How well does Premiere Elements run on Surface Book 2?

[DianaSwet817]

Hello there!  I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who could lend me their expertise!

I am not extremely technical but I am absorbing as much information as I can while searching for a good video editing laptop.  I edit videos on a regular basis for my YouTube channel and I need a powerful laptop that can handle multi-tasking with editing video as well as photos in Photoshop Elements.  I'm used to using Premiere Elements (wouldn't mind upgrading to Premiere Pro, but it is just so much more expensive!  So I figure I'll stick to Elements, at least for now).  I've kind of fallen in love with the Surface Book 2 because I love the idea of the detachable screen with the Surface Pen for digital art.  But I'm wondering whether the Surface Book 2 will actually give me a good video editing experience if I use Elements 2019.

I've been reading about how Elements doesn't utilize the GPU, just the CPU.  So I'm wondering whether the i7 processor version of the 13.5" Surface Book 2 will give me a smooth and fast editing experience with Elements.  I'm still trying to understand all of this, but it seems to me, based on what I've read, that a big part of what makes the Surface Book 2 powerful is the graphics card in the base...so if I use Elements and therefore I'm not able to take advantage of the powerful GPU (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050), is it a waste?  Will I not be able to edit well?  Or will it be fine with the powerful Intel Core i7 processor?

By the way, I'm editing in 1080p, not 4K, and I don't use a ton of special effects but I do on occasion and would like to perhaps do so more in the future.

I'm wondering:

-Have you edited on the Surface Book 2 (with i7 processor, 16 GB memory) using Premiere Elements?  How is the experience for you?  Do you recommend it?

-Do you recommend a different laptop for video editing with Premiere Elements/Premiere Pro?

-Am I better off paying more for Premiere Pro?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks so much for your help!

[Bill Sprague]

I don't have a Surface but I'll try to offer a personal viewpoint.

The 15" Surface Book 2 CPU is the Core i7-8650U.  There is a website that rates CPUs and that one gets "8792".  That version of the i7 is not so powerful for video editing.  It could be adequate but not great by current standards.  A half dozen years back, it would have been close to as good as an i7 gets. 

 
Forced to replace my 6 year old laptop I found a "Lenevo Legion Y545" at Costco for $1200. It uses the i7-9750H that scores 13734.  The Costco version of the Y545 has a SSD of 512 GB and a 1TB HDD.   The Surface will need external drives to store video files. 

Of course, the Lenevo is not touch screen.

I've only had the Lenevo for a week, but my trials with Premiere Elements 2019 are speedy and I edit 4K files.  I'm happy that I spent $1200 and not $2600!

Regarding software, I've got a choice of using Premiere Pro or Elements 2019.  I've not yet found features in Pro that I need or would use.  In fact, to make it usable for professionals Pro is packed with features that make it complex.

I've got some HD video files and can do a specific render speed test if you like.

What's your YouTube channel?  I would enjoy seeing it.

Reference:  PassMark - Intel Core i7-8650U @ 1.90GHz - Price performance comparison