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Surface Book i7 vs. Surface Go 3 - Detailed Specs Comparison

Here's what you need to know what's different between Surface Book i7 and Surface Go 3 specs including CPU, RAM, storage, battery, display, and more.

BY Evan Forrest November 15, 2023

Surface Book i7 vs. Surface Go 3

The 2016 Surface Book i7 features the 15W 6th Generation Intel Skylake dual-core Intel Core i7-6600U with the boost speed up to 3.40 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 i7 (2016) 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 i7 vs. Surface Go 3: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book i7 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 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U (2-Core, up to 3.40Ghz w/Turbo Boost) Up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 965M (2GB GDDR5) Up to 1TB SSD Up to 16GB (1866Mhz LPDDR3 RAM) Up to 16 hours battery life (81Wh) Better Graphics Performance Now it comes with a better NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 965M with 2GB GDDR5 memory. Longer Battery Life It now packs with a bigger battery in the base (51Wh → 63Wh) for longer battery life up to 16 hours. More powerful power adapter To supply enough juice for the graphics unit, it now comes with a bigger 102W power supply with a USB charging port.	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	New Base with a bigger battery and newer graphics processor only available on Surface Book with Intel Core i7.

Availability	Surface Book i7	Surface Go 3
Released	2016	2021
Release Info	Introduced: October 26, 2016 Pre-ordered: October 26, 2016 Released: November 10, 2016	Introduced: September 22, 2021 Pre-ordered: September 22, 2021 Released: October 5, 2021
Pricing	Starting at 2,399$	$399 Gold 6500Y 4 GB 64 GB WiFi $549 Gold 6500Y 8 GB 128 GB WiFi $629 i3-10100Y 8 GB 128 GB WiFi

Surface Book i7 Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5" Touchscreen - Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Renewed) By Microsoft $439.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $464.55 $549.00 15% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book SW5-00001 2-in-1 Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-6600U 2.6 GHz Dual-Core Processor - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB Solid State Drive - 13.5-inch Touchscreen Display - (Renewed) By Microsoft $369.00	See at Amazon
Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5” Price
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Pentium® Gold - 4GB Memory - 64GB eMMC - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) By Microsoft $424.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Core™ i3 - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) By Microsoft $358.80 $629.99 43% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Pentium® Gold - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) By Microsoft $380.00 $549.99 31% OFF	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Book i7	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: 1700:1 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 i7	Surface Go 3
Size Comparison
Dimensions	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	Tablet only: 1.6 lbs (726 g) Total: 3.68 lbs (1,669 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 3.0 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)	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 i7	Surface Go 3
Processor	6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.60 → 3.40 GHz, 4MB 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	6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6600U Intel® HD Graphics 520 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1050 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 965m Maxwell Architecture, 2GB GDDR5 128-bit, 924/935 - 950/1151 MHz, 1024 CUDA Cores.
Memory	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM	4GB 8GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	256 GB 512 GB 1 TB Soldered PCIe 3.0 SSD	64GB eMMC 128GB SSD

Connectivity	Surface Book i7	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 4.0 technology	Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology
		LTE version coming soon.

Battery	Surface Book i7	Surface Go 3
Size	Total: 81Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 63Wh	28Wh Nominal battery capacity. 26.8Wh Minimum battery capacity.
Battery Life	Up to 16 hours of video playback	Up to 11 hours of typical device usage
Power Supply	102W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port.	24W proprietary Surface Connect power supply

Software	Surface Book i7	Surface Go 3
OS	Windows 10 Pro	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 i7	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	Enhanced dual far-field Studio Mics 2W stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™

Misc	Surface Book i7	Surface Go 3
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure Magnetic storage	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 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Book Surface Pen 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 off-screen interaction only.	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