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Surface Laptop Debuts as Microsoft's First Ever Budget Notebook PC

From the 2-in-1 Surface Book hybrid, Microsoft now adds on the more budget oriented Surface Laptop, a standard Windows notebook PC to target the education market. The Microsoft Surface Laptop features the latest Windows 10 S and 7th Generation (Kaby Lake) Intel Core i5 or i7 platforms. 

The Surface Laptop is obviously much slimmer than the Surface Book without the detachable hinges but its other features are less superior than the older Surface. For instance, the Surface Laptop offers a maximum 512GB SSD storage but the Surface Book can provide up to 1TB. The Surface Book meanwhile has two USB Type-A based USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) ports instead of only one USB Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 port on the Surface Laptop.

Like Book, the newer Surface also comes with a mini DisplayPort 1.2 port used to connect to external displays, 3.5mm audio headphone connector, and Surface Connect port to connect to its AC power supply or Microsoft Surface Dock. The Surface Laptop however doesn't have an SD card reader slot like the SD 4.0 UHS-II based SD card slot on the Surface Book.

The Surface Laptop shows off an overall rich tone-on-tone colored body with four color combinations to choose from with its keyboard covered in fabric material. Like the Surface Book, the touch enabled display on the Surface Laptop also supports the Surface Pen which however doesn't come bundled with the Surface Laptop but is provided with the Surface Book.

The Surface Laptop is great for those looking for an inexpensive and powerful Windows based notebook PC especially students. On the other hand, those seeking more of a tablet/notebook convertible should consider the Surface Book.