Price & Bottom Line
Microsoft will be opening pre-orders for the Surface Book 2 on Nov. 9, and shipping will begin on Nov. 16. The entry-level version of the notebook (13.5-inch display, seventh-gen Core i5) is priced at $1,499. That is above the lowest-priced ThinkPad X1 Carbon that's currently available, which is priced at $1,403 and also has seventh-gen Core i5.
The pricing diverges from there. A 13.5-inch Surface Book 2 with eighth-gen Core i7 starts at $1,999. Moreover, the cheapest version of the 15-inch Surface Book 2 still runs at $2,499. A Core i7 model of the X1 Carbon is currently priced at $1,417 (with 16 GB of RAM) while upgrading the display on that model to 2,560 x 1,440 adds just $100.
The X1 Carbon offers a strong value for the money, with advantages around durability and portability. It also boasted impressive performance in our tryouts. The X1 Carbon does lag behind the Surface Book 2 in a number of areas -- CPU, graphics, display quality/flexibility, and battery life -- but having the latest and greatest in those areas with the Surface Book 2 will clearly cost you.
