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Surface RT vs. Surface Book - Detailed Specs Comparison

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

BY Evan Forrest February 21, 2026

Surface RT vs. Surface Book

The 2012 Surface RT features the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 with the boost speed up to 1.40 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 10.6″ Surface RT (2012) and the 13.5″ Surface Book (2015), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface RT vs. Surface Book: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface RT See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Book See at Amazon
Key Features
What's new	Windows RT Microsoft's touch-centric OS is explicitly made for ARM-powered tablet devices. Free Microsoft Office 2013 RT It was shipped with the RT version of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook 2013. Kickstand It comes with an integrated kickstand easy to switch between tablet and laptop mode. Detachable Touch & Type Cover Be more productive with a full-size keyboard doubling as a protective screen cover. More Magnet charging connector, Full-size USB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, HD front and rear camera.	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	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 Less multitouch support It supports only 5-points multitouch. More Only HD display and no USB 3.0 port.

Availability	Surface RT	Surface Book
Released	2012	2015
Release Info	Introduced: June 18, 2012 Not available for pre-ordered Released: October 26, 2012	Introduced: October 7, 2015 Pre-ordered: October 7, 2015 Released: October 26, 2015
Pricing	Surface RT $499 - 2 GB \| 32 GB $599 - 2 GB \| 64 GB Surface RT with Black Touch Cover $599 - 2 GB \| 32 GB $699 - 2 GB \| 64 GB	Starting at 1,499$
Amazon Deals	$199.00 Microsoft Surface RT (32GB) $146.50 Microsoft Surface Go 10.5" Tablet 2-in-1 Touch-Screen 4GB RAM 64GB Storage Windows 11 Professional (Renewed) $118.95 Microsoft Surface Go 2 10.5 inches Touch-Screen Intel Pentium 4GB RAM, 64gb STV-00001 (Renewed)	$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)

Microsoft Surface RT 10.6-inch Price
	Microsoft Surface RT (32GB) By Microsoft $199.00	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 10.5" Tablet 2-in-1 Touch-Screen 4GB RAM 64GB Storage Windows 11 Professional (Renewed) By Microsoft $146.50 $154.99 5% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 2 10.5 inches Touch-Screen Intel Pentium 4GB RAM, 64gb STV-00001 (Renewed) By Microsoft $118.95	See at Amazon
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

Display	Surface RT	Surface Book
Size	10.6 Inches	13.5 Inches
Info	Resolution: 1366 x 768 (1M Pixels) Density: 148 PPI Aspect ratio: 16:9 ClearType HD Display Touch: 5 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 RT	Surface Book
Size Comparison
Dimensions	10.81” x 6.77” x 0.37” (275 mm x 172 mm x 9.4 mm) Width: 10.81” (275 mm) Height: 6.77” (172 mm) Thickness: 0.37” (9.4 mm)	12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm)
Weight	1.5 lbs (680 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	Dark Titanium	Platinum
Keyboard and Trackpad	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. Trackpad: Two-finger multitouch gesture 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	1 x Full-size USB 2.0 1 x microSD™ card reader 1 x Surface Charging Port 1 x Headset jack 1 x Micro HDMI video out port 1 x Cover port	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 RT	Surface Book
Processor	NVIDIA Tegra 3 4 cores, 1.30 → 1.40 GHz, 1MB Cache,	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	NVIDIA Tegra 3 NVIDIA GeForce ULP graphics 12 Graphics Cores,	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	2GB of RAM	8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
Storage	32GB 64GB Storage	128GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD

Connectivity	Surface RT	Surface Book
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 4: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n compatible.	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0 low energy technology	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology

Battery	Surface RT	Surface Book
Size	31.5 Wh	Total: 69Wh Clipboard: 18Wh Base: 51Wh
Battery Life	Up to 8 hours of video playback	Up to 12 hours of video playback
Power Supply	24W proprietary 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.

Software	Surface RT	Surface Book
OS	Windows RT Upgradeable to Windows RT 8.1 Update	Windows 10 Pro
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT	Microsoft Office 365 30-days trial

Camera & Audio	Surface RT	Surface Book
Camera	720p HD LifeCam front-facing camera with TrueColor Technology 720p HD LifeCam rear-facing camera with TrueColor Technology	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 Stereo speakers	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium

Misc	Surface RT	Surface Book
Inking		Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure Magnetic storage
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Compass	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Security		HW TPM chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface RT 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	Casing: VaporMg Kickstand: 1 position at 22° Physical buttons: volumes, power	Supports Surface Dial Supports off-screen interaction only.