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A new Surface Book is headed to retail shelves. It looks just like the original model from last year, but it has an updated processor and a whole lot more battery life.
According to Panos Panay, who runs Microsoft's Surface division, improving the Surface Book was no easy task. People already love the debut model, with its detachable 13.5-inch screen, 12-hour battery, and chippy performance. In fact, Panay says the Surface Book has a higher level of customer satisfaction than any other portable PC in the Windows universe, and even the MacBook.
But there are always opportunities for improvement, and Microsoft addressed them in the new Surface Book i7. According to Panay, engineers and gamers wanted more horsepower out of the laptop, and so the new Surface Book's base configuration uses a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip instead of last year's Core i5. The big boost is in graphics power, as the new hybrid machine offers twice the graphical capabilities of its predecessor.
Even though 12 hours of juice is pretty good already, Microsoft also packed more batteries into this year’s refresh. The Surface Pro i7 now runs for 16 hours on a charge.
Beyond that, not much has changed on the outside. While Panay claims the innards of the Surface Book i7 were overhauled to introduce a new thermal-management system, the new machines look identical to last year’s notebooks. But you’ll certainly notice a difference in the price tags: The lowest-end new configuration (256GB SSD, 8GB RAM) will set you back $2,400, while the fully pimped-out model (1TB, 16GB RAM) will cost $3,300. They’re available for preorder today and shipping on November 10.