Microsoft Surface Book 2 announced with 13.5-inch / 15-inch screens, 8th gen Intel CPU...

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out refreshed versions of its Surface Book packing faster hardware, improved battery life and more.

The Surface Book 2 is offered with your choice of 13.5-inch (3,000 x 2,000 resolution, 267 PPI) or 15-inch (3,240 x 2,160, 260 PPI) display. Both are of the multi-touch variety, have a contrast ratio of 1,600:1 and an aspect ratio of 3:2. Under the hood, you’ll find up to an 8th generation Intel Core i7-8650U processor and 16GB of RAM alongside up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 discrete graphics.

As for local storage, you can configure the Surface Book 2 with up to 1TB of flash memory.

Microsoft’s latest is well-connected with support for 802.11 ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 LE as well as two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a USB Type-C connector, an SDXC card reader, two Surface Connect ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The 5-megapixel front-facing camera supports Windows Hello authentication.

The original Surface Book, which served as Microsoft’s first-ever laptop, was unveiled in October 2015.

The 13-inch model tips the scales at 3.38 pounds while the larger 15-inch Surface Book 2 weighs in at 4.2 pounds (including the keyboard). According to Microsoft, you can expect up to 17 hours of battery life (video playback) between charges.

Microsoft’s new Surface Book 2 ships November 16. Full pricing details haven’t been revealed although we do know that you’ll need to bring at least $1,499 to the table (and that’s for a model with a 7th generation Core i5-7300U CPU). Expect to pay well north of that if you want the Core i7, Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics and a sizable SSD.

Permalink to story.

 
Slightly more money than the Pixelbook, and you get a full Windows OS + Discrete Graphics + a newer gen processor. But damn these things are pricey. I guess if I were a student again and wanted something that would last me 4 years this would be a nice option.
 
I have the first Surface Book and it has been one of the best laptops I have ever owned and those new specs make it very enticing. Pricing is crazy for the top end but I would be happy with the new i7 and a 1050.
 
The Surface Book has always been expensive, the article is trying to seem surprised by it. It's not new, they have always started at $1500 and go up. Their highest model goes I believe over $3k. Believe it or not, it does sell. It may not have sold very well lately as ppl have been waiting on a update for this for awhile.
 
Only gripe is that they still have the hinge gap....and as someone who does coding and text work, 3:2 hardly makes any positive difference to me to override the annoyance of media consumption on it. Otherwise I love these things.
 
Back