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New Surface Book and Surface Dial go on sale today

Written By published November 10, 2016



A year ago, we announced Surface Book for customers who sought the versatility of a 2:1 device but yearned for a more familiar laptop form factor. The reception this product received was nothing short of amazing. While the existing product is perfect for most people, there is a subset of individuals – developers, engineers, designers, gamers – who want even more. More rendering power, faster framerates, and additional battery life.

As a team, we relentlessly push to deliver what our customers ask for. Today, we are pleased to announce the availability of a new Surface Book that was specifically designed for those people who want more. The Surface Book with Performance Base is now available at Microsoft Stores and select Best Buy locations in the US and Canada.

Most Powerful Surface Book Yet

We redesigned the Surface Book from the inside out to deliver twice the graphics processing power and 16 hours of battery life into the same sleek form factor – that’s 60% more battery life than the new MacBook Pro 13”.

Surface Book with Performance Base

No comparable laptop has this much computation power, this many pixels and this much battery life, in this light of a form factor.

To push this kind of power through the device we overhauled the thermal system and added advanced cooling features to optimize the 6th Generation Intel Core i7 processors and an NVIDIA GeForce GPU. No comparable laptop has this much computation power, this many pixels and this much battery life, in this light of a form factor.

I love the tech behind our products; but what truly inspires me is how people use these devices.

People like Hollie Figueroa who uses Surface Book to create games. She takes screenshots of her work and uses the Surface Pen to easily annotate those images on the detached PixelSense display for feedback and bug submissions. She needs the performance of the discrete GPU to run professional-grade software like Unity Editor. Hollie is excited for Surface Book with Performance Base because it brings twice as much graphics performance and longer battery life. She mentioned she was happy to see it still included the ESC and Function keys she relies on for ultimate productivity.

Or Joel Henry, an ex NASA engineer who now leads a mechanical engineering team at a consulting company. Joel loves his Surface Book because it can run CAD software like Solid Works, but is light and portable enough to do his work from anywhere. Of course, as an engineer he is always looking for even more performance. For him, the Surface Book with Performance Base will allow him to render 3D files faster and smoother.

These customers, and millions of others are doing things on Surface that you just can’t do on a MacBook. A couple weeks ago we announced an offer to invite current Mac users to trade-up to a Surface Book or Surface Pro 4. We’ve had such a great response to the offer that we’ve decided to extend it through November 23rd. If you’ve been waiting to get a Surface, there has never been a better time to buy. 

For businesses interested in providing their employees with the best, Surface Book with Performance Base shipments start today. A full list of Surface Authorized Resellers and details on how to order are available here.

Dial up your creativity

Today, we are also announcing the availability of the Surface Dial in the US. This product is so much more than an accessory. As soon as you get your hands on the Surface Dial you will immediately realize it can be a powerful tool to aid and augment your creative process.

Surface Dial as shown on a Surface Studio

The Dial integrates with Windows 10 Global Controls & delivers a set of unique experiences such as app-specific, contextually aware toolbars. The best way to understand the Dial is to see it in action. Check out the video clip below to see how some of our partner’s area using the Dial.

As you can see we already have a robust group of partners working to create customized experiences for the Dial in apps such as Bluebeam Revu, Drawboard PDF, Sketchable, Mental Canvas Player, Moho 12, Siemans NX, Spotify, StaffPad, Office and more.

This is just the beginning. We have seen a ton of interest in Dial and are continuing to bring on new partners every day. We are also working with Adobe, Affinity Photo and Designer, Corel Corporation, the makers of CorelDRAW and many others to continue to deliver new experiences with Surface Dial and Surface Studio.

We’ve been inspired and energized by the excitement we are already seeing for Surface Studio and Surface Dial. Due to strong demand, we have sold out of our initial inventory and are temporarily out of stock of Surface Studio and Surface Dial. We are continuing to take pre-orders for Dial for delivery later this year and for Surface Studio for delivery in early 2017.  We will prioritize inventory for both Surface Dial and Surface Studio for people who pre-order. I encourage you to reserve your device now through Microsoft Stores, microsoftstore.com or bestbuy.com.

I truly believe that products are a reflection of the people who make them and the people who use them. With our latest generation of Surface products, we set out to not just give you more of what they asked for, but to capture your imagination in new ways and to inspire the creator in all of us. I can’t wait to see what you will create with these new devices.