I also appreciate the level of power packed into the V, even if it's not quite as fast as some of its competitors. My daily routine consists of a lot of writing (duh), image editing, Spotify sessions and YouTube binges. Those use cases don't require the sort of horsepower that a U-series Core i7 chip brings to the table, and so I never felt like I was missing out. And, while the V isn't meant to be a full-on gaming machine, it manages to run titles like Metal Gear Solid V and Overwatch (at lower graphical settings, naturally) without too many hiccups.

With the built-in 48Wh battery, I've been able to use the Eve V for between 10 and 11 hours of work before needing a recharge. Your mileage will depend on your usage habits, but I appreciated being able to plop down and work nonstop before having to worry about plugging in. To be clear, that's about an hour less runtime compared to the most recent Surface Pro. That said, the Eve V's battery life is still in line with other ultraportable machines we've tested this year. If nothing else, it absolutely blows away my daily driver (a 15-inch, Touch Bar MacBook Pro), and for that I'm grateful.

As you'd expect from a small startup with little experience building this kind of hardware, Eve didn't get everything right. The thing is, it's sometimes difficult to figure out where the blame lies. Consider the active pen included in the box -- it doesn't support as many levels of pressure sensitivity as Microsoft's Surface Pen, and occasionally feels sluggish compared to the competition. It's perfectly adequate for occasional note-taking, but I wouldn't trust it for much more beyond that. Then again, this was a concession the Eve community eventually decided on in order to keep costs down, and so I don't imagine them complaining much about this. There didn't seem to be as much conversation about the Eve V's speakers, and it shows: They get decently loud, but the audio is decidedly toothless.

Then there's the keyboard, which I'm generally fond of. After using a 2016 MacBook Pro, with its flat key switches, the Eve keyboard's key travel feels like a return to sanity. There are a few novel flourishes here, too, including a backspace key that says "oops" and the ability to toggle between seven different backlight colors for the keys. The trackpad is a little small for my liking, but it gets the job done. The whole thing is coated in Alcantara fabric, too, though it's much plusher than the kind Microsoft uses for its Surface keyboards. It's softer, which is nice, but the material also makes the keyboard more prone to catching crumbs, lint and dust. Learn from my mistakes and don't eat your lunch over it.