Home » Devices » Surface Book 2 vs. Surface Book - Detailed Specs Comparison

Surface Book 2 vs. Surface Book - Detailed Specs Comparison

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

BY Evan Forrest November 15, 2023

Surface Book 2 vs. Surface Book

The 2017 Surface Book 2 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 2015 Surface Book features the 15W 6th Generation Intel Skylake dual-core Intel Core i5-6300U up to dual-core Intel Core i7-6600U with the boost speed up to 3.40 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 (2017) and the 13.5″ Surface Book (2015), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface Book 2 vs. Surface Book: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book 2 See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book 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 1060 (6GB 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. Xbox Wireless built-in (15-inch only).	Performance Info Up to 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U (2-Core, up to 3.40Ghz w/Turbo Boost) Up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU (1GB GDDR5) Up to 1TB SSD Up to 16GB (1866Mhz LPDDR3 RAM) Up to 12 hours battery life (69Wh) The most powerful Microsoft's Laptop Surface Book is a high-performance laptop with exceptional power and unprecedented versatility as a laptop, powerful tablet, detachable touchscreen, and a portable studio. Best-in-class screen 13.5-inch PixelSense™ display with 6 million pixels (3000x2000), 1700:1 contrast ratio, and 100% sRGB color gamut. It supports 10-point multitouch and Surface Pen with 1,024 pressure sensitivity (magnet attached to the side of the screen). More Features Magnet charging connector, Full-size USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, 5MP front and 8MP rear camera.
What's missing	MiniDisplay port replaced with a USB-C port

Availability	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Released	2017	2015
Release Info	Introduced: October 17, 2017 Pre-ordered: November 9, 2017 Released: November 16, 2017	Introduced: October 7, 2015 Pre-ordered: October 7, 2015 Released: October 26, 2015
Pricing	Surface Book 2 13.5”: Starting at 1,149$ Surface Book 2 15”: Starting at 1,999$	Starting at 1,499$

Surface Book 2 Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5" Touchscreen - Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Renewed) By Microsoft $432.00 $459.00 6% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $309.95	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 15" (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512 GB), Silver By Microsoft $499.00 $799.99 38% OFF	See at Amazon
Surface Book Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 3 - 13.5" Touch-Screen - 10th Gen Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 256GB SSD (Latest Model) - Platinum By Microsoft $699.00 $919.99 24% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $309.95	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5" Touchscreen - Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Renewed) By Microsoft $432.00 $459.00 6% OFF	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Size	13.5 Inches
Info	Surface Book 2 13.5” Display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (6M Pixels) Display Density: 267 PPI Surface Book 2 15” Display Resolution: 3240 x 2160 (7M Pixels) Display Density: 260 PPI PixelSense™ Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch	Display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (6M Pixels) Display Density: 267 PPI PixelSense™ Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1700:1 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch

Exterior	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Size Comparison
Dimensions	Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i5) 12.3” x 9.1” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm). Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i7) 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.59”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 15 mm-23 mm). Surface Book 2 15” 13.5” x 9.87” x 0.57”-0.90” (343 mm x 251 mm x 15 mm-23 mm).	12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm)
Weight	Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i5) Total: 3.38 lbs (1,533 g) Tablet: 1.59 lbs (719 g) Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i7) Total: 3.62 lbs (1,642 g) Tablet: 1.59 lbs (719 g) Surface Book 2 15” Total: 4.20 lbs (1,905 g) Tablet: 1.80 lbs (817 g)	Tablet Only: 1.6 lbs (726 g) Surface Book: 3.34 lbs (1,515 g) Surface Book with dGPU: 3.48 lbs (1,578 g)
Colors	Platinum
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.
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	2 x Full-size USB 3.0 2 x Surface Connect™ 1 in tablet, 1 in keyboard base, both supports charging and docking. 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Headset jack 1 x Full-size SDXC card reader (UHS-II performance)

Internal Specs	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
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	6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-6300U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.40 → 3.00 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 15W 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.60 → 3.40 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 15W
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	6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-6300U Intel® HD Graphics 520 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1000 MHz 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U Intel® HD Graphics 520 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1050 MHz
Discrete Graphics	Surface Book 2 13.5” NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Pascal Architecture, 2GB GDDR5 128-bit, 1354 → 1493 MHz, 640 CUDA Cores. Surface Book 2 15” NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Pascal Architecture, 6GB GDDR5 192-bit, 1404 → 1670 MHz, 1280 CUDA Cores.	NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU Maxwell Architecture, 1GB GDDR5 128-bit, 954 - 993 MHz, 384 CUDA Cores.
Memory	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB PCIe SSD	128GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD

Connectivity	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 4.1 technology	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology
	Surface Book 2 15” Only: Xbox Wireless built-in

Battery	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Size	Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i5) Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i7) Total: 75.3Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 57.3Wh Surface Book 2 15” Total: 90Wh Clipboard: 23Wh Base: 67Wh	Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh
Battery Life	Up to 17 hours of video playback Up to 5 hours in tablet mode	Up to 12 hours of video playback
Power Supply	Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i5) 44W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port. Surface Book 2 13.5” (Core i7) 100W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port. Surface Book 2 15” 102W power supply with USB-A 7.5W) charging port.	Surface Book 36W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port. Surface Book with dGPU 65W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port.

Software	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
OS	Windows 10 Pro (Creators Update) Free upgrade to Windows 11	Windows 10 Pro
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office 365 30-days trial

Camera & Audio	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
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
Audio	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium Support for Windows Sonic for Headphones Support for Dolby® Atmos for Headphones	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium

Misc	Surface Book 2	Surface Book
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 4096 levels of pressure Tilt sensing Best in class latency Paper feel 0.1mm precision	Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure Magnetic storage
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in	HW TPM chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Book 2 Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	Surface Book Surface Pen Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents
Warranty	One-year limited hardware warranty
More	Supports Surface Dial Supports both on-screen and off-screen interaction.	Supports Surface Dial Supports off-screen interaction only.