Microsoft’s immensely popular Surface Book is getting an upgrade – with the most powerful version yet hitting UK shelves this month.
The Surface Book with Performance Base was available to pre-order in early April, ahead of its official April 20 release.
One highlight of the new device is its 6th Gen i7 Intel Core processors, which offer twice the graphics processing power of the standard version, an NVIDIA GeForce GPU and 16 hours of battery life.
In fact, Microsoft had to completely overhaul the thermal system and add advanced cooling features in order for the Surface Book to handle this level of power.
As is customary from the Surface Book range, Microsoft’s new device will have an industry-leading detachable display, to turn it from a laptop to a tablet. In this case it’s a 13.5”, high-definition PixelSense display that offers no fewer than 6 million pixels. Not only that, Surface Pen has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity – making hand-written notes as lifelike as they would be on paper.
If all that wasn’t enough, individual users can log into their personal profiles with little more than a smile. The new Surface Book offers enterprise-grade facial recognition technology – meaning individual users can log in without a password, and be presented with their personal profiles immediately.
Commenting ahead of the launch, Corporate Vice-President of Windows and Devices at Microsoft Yusuf Mehdi, said: “These devices are transforming the way people bring ideas to life.
“Surface Book with Performance Base has delivered an unprecedented combination of performance, battery life and portability. We’ve heard from engineers, developers, Silicon Valley start-ups, designers and photographers about how Surface devices not only help them get more done, but to interact with their work in new ways. With Surface and Windows 10 we are helping people realize their full creative potential, and we are excited to bring that experience to more people around the world today.”
At the time of writing, the range starts at £2,249 for the 256GB, Intel Core i7 – 8GB, dGPU model, rising to £3,149 for the 1TB, Intel Core i7 – 16GB, dGPU version.
