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Surface Laptop Go vs. Surface Book - Detailed Specs Comparison

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

BY Evan Forrest November 21, 2023

The 2020 Surface Laptop Go features the 15W 10th Generation Intel Ice Lake quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G1 with the boost speed up to 3.60 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 12.45″ Surface Laptop Go (2020) and the 13.5″ Surface Book (2015), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface Laptop Go vs. Surface Book: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Laptop Go See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book See at Amazon
Key Features
What's new	The most affordable Surface Laptop. Starting at $549.99, the Surface Laptop Go set a new premium standard for the affordable ultrabook. It has a beautiful 12.45-inch display with touch support. It's a great laptop for students and business users who looking for a simple yet perfect portable laptop for their mobile productivity. The Lightest Surface Laptop. It weighs at only 2.45 pounds easy to carry around while having the same comfort in typing with a full-size keyboard with a large precision trackpad. All the same ports. It has all the necessary ports you need in everyday use, from the full-size USB-A to USB-C, headphone jack, and Surface Connect as you can find on Surface Laptop 3. Powerful Components. It comes with the same powerful 10th Gen Intel Ice Lake Core i5 processor, 3733 MHz LPDDR4x, WiFi-6, Bluetooth 5. New Styles. It is available in Platinum, Sandstone, and Ice Blue. More Features: 13-hours battery life Large glass trackpad Fast Charging Fingerprint Power Button Dual far-field studio mics OmniSonic speakers	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	Here are some noticeable downsides of Surface Laptop Go: No backlit key. No Inking support. No IR camera for Windows Hello Facial Recognition. No Fingerprint reader on the entry configuration. The base section made from Polycarbonate instead of Aluminum. Using Intel UHD Graphics instead of Intel Iris Plus Graphics. Low screen resolution (148 PPI).

Availability	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Released	2020	2015
Release Info	Introduced: October 1, 2020 Pre-ordered: October 1, 2020 Released: October 13, 2020	Introduced: October 7, 2015 Pre-ordered: October 7, 2015 Released: October 26, 2015
Pricing	For Consumer (Windows 10 Home): $549.99 - i5 \| 4GB \| 64GB eMMC \| No Fingerprint \| Platinum only $699.99 - i5 \| 8GB \| 128GB SSD $899.99 - i5 \| 8GB \| 256GB SSD For Commercial (Windows 10 Pro): $799.99 - i5 \| 8GB \| 128GB SSD $999.99 - i5 \| 8GB \| 256GB SSD $1,199.99 - i5 \| 16GB \| 256GB SSD \| Platinum Only	Starting at 1,499$

Surface Laptop Go Price
	Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 (2023) - 12.4" Touchscreen, Thin & Lightweight, Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD SSD, with Windows 11, Platinum Color By Microsoft $679.99 $799.99 15% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Laptop Go - 12.4" Touchscreen - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD - Platinum By Microsoft $545.88	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2-12.4" Touchscreen - Intel Core i5 8GB Memory - 128 SSD - Ice Blue (Latest Model) By Microsoft $581.24	See at Amazon
Surface Book Price
	Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 Inch Touch-Screen 512GB i7 32GB RAM with Windows 10 Pro (Wi-Fi, 1.3GHz Quad-Core i7 up to 3.9GHz, Newest Version) SLM-00001 (Renewed) By Microsoft $949.99 $1,249.00 24% OFF	See at Amazon
	NEW Microsoft Surface Book 3 - 15" Touch-Screen - 10th Gen Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 256GB SSD (Latest Model) - Platinum By Microsoft $1,419.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Book 2 (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB) - 13.5in (Renewed) By Microsoft $599.00	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Size	12.45 Inches	13.5 Inches
Info	Resolution: 1536 x 1024 (148 PPI) PixelSense™ Display Aspect ratio: 3:2 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 Laptop Go	Surface Book
Size Comparison
Dimensions	10.95” x 8.1” x 0.62” (278.18mm x 205.67 mm x 15.69 mm)	12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm)
Weight	2.45 lb (1,110 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	Ice Blue Sandstone Platium	Platinum
Keyboard and Trackpad	Keyboard: Full-size keyboard with a soft-touch feel and full 1.3mm travel. Trackpad: Larger size 115 mm x 76.66 mm, glass. Supports up to Five-finger multitouch gesture.	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	1 x Full-size USB 3.0 1 x USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2 Supports Power Delivery and DisplayPort. 1 x Surface Connect™ Supports charging and docking station. 1 x Headset jack	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 Laptop Go	Surface Book
Processor	10th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 4 cores, 8 threads, 1.00 → 3.60 GHz, 6MB 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	10th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 Intel® UHD Graphics 32 Execution Units, 300 → 1050 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		NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU Maxwell Architecture, 1GB GDDR5 128-bit, 954 - 993 MHz, 384 CUDA Cores.
Memory	4GB 8GB 16GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X RAM	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	64GB eMMC 128 GB 256 GB SSD	128GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD

Connectivity	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible.	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology

Battery	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Size	39.7 Wh	Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh
Battery Life	Up to 13 hours of typical device usage	Up to 12 hours of video playback
Power Supply	39W power supply Supports Fast Charge (0-80% in just over one hour)	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 Laptop Go	Surface Book
OS	For Consumer: Windows 10 Home in S-mode For Commercial: Windows 10 Pro Free upgrade to Windows 11	Windows 10 Pro
Built-in Apps	Microsoft 365 Family 30-day trial	Microsoft Office 365 30-days trial

Camera & Audio	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Camera	720p HD f2.0 front-facing video 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 far-field Studio Mics OmniSonic stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium

Misc	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Book
Inking	Not Support	Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure Magnetic storage
Sensors	Ambient light sensor	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Security	Firmware TPM Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello sign-in One-Touch sign in with FingerPrint Reader Power button Note Surface Laptop Go i5/4GB/64GB does not include Fingerprint Power Button.	HW TPM chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Laptop Go 39W 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	One-year limited hardware warranty
More	Best-in-class support from Microsoft Store Microsoft Store Promise for Surface: 60-day return policy 90 days of free technical phone support Free virtual workshops and training Surface price promise	Supports Surface Dial Supports off-screen interaction only.