Microsoft unveils Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2 laptops on the quiet

Microsoft has launched two new devices at the top and the bottom of its laptop range. Microsoft Surface Book 3 – the company’s premium 2-in-1 machine – and the Microsoft Surface Go 2, the company’s cheapest mobile computer.

The new products were unveiled quietly via blogpost on the Microsoft website and will be available from the Microsoft website in a staggered launch. You’ll be able to buy the compact Surface Go 2 from 12 May while the more powerful, more expensive Surface Book 3 won’t be arriving until 6 June.

The Surface Go 2 will cost from £399, while the Surface Book 3 will cost from £1,599 for the 13in model and £2,199 for the 15in version.

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Microsoft Surface Go 2: What’s new?

As with the original Surface Go, the Surface Go 2 is a smaller, cheaper version of Microsoft’s flagship 2-in-1 device, the Microsoft Surface Pro 7. Instead of a 12.9in screen, the Go 2 has a  10.5in 1,920 x 1,080 touch display but, otherwise, it’s a very similar device, with a small kickstand at the rear and the option to add a Type Cover keyboard for the full laptop experience.

The big changes come on the inside with Microsoft upgrading the internals with faster processors – it says the new Surface Go is 64% faster than the original, thanks to the use of a new 8th-generation Core m3 – and that some models will come with a 4G modem allowing for connectivity away from Wi-Fi hotspots. The cheapest model, it should be noted, will come with the slower, less capable Pentium Gold 4425Y CPU.

The new Surface Go also has improved microphones for better video chat performance and, as with the original, can be paired with Microsoft’s Surface Pen active stylus for sketching and jotting down notes on the tablet.

It weighs 544g and has a USB-C port plus a microSD card slot for adding storage to the internal storage. On that note, the Surface Go 2 comes with either 64GB of eMMC storage or a 128GB SSD, depending on the model you buy.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 specifications

• 10.5in 1,920 x 1,080 touch display
• Intel Pentium Gold 4425Y or Intel Core m3 (8th gen)
• Intel UHD Graphics 615
• 4GB or 8GB of RAM
• 64GB eMMC or 128GB SSD
• Optional 4G
• 245mm x 175mm x 8.3mm
• 544g
• Price: from £399 (without keyboard) from Microsoft.com

Microsoft Surface Book 3: What’s new

The Surface Book 3 is now Microsoft’s most powerful laptop, a machine the company intends to be used by the most demanding of its users right the way up to software developers, video editors and 3D graphics designers. It’s intended to compete with Apple’s MacBook Pro 16in and comes in two sizes: 13in and 15in.

Unsurprisingly, the new laptops ape the previous Surface Book 2 laptops in design and form, with a detachable tablet attached to a keyboard base that integrates an extra battery and external graphics.

Again, the new features focus mainly on the internals, with upgrades to Intel’s 10th gen CPUs plus discrete GPUs from the Nvidia GeForce RTX and Quadro Pro range. Microsoft is claiming performance improvements of 50% for the new 15in model over the Surface Book 2, and says the new machines also employ the fastest SSDs the company has ever put in a laptop.

Disappointingly, however, none of the new models employ the latest Comet Lake six- and eight-core chips, which we’ve recently seen in the laptops like the Gigabyte Aorus 15G.

Here are the specifications of the new Surface Book 3 in full:

Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5in specifications

• 13.5in 3,000 x 2,000 touch display
• Intel Core i5-1035G7 with Iris Plus or Intel Core i7-1065G7 with Nvidia GTX 1650
• 16GB or 32GB 3,733MHz LPDDR4x RAM
• 256GB, 512GB, 1TB or 2TB SSD
• 312 x 232 x 13-12mm (Core i5); 312 x 232 x 15-23mm (Core i7)
• 1.53kg (Core i5); 1.64kg (Core i7) (with keyboard attached)
• Price: From £1,599 at Microsoft.com

Microsoft Surface Book 3 15in specifications

• 15in 3,240 x 2,160 touch display
• Intel Core i7-1065G7 with Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti or  Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000
• 8GB, 16GB or 32GB 3,733MHz LPDDR4x RAM
• 256GB, 512GB or 1TB SSD
• 312 x 232 x 13-12mm (Core i5); 312 x 232 x 15-23mm (Core i7)
• 1.53kg (Core i5); 1.64kg (Core i7) (with keyboard attached)
• Price: From £2,199 at Microsoft.com