&gt; The Surface Book easily solves that problem, but I&#x27;ve seen reports that the battery life is only about ~3 hours with the screen detached as a tablet.<p>Which is why MS presents it as a &quot;clipboard mode&quot;, and later descriptions indicated that the expectation and intended use was 80% &quot;laptop&quot;. The Surface Book is a laptop first and foremost.<p>&gt;  it would not be usable in its ideal form factor.<p>Clipboard mode is <i>not</i> the ideal form factor of the surface book. If you do not like the Surface Pro&#x27;s kickstand, you may be more interested in the iPad Pro whose keyboard stand seems stabler and &quot;full surface&quot;.