You won't believe Microsoft’s new spin on Surface Book drops the GPU (and its price)

Microsoft has launched a new Surface Book model that's essentially a fresh spin on the most expensive variant of the convertible.

This is a new take on the original Surface Book (as opposed to the more recent Performance Base offering), and it’s virtually the same as the existing top-end 2-in-1 with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage; the difference is there's no discrete Nvidia graphics solution.

And because the GPU has been dropped you get the notebook slightly cheaper, with the price tag weighing in at $2,999 (around £2,460, AU$3,940), as opposed to $3,199 (around £2,620, AU$4,200), which is what the discrete GPU-toting top-of-the-range Surface Book runs to.

Stock situation

This new model is only out in the US at the moment – although that’s kind of academic right now, as it’s out of stock on Microsoft’s store currently (as is the notebook with the discrete GPU, for that matter).

When it’s back in stock, you can order the new Surface Book here

We’d expect it to be available in the UK soon enough, though.

How much excitement this new addition will generate, however, is debatable, as you’re not saving a massive amount of money by ditching the Nvidia GPU – and you’ll obviously pay a price on the performance front in terms of dropping back to integrated graphics.

That said, it’s always good to have more choice when deciding what machine you wish to plump for.