Surface Book 2 with 8th Gen Intel Core i5 processor now available to order

The new quad-core Surface Book 2 13-inch entry level is now more powerful

While the chances of a Surface Book 3 announcement this spring seems unlikely, Microsoft does have a tiny update launching today.

The Surface Book 2 13-inch with the new quad-core Intel Core i5 processor is now available for purchase. The configuration has 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM for a price of $1,499. The older version, which only had a dual-core 7th Gen Intel Core i5 is still available but it is now discounted by $200 for $1,299 for the same configuration.

Evidence of a quad-core Intel Core i5 variant came forward at the beginning of March through Microsoft’s own retail listings.

For reasons unknown, Microsoft launched the Surface Book 2 with only a dual-core Intel Core i5-7300U back in November 2017. The higher-end SKU with the Intel Core i7 did have the quad-core option making the distinction a bit odd.