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Surface Book vs. Surface 2 - Detailed Specs Comparison

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

BY Evan Forrest February 21, 2026

Surface Book vs. Surface 2

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. While the 2013 Surface 2 features the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 T40 with the boost speed up to 1.90 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 (2015) and the 10.6″ Surface 2 (2013), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface Book vs. Surface 2: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface 2 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® 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.	Better design It’s now thinner (8.9mm), lighter (522g), and new platinum magnesium exterior. Better performance Better single-core and multi-core performance and much better graphics performance (72 graphics cores). Better battery Up to 10 hours of video playback. New kickstand Now in two angles, original 22-degree, and new 55-degree. Better display Higher display resolution with Full HD (1920 x 1080) display. Optional mobile broadband It comes with optional 4G LTE support. More Full-size USB 3.0 port, 3.5MP front, and 5MP rear camera, new thinner backlit type cover.
What's missing		Can't run desktop apps You can't run desktop apps (x86 or x64) on this device. The only way to get apps is through the Windows Store. No Windows 10 The latest OS you can get is Windows RT 8.1 Update 3 Platinum color only No longer available in black color.

Availability	Surface Book	Surface 2
Released	2015	2013
Release Info	Introduced: October 7, 2015 Pre-ordered: October 7, 2015 Released: October 26, 2015	Introduced: September 23, 2013 Pre-ordered: September 24, 2013 Released: October 22, 2013
Pricing	Starting at 1,499$	Surface 2 Wi-Fi $449 - 2 GB \| 32 GB $549 - 2 GB \| 64 GB Surface 2 4G LTE $679 - 2 GB \| 64 GB
Amazon Deals	$322.99 Microsoft Surface Book 512GB Intel Core i7-6600U X2 2.6GHz 13.5", Silver (Renewed) $196.90 Microsoft Surface Book, Intel Core i5-6300U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, LCK-00001 - (Renewed) $339.00 Microsoft Surface Book 2 15" (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512 GB) (Renewed)	$1,199.99 Microsoft Surface Pro 2-in-1 Laptop/Tablet (2024), Windows 11 Copilot+ PC, 13" Touchscreen Display, Snapdragon X Plus (10 Core), 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage, Sapphire $289.59 Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 12.4" Laptop, Core i5, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM \| Touchscreen, Windows 11 PRO (Renewed) $114.95 Microsoft Surface Go 2 Touch-Screen 4GB RAM 64GB Storage Windows 11 Professional (Renewed)

Microsoft Surface Book i5-6300U i7-6600U Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 512GB Intel Core i7-6600U X2 2.6GHz 13.5", Silver (Renewed) By Microsoft $322.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book, Intel Core i5-6300U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, LCK-00001 - (Renewed) By Microsoft $196.90	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 15" (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512 GB) (Renewed) By Microsoft $339.00	See at Amazon
Microsoft Surface 2 10.6-inch Price
	Microsoft Surface Pro 2-in-1 Laptop/Tablet (2024), Windows 11 Copilot+ PC, 13" Touchscreen Display, Snapdragon X Plus (10 Core), 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage, Sapphire By Microsoft $1,199.99 $1,499.99 20% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 12.4" Laptop, Core i5, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM \| Touchscreen, Windows 11 PRO (Renewed) By Microsoft $289.59 $382.06 24% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 2 Touch-Screen 4GB RAM 64GB Storage Windows 11 Professional (Renewed) By Microsoft $114.95	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Book	Surface 2
Size	13.5 Inches	10.6 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 1080 (2M Pixels) Density: 208 PPI Aspect ratio: 16:9 ClearType Full HD Display Touch: 5 points multi-touch

Exterior	Surface Book	Surface 2
Size Comparison
Dimensions	12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm)	10.81” x 6.79” x 0.35” (275 mm x 172 mm x 8.9 mm) Width: 10.81” (275 mm) Height: 6.79” (172 mm) Thickness: 0.35” (8.9 mm)
Weight	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)	Surface 2: 1.15 lbs (522 g) Surface 2 with Keyboard: 1.7 lbs (771 g)
Colors	Platinum	Silver
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 Type Cover Not included Keyboard: Activation: Moving (mechanical) keys. Layout: QWERTY, full row of function keys (F1-F12). 4 directional keys; Windows and Media Controls Keys. LED backlighting. Trackpad: Two-finger multitouch gesture trackpad.
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 Full-size USB 3.0 1 x microSD™ card reader 1 x Surface Charging Port 1 x Headset jack 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Cover port 1 x Nano SIM card slot (Surface 2 with LTE only)

Internal Specs	Surface Book	Surface 2
Processor	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	NVIDIA Tegra 4 T40 4 cores, 1.70 → 1.90 GHz, 2MB Cache,
Integrated Graphics	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	NVIDIA Tegra 4 T40 NVIDIA GeForce ULP graphics 72 Graphics Cores, 672 MHz
Discrete Graphics	NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU Maxwell Architecture, 1GB GDDR5 128-bit, 954 - 993 MHz, 384 CUDA Cores.
Memory	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM	2GB of RAM
Storage	128GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD	32GB 64GB eMMC

Connectivity	Surface Book	Surface 2
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.	Wi-Fi 4: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology	Bluetooth 4.0 low energy technology
		Optional LTE Nano SIM Tray 2G GSM (Quadband: 850/900/1800/1900) 3G UMTS (Bands 1, 2, 5) 4G LTE (Bands 4, 7, 17)

Battery	Surface Book	Surface 2
Size	Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh	31.5 Wh
Battery Life	Up to 12 hours of video playback	Up to 10 hours of video playback
Power Supply	Surface Book 36W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port. Surface Book with dGPU 65W power supply with USB-A (5W) charging port.	24W proprietary power supply

Software	Surface Book	Surface 2
OS	Windows 10 Pro	Windows RT 8.1
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office 365 30-days trial	Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT with Outlook

Camera & Audio	Surface Book	Surface 2
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	3.5MP 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	Dual microphones Stereo speakers with digitally enhanced for fuller sound

Misc	Surface Book	Surface 2
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure 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
In the box	Surface Book Surface Pen Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	Surface 2 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.	Casing: Magnesium Kickstand: 2 positions Physical buttons: volumes, power