Home » Devices » Surface Book 2 13.5” vs. Surface Go 3 - Detailed Specs Comparison

Surface Book 2 13.5” vs. Surface Go 3 - Detailed Specs Comparison

Here's what you need to know what's different between Surface Book 2 13.5” and Surface Go 3 specs including CPU, RAM, storage, battery, display, and more.

BY Evan Forrest November 15, 2023

Surface Book 2 13.5” vs. Surface Go 3

The 2017 Surface Book 2 13.5” features the 15W 7th Generation Intel Kaby Lake dual-core Intel Core i5-7300U up to quad-core Intel Core i7-8650U with the boost speed up to 4.20 GHz. While the 2021 Surface Go 3 features the 5W 10th Generation Intel Amber Lake Y dual-core Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y up to dual-core Intel Core i3-10100Y with the boost speed up to 3.90 GHz.

If you are in the market looking for a laptop and don't know what's the difference between the 13.5″ Surface Book 2 13.5” (2017) and the 10.5″ Surface Go 3 (2021), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface Book 2 13.5” vs. Surface Go 3: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book 2 13.5” See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Go 3 See at Amazon
Key Features
What's new	Performance Info Up to 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8650U (4-Core, up to 4.20Ghz w/Turbo Boost) Up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 (2GB GDDR5) Up to 1TB SSD Up to 16GB (1866Mhz LPDDR3 RAM) Up to 17 hours of battery life New Size Now available in 15-inch with the same beautiful PixelSense display. Better Performance Surface Book 2 has up to 5 times more graphics performance than the original Surface Book. Longer Battery Life Lasts up to 17 hours. USB-C Allows you to charge, transfer data, and video out. More Features Updated hinge design for reducing screen wobbling. Supports the latest Surface Pen with 4096 levels of pressure. Supports Surface Dial on-screen interaction.	More Powerful Processors - The Surface Go 3 now features the latest 10th generation Intel Mobile processors, including Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, resulting in faster speeds up to 3.40 GHz, particularly on the entry-level models. Longer Battery Life - Last up to 11 hours battery life of typical device usage. More Now with the Matte Black option Preloaded with Windows 11 Supports fast charging
What's missing	MiniDisplay port replaced with a USB-C port

Availability	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Released	2017	2021
Release Info	Introduced: October 17, 2017 Pre-ordered: November 9, 2017 Released: November 16, 2017	Introduced: September 22, 2021 Pre-ordered: September 22, 2021 Released: October 5, 2021
Pricing	Starting at 1,149$	$399 Gold 6500Y 4 GB 64 GB WiFi $549 Gold 6500Y 8 GB 128 GB WiFi $629 i3-10100Y 8 GB 128 GB WiFi
Amazon Deals	$359.90 Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) $273.90 Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) $299.00 Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5"(Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256 GB), silver	$699.99 Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Core™ i3 - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) $178.44 Microsoft Surface Go 3-10.5" Touch-Screen - Intel Pentium Gold-4GB Memory - 64GB SSD - WiFi - Platinum Windows 11 PRO (Renewed) $550.06 Microsoft Surface Go 3 (8W8-00001) 4G LTE 10.5-inch Touchscreen Tablet Intel Core i3 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Windows 11 Pro (Renewed)

Surface Book 2 13.5” Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $359.90	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $273.90	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5"(Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256 GB), silver By Microsoft $299.00	See at Amazon
Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5” Price
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Core™ i3 - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) By Microsoft $699.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3-10.5" Touch-Screen - Intel Pentium Gold-4GB Memory - 64GB SSD - WiFi - Platinum Windows 11 PRO (Renewed) By Microsoft $178.44 $289.99 38% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 (8W8-00001) 4G LTE 10.5-inch Touchscreen Tablet Intel Core i3 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Windows 11 Pro (Renewed) By Microsoft $550.06 $775.00 29% OFF	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Size	13.5 Inches	10.5 Inches
Info	Display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (6M Pixels) Display Density: 267 PPI PixelSense™ Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch	Resolution: 1920 x 1280 (2.45M Pixels) Density: 220 PPI PixelSense™ Display Contrast ratio: 1500:1 Aspect ratio: 3:2 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3

Exterior	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Size Comparison
Dimensions	Surface Book with Intel Core i5: 12.3” x 9.1” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm). Surface Book with Intel Core i7 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.59”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 15 mm-23 mm).	9.65” x 6.9” x 0.33” (245 mm x 175 mm x 8.3 mm) Width: 9.65” (245 mm) Height: 6.9” (175 mm) Thickness: 0.33” (8.3 mm)
Weight	Surface Book with Intel Core i5: Total: 3.38 lbs (1,533 g) Tablet: 1.59 lbs (719 g) Surface Book with Intel Core i7 Total: 3.62 lbs (1,642 g) Tablet: 1.59 lbs (719 g)	Surface Go 3: 1.2 lbs (544 g) Surface Go 3 Keyboard: 0.55 lbs (249 g)
Colors	Platinum	Platinum Matte Black
Keyboard and Trackpad	Keyboard: Full-size mechanical backlit keyset with 1.55mm travel. Mechanical friction attaches the Clipboard to the keyboard. Trackpad: Larger size 105 mm x 70 mm, glass. Supports up to Five-finger multitouch gesture.	Surface Go Type Cover Not included Keyboard: Full-size mechanical backlit keyset with 1 mm of key travel. Trackpad: Precision glass trackpad. Trackpad size: 101 mm x 56 mm Supports a five-finger multitouch gesture.
Ports	2 x Full-size USB 3.1 Gen 1 1 x USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1 Supports Power Delivery and DisplayPort. 2 x Surface Connect™ 1 in tablet, 1 in keyboard base, both supports charging and docking. 1 x Headset jack 1 x Full-size SDXC card reader UHS-II Performance	1 x USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1 Supports Power Delivery and DisplayPort. 1 x Surface Connect™ Supports charging and docking station. 1 x Headset jack 1 x microSDXC™ card reader 1 x Surface Go Type Cover port

Internal Specs	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Processor	7th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-7300U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.60 → 3.50 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 15W 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-8350U 4 cores, 8 threads, 1.70 → 3.60 GHz, 6MB SmartCache, 15W 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8650U 4 cores, 8 threads, 1.90 → 4.20 GHz, 8MB SmartCache, 15W	10th Gen Intel® Pentium® Gold 6500Y 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.10 → 3.40 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 5W 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-10100Y 2 cores, 4 threads, 1.30 → 3.90 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 5W
Integrated Graphics	7th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-7300U Intel® HD Graphics 620 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1100 MHz 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-8350U Intel® UHD Graphics 620 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1100 MHz 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8650U Intel® UHD Graphics 620 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1150 MHz	10th Gen Intel® Pentium® Gold 6500Y Intel® UHD Graphics 615 23 Execution Units, 300 → 900 MHz 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-10100Y Intel® UHD Graphics 615 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1000 MHz
Discrete Graphics	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Pascal Architecture, 2GB GDDR5 128-bit, 1354 → 1493 MHz, 640 CUDA Cores.
Memory	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM	4GB 8GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB 1 x M.2 2280 PCIe SSD	64GB eMMC 128GB SSD

Connectivity	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.	Wi-Fi 6: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 4.1 technology	Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology
		LTE version coming soon.

Battery	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Size	Surface Book with Intel Core i5: Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh Surface Book with Intel Core i7: Total: 75.3Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 57.3Wh	28Wh Nominal battery capacity. 26.8Wh Minimum battery capacity.
Battery Life	Up to 17 hours of video playback Up to 5 hours in tablet mode	Up to 11 hours of typical device usage
Power Supply	Surface Book with Intel Core i5: 44W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port. Surface Book with Intel Core i7 100W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port.	24W proprietary Surface Connect power supply

Software	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
OS	Windows 10 Pro (Creators Update) Free upgrade to Windows 11	Windows 11 Home in S-mode
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office 365 30-days trial	Xbox Game Pass Ultimate one month trial Microsoft 365 Family one month trial

Camera & Audio	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Camera	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p full HD video
Audio	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium Support for Windows Sonic for Headphones Support for Dolby® Atmos for Headphones	Enhanced dual far-field Studio Mics 2W stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™

Misc	Surface Book 2 13.5”	Surface Go 3
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 4096 levels of pressure Tilt sensing Best in class latency Paper feel 0.1mm precision	Supports Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) 4096 levels of pressure Tilt sensing Best in class latency Paper feel magnetic storage
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Ambient light sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Book 2 13.5” Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	Surface Go 3 Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents
Warranty	One-year limited hardware warranty	One-year limited hardware warranty
More	Supports Surface Dial Supports both on-screen and off-screen interaction.	Mechanical features: Signature unibody magnesium design with hidden perimeter venting Kickstand with a full-friction multiposition hinge to 165 degrees Magnetic attach for keyboard fold stability Physical buttons: volumes, power Casing: Magnesium