Microsoft has introduced cheaper variants of its expensive Surface Laptop and Surface Book 2 models. The company has not only reduced the price of both the devices but also toned down the specifications as well.
Surface Laptop
To start with Surface Laptop, the new base model now comes with a price tag of $799 (approx Rs 51,171). Previously, the cheapest variant of the Surface Laptop was available for $999 (approx. Rs 63,980). The company has toned down the specifications and it now runs on Intel Core m3 Processor along with Intel HD Graphics 615 graphics card. The laptop comes with a 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. With this, the Surface Laptop is now available in Core m3, Core i5 and Core i7 models. The Core m3 and Core i5 rest of the specifications largely remains the same, while the Core i7 model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The Core i7 model is priced at $1,299 (approx. Rs 83,194).
The device comes with a 13.5-inch PixelSense display with a Resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels (3:2 Aspect Ratio) and EDGE to edge Corning Gorilla Glass protection. This machine runs on Windows 10S which is a toned down version of Windows 10 focusing more on the students. Also launched at the event, Windows 10S will only run Microsoft Apps. Apart from this, the Surface Laptop also comes with a 720p webcam which supports Windows Hello IR Camera for facial recognition login.
For the stamina, the company claims that it can easily last for 14.5 hours on a single charge which is probably four hours of extra juice over its competitor 13-inch MacBook Pro. For the audio, Microsoft has given Omnisonic dual speakers coupled with Dolby Audio Premium technology. In terms of connectivity, Microsoft strangely skipped the USB Type-C port and instead has gone for a USB 3.0 port.
Surface Book 2
Coming to Surface Book 2, the brand has introduced a cheaper variant of 13.5-inch display and it now comes with a price of $1,199 (approx. Rs 76,789). The model is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor along with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage option. Earlier, the cheapest variant was available for $1,499 and it bears the same Core i5 processor, but larger 256GB storage.
As for the rest of the specifications are concerned, the 13.5-inch laptop features a PixelSense Display with a screen resolution of 3000×2000 pixels, however, the 15-inch Surface Book 2 comes with the resolution of 3240×2160 pixels. On the specification, the notebooks are powered by 7th generation Intel Kaby Lake processors and 8th generation Intel Coffee Lake processors. The 13.5 inch Surface Book 2 is powered by Intel Core i5-7300U or Core i7-8650U with Intel HD Graphics 620, Intel UHD Graphics 620 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB) GPU. The 15-inch notebook is only available in Core i7-8650U with Intel UHD Graphics 620 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) GPU.
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The company claims that the new laptop can give up to 17 hours of backup in notebook mode and 5 hours of backup in tablet mode. The Surface Book 2 looks similar to the original Surface Book with the removable display that can be used as a tablet. Further, the Surface Book 2 is now available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB internal storage variants along with 8GB or 16GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory. On the connectivity front, the devices come with USB type C port, two USB type A ports and SD card slot.