Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 2 is set to ship later this month and Microsoft says the 2.8 pound notebook is up to 85 percent faster than its predecessor, offers up to 14.5 hours of battery life, and comes in new color options.
One other thing that sets it apart from the original Surface Laptop? The new model does not ship with Windows 10 S.
Instead, there are two options: you can buy a Surface Laptop 2 with Windows 10 Home, or a Surface Laptop 2 for Business with Windows 10 Pro.
Prices start at $999 for a version with Windows 10 Home, an 8th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. You can also spend up to $2,699 f you want a top-of-the-line model with 16GB of RAM, 1TB of solid state storage, and a Core i7 processor.
Unsurprisingly, the Surface Laptop 2 for Business will cost more. Prices start at $1,199. That makes it $200 more than the consumer version — but in addition to shipping with Windows 10 Pro instead of Home, the entry-level business model also has a slightly more powerful processor. It comes with an Intel Core i5-8350U processor with Intel vPro support, while the entry-level Surface Laptop 2 with Windows 10 Home has a Core i5-8250U processor (which doesn’t support vPro).
If you get the Core i7 version of either model you’ll end up with an Intel Core i7-8650U processor. (Thanks Tobi!)
What’s interesting is that Microsoft isn’t using the Surface Laptop to push Windows 10 S (or Windows 10 in S Mode as it’s now called) anymore. Windows 10 S is basically a version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system that looks and behaves just like Windows 10 in most respects… but it prevents users from installing applications from sources other than the Microsoft Store.
The upside is that you get tighter security and the possibility of faster performance since you don’t have third-party apps mucking up the operating system. Store apps run in a sandboxed environment and can receive updates automatically from the Store.
The down side is that many popular Windows applications aren’t available in the Microsoft Store, and there are some functions that are off-limits to Store apps. So power users are likely to find Windows 10 S to be limiting.
Microsoft does allow users who purchase a 1st-gen Surface Laptop with Windows 10 S to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. But this year the company seems to be abandoning the idea of shipping the laptop with Windows 10 S at all.
Windows 10 S is the new Windows RT (Really Terrible).
Good to see laptops with more than 32gb of storage and without Windows 10 S.
$200 os retail price for pro. Going from home to Pro costs $99.
Also, pretty sure all Surface Devices will ship with S Mode.
Either Windows 10 Home S Mode, or Windows 10 Pro S Mode.
Whoops. You’re right on the full price/upgrade price. But PC World and Engadget both report that the laptops will ship with plain old Windows 10 Home (not S Mode):
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3310231/microsoft/microsoft-surface-laptop-2-hands-on.html
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/02/microsoft-surface-laptop-2/
That’s weird. Is it the Laptop only doing that?? What about the Surface Pro 6??
The Surface Go shipped with Windows 10 Home S Mode and Windows 10 Pro S mode for commercial use. Are they keeping S Mode only for the tablet form factor??
They had an issue with Surface Go where there was a glitch exiting out of S Mode, so it’s possible they weren’t able to fix the error in time. Is it possible the Review devices sent to those sites had S Mode already unlocked??
Also figured out the reasoning for the upcharge on the pro model:
Core i5 8250U/i7-8650U (consumer) Core i5 8350U/8650U (business)
It’s got a slightly more powerful processor that includes v.pro support, targeted for IT. So the $1199 is not only for the Pro edition but also a better processor.
Nice find. They kind of obscured those details during the announcement. And honestly, I’m not 100% sure that PC World and Engadget got things right yesterday. If I find out that this headline/the premise of this post is incorrect I’ll definitely update it.