From The Verge: A spec bump and a size bump for a laptop should be the easiest story in the world to tell. For example: Microsoft's Surface Book 2 has new processors, new graphics cards, slightly tweaked designs, and is now also available with a new 15-inch screen. Simple.
But for Panos Panay, the head of Microsoft's Surface division, nailing that story is a struggle. He can enthuse about the intricacies of the updated hardware design of this powerful machine, which is designed with a snake-like hinge that allows you to remove the screen and use it as a tablet. He will tell you about its upgraded, eighth-generation quad-core Intel processors, Nvidia graphics cards, and improved battery life. He's unafraid to mention his primary competitor, the MacBook, by name, and he'll claim these laptops beat Apple's in several categories.
When we sat at a conference table in Microsoft's headquarters earlier this month to look at the new Surface Books, Panay did all of those things, but none of those things are really a story. So we sat in that room for spell, and as I messed around with the laptop, Panay talked about who it was meant for and what it was capable of. None of the stories were gelling, if I'm being honest, and I think he knew it, too.
So we bailed on the conference room, and he took me to see how the laptop was made and, just as importantly, how the story gets made.
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