Microsoft is heading into the holiday season with a new Surface computer, but it’s not what you might expect. No, this isn’t a new version of the slate-like Surface Pro two-in-one, or the slick-looking Surface Laptop. Instead it’s the other Surface hybrid, the Surface Book. This is a bigger, bulkier two-in-one with a detachable screen and a very laptop-like keyboard dock, and it’s known for having a lot of computing power and fantastic battery life.
The Surface Book 2 now comes in both the original 13-inch size and a new 15-inch version. The timing makes them some of the first PCs to get Intel’s latest eighth-gen Core CPUs. More interesting is an upgrade to better graphics hardware, which is happening just as the first round of Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets (which start at around $300) go on sale.
What makes the Surface Book such an interesting product is that the CPU, along with the other main components, are all in the tablet half, while the keyboard base has an extra battery, plus an Nvidia graphics card. Previous Surface Book models had fairly pedestrian GPU hardware. Now, the 13-inch model gets an an optional Nvidia GeForce 1050, and the 15-inch gets a default GeForce 1060 — both are great mainstream graphics cards for gamers, and a big step up from what the Surface Book had before.
