Surface Book 2: More cores, more GPU, and more screen

Just over two years ago, Microsoft unveiled its Surface Book hybrid laptop: a tablet with a detachable hinged keyboard base. It was a compelling concept, with Microsoft pulling off some clever tricks. The base contained a battery, boosting the life of the tablet portion substantially, and could optionally contain a discrete GPU, too. A little under a year ago, the Surface Book was partially refreshed: a new base was offered with a bigger battery and a faster GPU. The tablet portion, however, was left unchanged.

Today, Microsoft unveiled not only a full refresh of the system—both tablet and base are being updated—but a whole new version of the machine. Surface Book 2 (Microsoft is using numerical version number suffixes here, even after abandoning the practice with the Surface Pro) will come in two sizes. There's a 13-inch model, same as before, but this is now paired with a 15-inch version.

The broad concept of Surface Book remains the same. The screen half of the "laptop" is in fact a tablet computer, containing the processor, memory, mass storage, and a battery; the "keyboard" half is a larger battery, some expansion ports, and, optionally, a discrete GPU. The systems look essentially the same as the old versions, too, with the 15-inch version looking for all intents and purposes like a scaled-up version of the 13-inch one.

Microsoft claims that the LCD displays are thinner than ever before—each new iteration of Surface makes the display assembly slimmer to reduce the distance between a stylus and the image underneath and, hence, improve the experience of writing/drawing on the screen—and the company continues the Surface tradition of having really attractive displays. The difference between the two displays is the diagonal—13.5 inches and 15 inches—and resolution—3000×2000 and 3240×2160. Both claim a 1600:1 contrast ratio, both support 10-finger multitouch, both support the "Next Generation" Surface Pen with tilt support, and both support on-screen usage of the Surface Dial accessory.

On the inside are new processors. The 13-inch system is available with either a 7th generation Kaby Lake i5-7300U processor (two core, four thread, up to 3.2GHz) or an "8th generation" Kaby Lake-R i7-8650U processor (four core, eight thread, up to 4.2GHz). In all configurations, the tablet unit is fanless; Microsoft insists that the system chassis can dissipate the full 15W of power that the chip can draw, for extended periods, without suffering any kind of thermal throttling and that it can do so without a fan. The i5 version comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of PCIe SSD storage; the i7 comes in three RAM/storage configurations: 8GB and 256GB; 16GB and 512GB; and 16GB and 1TB.

The base has similarly been upgraded. i5 versions have no discrete GPU, but i7 versions come with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 2GB of dedicated video memory. While the tablet portions weigh the same with both processors—0.7kg/1.6lb—the i5's base is slightly thinner (it tapers to 13mm/0.51 inches, versus 15mm/0.59 inches) and lighter (0.8kg/1.8lb, versus 0.9kg/2.0lb) thanks to the omission of the GPU.

The 15-inch version is broadly similar. There's no i5 option for the 15-inch unit, and all 15-inch versions come with 16GB of RAM across all three storage sizes. The 15-inch tablet has the same Kaby Lake-R i7-8650U processor, but this one does contain a fan, with Microsoft telling us that this enables the processor to ramp up to about 20W of power draw, which should in turn give it a sustained performance edge over the 13-inch tablet, even though it has an identical processor.

The base has an even faster Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, and that's paired with 6GB of dedicated video memory. Unique to the 15-inch version is an integrated Xbox Wireless controller, enabling the use of Xbox controllers without any cables or dongles. The tablet portion weighs 0.8kg/1.8lb, and the base is 1.1kg/2.4lbs.

In a brief hands-on, the 15-inch screen is a remarkable thing. It's thinner and lighter than it has any right to be. It feels barely bigger than the lid of a regular laptop, but it packs in an entire computer. A 15-inch diagonal makes for a huge tablet, make no mistake, but the size and weight are such that I could imagine someone using it in that mode.

Relative to the original Surface Book, Microsoft says that the Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge has been upgraded. Although it looks the same as the old one, it has been upgraded to handle the greater size and weight of a 15-inch tablet.

The other specs are shared between the systems. In both cases, Microsoft estimates that the tablet will have a 5-hour battery life, and the tablet with the base will have a combined 17 hours. Both support 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.1. Both have a forward-facing 5MP still/1080p30 video camera with Windows Hello support, and both have a rear-facing 8 MP still/1080p30 camera. Both have stereo speakers with Dolby Audio Premium and the same array of integrated sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and ambient light).

And disappointingly, both have the same set of ports. It's a selection of ports that will be very familiar to Surface Book owners, because it's almost identical. There are two USB 3.1 generation 1 type-A ports, one full-size SDXC card reader, a 3.5mm headset jack, and the proprietary Surface Connect connector that's used for both charging the machine and connecting to the Surface Dock. As before, both the tablet and the base unit have Surface Connect.

The one solitary difference is that next to the Surface Connect there's also a USB Type-C port. This, too, supports USB 3.1 generation 1. The spec sheet says that it supports video, so it should work with dongles to convert it to DisplayPort or HDMI. The port also claims to support power-in, and, given a suitably powerful charger—the GPU varieties of the Surface Book come with a 95W unit—you should be able to charge over the Type-C port, too.

But the port doesn't support one very desirable capability: Thunderbolt 3.

Microsoft is positioning the Surface Books at high-end users. Their specs are better than the Surface Laptop, the systems are more flexible than the Surface Laptop, and the prices are accordingly higher. Among other groups, the company is aiming this at serious media professionals—people who'll use that potent GPU in Photoshop or CAD apps or for 4K video production—as well as mobile gamers, playing both regular games and VR titles. I love the Surface Book concept, because it affords tremendous flexibility and versatility. The upgraded internals turn it into a seriously capable computer, too. But for both of these target audiences, the lack of Thunderbolt 3 leaves me perplexed.

For the content producers, the ability to hook up to, for example, a Thunderbolt 3 disk array for handling large volumes of video and graphical assets feels like an important capability to have, if this is truly the target audience. For the gamers, while the 1050 and 1060 are solid offerings today, a year or two down the line, the ability to use an external GPU is a way of giving the system greater longevity and continued relevance even as games become more demanding and 4K gaming becomes more mainstream. These target markets are surely some of the earliest adopters of Thunderbolt 3; for Microsoft to exclude the capability is very disappointing.

Pricing starts at $1,499 for the 13-inch, and $2,499 for the 15-inch. Preorders will start on November 9, with systems shipping on November 16.

Listing image by Microsoft