Surface Book Specs, Availability, Peripherals, Models, & Pricing

Here’s a breakdown of what I know so far:

General availability:

• The US and Canada can get their hands on Surface Book on October 26th.
• Australia gets it on November 12^th, according to the Microsoft Store site.
• It looks like most countries will be waiting until 2016 for Surface Book – there’s no mention of it on the UK or Germany sites.

Everything we know (at the time of writing, Comic Book Store Guy who will comment in 6 months’ time) about the NVIDIA GPU is listed above and:

• It’s a new chipset;
• The Xbox team was involved in tuning.

Neither Microsoft nor NVIDIA are talking specifics.

A lot was made of the NVIDIA GPU in the launch. Note that the 2 cheaper models use Intel HD graphics instead of the NVIDIA GPU. Using the customizer on the US Microsoft store, the following models were available to me:

• Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD (not NVIDIA GPU): $1,499
• Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD (not NVIDIA GPU): $1,699
• Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: $1,899
• Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: $2,099
• Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD: $2,699

This machine is not priced to compete with a Dell Inspiron or a Lenovo Thinkpad. This is a high-end machine, targeting the same niche market as the MacBook Pro. I expect we’d see sales to artists, engineers, and management types. Asus’s CEO doesn’t need to complain.

Note that the Surface Book was designed to run Windows 10, not Windows 8.1.

[Edit]

Some notes:

• The top/tablet is referred to as a clipboard by MSFT marketing
• The battery is split; 4 hours in the top and 8 hours in the keyboard
• The models with NVIDIA GPU place the GPU in the keyboard. There’s an Intel GPU in the clipboard/tablet.

The New Surface Pen

• Included with the Surface Book
• Aluminium
• 1024 levels of pressure with
• 1 year rechargeable battery
• Compatible with Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 3 and Surface book

The New Surface Dock:

• Compatible with Surface Pro 4, Surface pro 3, and Surface Book
• 2 Mini DisplayPorts
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
• 4 USB 3.0 ports
• 1 Audio out port
• 5.12 x 2.36 x 1.18 in (130 x 60 x30 mm)
• $199.99

Mini-Display Port adapters:

• 2 models: To-VGA and to-HA AV adapters
• Compatible with Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 3, and Surface Book
• $39.99