New Microsoft Surface Book Rocks Intel Core i7 Skylake, Nvidia GTX 965M

Microsoft announced the Surface Book i7, which is the company’s most powerful Surface Book to date.

The Surface Book i7 uses an Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) Core i7 processor. Microsoft didn’t disclose the exact model number of the CPU, however, but it is likely one of the low-power SKUs due to the thermal and power limitations of the system. The Surface Book i7 also has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5.

To help keep the internal hardware cool, Microsoft said it redesigned the original Surface Book and added a second fan to improve its cooling efficiency. Microsoft also switched to a larger battery for the Surface Book i7, which the company said should last for up to 16 hours while playing videos.

By comparison, Microsoft’s existing Surface Books with Core i5 processors are limited to Intel HD graphics and have an estimated battery life of just 12 hours. The Core i5 model does have one advantage over the Surface Book i7, though, in that it weighs 0.29 pounds less.

One aspect that doesn’t change between the Core i5 and Core i7 Surface Books is the detachable display that measures 13.5-inches diagonally and has a native resolution of 3000x2000. The storage options also remain essentially unchanged, but the Surface Book with Core i5 is available with a less expensive 128GB SSD that isn’t offered on the Surface Book i7.

The Surface Book i7 is available for pre-order today with a starting price of $2,399. The system will ship on November 11.