14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s new Surface Book 2 might be suffering from a display issue that has previously been discovered on other members of the Surface family, more often the Surface Pro, Surface Pro 3 and 4.
One of our readers got in touch with me to report what he thinks to be a light bleed issue on the Surface Book 2, and after further research on this, I came across some other complaints from early buyers that seem to indicate a similar problem.
The light bleed, often referred to as backlight bleed, is described as a certain amount of light that comes out from the top and the bottom of the screen in those places where the display should be sealed to prevent light from leaking through.
While this isn’t necessarily a major hardware defect, it’s something that could affect the experience with the device and which could get worse over time, so most manufacturers whose devices are affected agree to exchange units with new ones.
Including Microsoft, that is, as several customers of previous Surface models got their devices replaced at the Microsoft Store after reporting light bleeding.
Surface Book 2 light bleed
The number of reports pointing to light bleed on the Surface Book 2 is still small right now given that the device has only recently become available for customers and only a few customers got their hands on the device.
But the existing reports do seem to point to a problem that’s similar to the one experienced on previous Surface models and associated with light bleeding.
One reddit user reveals that the light bleed is more noticeable at the top of the screen with higher brightness settings, while another one confirmed that a similar problem exists on their Surface Book 2 as well.
While it might be too early to tell if this is a widespread issue or not, as it was the case of the original Surface Book, it’s worth paying attention to this particular thing when buying the Surface Book 2, especially if you want to have the device replaced.
For some users, the light bleed issue is nothing to be concerned about, as it becomes less visible when logging in and working on the device, but it gets easier to notice on dark backgrounds and when playing games with darker graphics. This is actually the easiest way to check if the Surface Book 2 suffers from the same defect: set a full black photo as desktop background and closely inspect the top and bottom edges of the device.
