I use a Surface Book as my main computer and it's absolutely wonderful. I get a PC in tablet form with a pressure-sensitive stylus when I want a tablet and I get a moderately beefy laptop with a dedicated GPU when I want a laptop.
I've heard that it's fantastic hardware but had lots of software and driver teething problem, what's your experience with that?
All of these issues have been resolved with firmware updates by about 3 months after launch - reliability has been rock solid from then on out. Can't recommend it enough.
For me, the ultimate deficiency is the Surface Book's inability to drive two 4K monitors at 60 Hz. Although not promised in so many words during the launch event (they said "two 4K monitors" without specifying the refresh rate), I had assumed it would support 60 Hz rather than 30 Hz. This limitation convinced me to retire my Surface Book to a purely mobile role and use a proper workstation for 90% of my computing.
I expect that a second-generation Surface Book will resolve that specific hardware limitation.
The only two (small) downsides that I run into regularly:
1. Some important software doesn't handle high DPI mode in Windows 10 well. Specifically Adobe offerings. Visual Studio 2015 has some small issues too.
2. The 3000x2000 pixel screen makes gaming a bit finicky. Games rarely support 3:2 ratios other than the native 3000x2000. The dedicated GPU is pretty capable, but not always 3000x2000 capable, so you're often stuck with 16:10 ratios that approximate 1500x1000.
Build quality is outstanding, tablet is great for browsing on the sofa and multi-pressure pen is awesome for photo editing. Chews through heavy compiling/development very well. Decent gaming for what it is.
I feel like Microsoft was trying to do the whole tablet PC back in early 2000s and I think that the surface book is the actual realization of what they were trying to achieve.