The 15-inch version of Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 can now be purchased in a lower-end configuration with a Core i5 processor. The bad news? It’s a 7th-generation Core i5 processor and not a newer model.

UPDATE: Rich Woods tells me that Best Buy lists this part as an 8th-generation Intel Core i5, so it’s not clear which version is correct; the Microsoft Stores says 7th-gen. —Paul

Still, at $1999, this configuration—which also includes 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage—is the cheapest 15-inch Surface Book 2 configuration yet. As you may recall, when Surface Book 2 first launched back in November 2017, the cheapest 15-inch configuration cost $2499. For that price, you got an Intel Core i7 processor, dGPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage.

Speaking of which, the new 15-inch configuration harkens back to how the 13.5-inch Surface Book 2 first launched: At that time, all but the base configuration featured 8th-generation Intel Core processors, but the entry level version used a dual-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor.

Like that old 13.5-inch Surface Book 2 base configuration, the new 15-inch base configuration also lacks a dGPU.

You can buy the new base 15-inch Surface Book 2 from the Microsoft Store or Best Buy.

Tagged with Surface Book 2