
It’s been about a year since Kaby Lake was released, and now Intel’s new 8th Generation chips have arrived. Coffee Lake, as the new chip is nicknamed, feature the same performance per core as its Kaby/Skylake; but with the added benefit of more cores per die.
Core count for Core i5 and i7 has now increased to six cores on parts and Core i3 is now available in quad-core variants. With more cores, the new chips will perform better at tasks that benefit from multithreading, One of the first models to take advantage of the new Coffee Lake processors is Microsoft’s Surface Book 2.
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Since its introduction 2015, Microsoft’s original Surface Book has gone through a few minor specs increases, without any major overhauls. The new Surface Book 2 remains largely unchanged externally, but its what’s inside that really matters.
The new laptop/tablet hybrids will come in two models. First, the 13.5-inch model will be available in four flavors, the least expensive of which wields a 2.6GHz Intel Core i5-7300U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of PCIe SSD storage space. Upgrades can be made to a 1.9GHz Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD, and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM.
The 15-inch model boasts an i7-8650U chip, 16GB of RAM and can be configured with either a 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage and sports a Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM.
Externally, both include a USB-C port, two USB-A 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and the Surface Connector. The tread-like hinge has been updated and strengthened to be more sturdy while taking up less space. The keyboard has also been updated to have cleaner lines. Microsoft also claims both devices can reach an estimated 17 hours of battery life.
With a heavy accentuation on “Mixed Reality” for this year’s Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the machines will be the flagship devices for this Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experience. The new Surface Book 2 with the Nvidia GPUs will be powerful enough to handle a mix of heavy gaming, video editing, and the largest Lightroom catalogs.
The 13-inch base model starts at $1,499 and the 15-inch version for $2,499. Preorders will go live on November 9th with an estimated delivery November 16th.
Justin Heyes
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I have to wonder how many photographers are using Windows? MS releases a single device that replaces a 15in MBP & a jumbo iPad pro & it’s intended audience is still searching the couch cushions for a f*** to give?
I’m waiting to see what Dell does. If they deliver an XPS version of this that works with the canvas pen & can thunderbolt to a desktop GPU dock I’ll go that route. If Ms figures out how to do the surface studio as a GPU dock + tilting display I’ll do that. What I won’t do is pretend that the touch bar is better.
I wish windows manufacturers could get the whole “ecosystem” thing figured out…
Shame they couldn’t find a way to offer a 15″ version for under $2K.
this is pretty legit. I like Apple, and have used their stuff forever…..but Microsoft is starting to look more and more enticing with stuff like this and the studio, etc.
Gotta give credit where it’s due.
Justin, what evidence do you have that the MacBook is a better preformer? As Whitney says: show me the receipts…
What is interesting is that the 6700HQ in Macbook is better performing in multithreaded tasks than both the new windows machines.
I have to wonder how many photographers are using Windows? MS releases a single device that replaces a 15in MBP & a jumbo iPad pro & it’s intended audience is still searching the couch cushions for a f*** to give?
I’m waiting to see what Dell does. If they deliver an XPS version of this that works with the canvas pen & can thunderbolt to a desktop GPU dock I’ll go that route. If Ms figures out how to do the surface studio as a GPU dock + tilting display I’ll do that. What I won’t do is pretend that the touch bar is better.
I wish windows manufacturers could get the whole “ecosystem” thing figured out…
this is pretty legit. I like Apple, and have used their stuff forever…..but Microsoft is starting to look more and more enticing with stuff like this and the studio, etc.
Gotta give credit where it’s due.
What is interesting is that the 6700HQ in Macbook is better performing in multithreaded tasks than both the new windows machines.
Justin, what evidence do you have that the MacBook is a better preformer? As Whitney says: show me the receipts…
Shame they couldn’t find a way to offer a 15″ version for under $2K.