Hands-On With The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2: A Great Laptop, Now Without Windows 10 S

It looks like more of the same from Microsoft, and that’s a good thing.

- Mark Hachman

With Microsoft’s Surface Laptop, Microsoft used Windows 10 S as a tool to help enable the Laptop’s outstanding battery life. Now the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is here, complete with a higher-performing, 8th-generation Intel Core chip. But there’s one thing missing: Windows 10 S.

Performance is the name of the game this time around, and Microsoft’s claiming that the Surface Laptop is up to 85 percent faster, in part because of the new 8th-generation Core processors powering it. Battery life is also impressive, at a rated 14.5 hours. Naturally, that’s a feature that we’re eager to test.

Functionally, the Surface Laptop 2 appears to be exactly the same as its predecessor, in both dimensions and weight. As with the Surface Pro 6 (go.pcworld.com/hop6), Microsoft has separated business and consumer customers, but the difference is more pronounced with the Surface Laptop. Microsoft claims that the base price of the consumer model is $999, though the only obvious way to buy it is via an “Essentials Bundle” that includes an Office 365 subscription.

Here are the basic specs of the Surface Laptop 2. Keep in mind that they’re essentially unchanged from the first generation Surface Laptop.

Display: 13.5 inches (2256x1504, 201 ppi) multi-touch PixelSense

Processor: Core i5 8250U/i7-8650U (consumer) / Core i5 8350U/8650U (business)

Graphics: Intel UHD 620

Memory: 8GB or 16GB