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Microsoft’s cheapest Surface Book 2 could get a quad-core CPU soon

Microsoft’s cheapest Surface Book 2 could get a quad-core CPU soon

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Expected imminently

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Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft looks set to refresh its cheapest Surface Book 2 laptop in the coming weeks, according to retailer listings first spotted by WinFuture. The biggest change is expected to be the laptop’s CPU, which appears to be getting a bump from a dual-core i5-7300U to a quad core i5-8350U.

As well as adding two additional cores, the i5-8350U also modestly bumps the processor’s maximum boost clock speed up from 3.5GHz to 3.6GHz. Overall, that should result in a 50 percent rise in multi-core computing power. We saw the performance for ourselves during our review of the Surface Pro 6.

WinFuture notes that retailers have started listing the new 13-inch refresh for $1499 (€1569). That’s the same as the recommended pricing on the current 256GB configuration, although it’s discounted to $1,299 on Microsoft’s store right now. Otherwise, the specs of the new laptop appears to be the same: 8GB of RAM, a 3000 x 2000 resolution screen, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a single Type-C port, and an SD card reader. Microsoft still claims a maximum battery life of 17 hours.

According to the listings, the new model should arrive in the coming weeks.