microsoft is pulling ahead of Apple in operating system and hardware innovation. Andrew E. Freedman of Laptop Mag also believes the Surface Book 2 is better than the MacBook Pro.

“The Surface Book 2 isn’t as pretty as the MacBook Pro, but it lasts longer, has an innovative detachable display and offers more ports and stronger graphics. If you’re a creative, it’s hard to argue against that powerful GTX 1050 or 1060 GPU.”

Freeman believes the MacBook Pro is okay for people who need portable machines and swear on Apple’s ecosystem, but believes the Surface Book 2’s better overall functionality puts it at the top. However, not all the commenters after the article agree.

“The software and the Apple ecosystem is why MacBook users choose it. I have found Windows 10 to be terribly unreliable and privacy stealing. You can play the spec game all day, but it won’t get you anywhere with people in the Apple ecosystem,” says TBaggens.

“Screen on Macbook have [sic] anti-reflective coating so it fills much better in a lot of scenarios,” claims user3.

The Surface Book 2 has earned high praise from consumers and critics. Featured image credit: Daryl Deino

Many critics note that with the Surface Book 2, Microsoft has come a long way. The Surface Book 1, released in October of 2015, was a quality control disaster that had problems with display drivers, touchpad drivers, detaching the screen from the base, and just about everything else. By the time Microsoft fixed those problems with driver updates in the spring of 2016, it was already too late, and the Surface Book had an awful reputation.

Problems with the Surface Book, as well as the Surface Pro 4 and earlier Microsoft devices, led Consumer Reports to take all Surface devices off their list of recommended products.

“Consumer Reports is removing its ‘recommended’ designation from four Microsoft laptops and cannot recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability in comparison with most other brands,” the report pointed out, even though they admitted that the 2017 Surface Pro or Surface Laptop weren’t considered for this action that some saw as a blow to Microsoft.

According to Windows Central, Microsoft’s Surface Team lead Panos Panay claimed that customer satisfaction from users who own a Surface Book or Surface Pro is very high (98 percent), and that the Surface Team’s mission has always been to make devices that deliver great experiences to customers. Judging from the response to the new Surface Book 2, it looks like Panay may certainly be onto something.