While on paper the shift from dual- to quad-cores may sound trivial, it results in a massive gain in processing power. The uptick is the drivers used for these processors are very mature giving users a stable experience. That makes these processors part of the 'Coffee Lake' era of Intel chips and not the slightly improved 'Whiskey Lake' which are just now hitting laptops. Jumping from dual- to quad-core processors for the i5 and i7 has been a trend since late 2017, which is when Intel introduced the Core i5-8250U and Core i7-8650U processors to the market. Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Audio Premium Enterprise and education editions of Surface Laptop 2, however, still ship with Windows 10 Pro. Previously, users could switch out of S Mode to Windows 10 Pro for free, but now users will need to pay a $99 upgrade fee for the Pro version of Windows 10. Instead the Surface Laptop 2 ships with Windows 10 Home. Not only is the fan quieter, but it should come on less frequently compared to last year's model.Īnother shift is moving away from Windows 10 in S Mode (which has been modified). To accommodate the new quad-core processors, which generate more heat, Microsoft updated the thermal solution (heat pipes and fan) for Surface Laptop 2. Instead, all Surface Laptop 2's feature the Intel Graphics UHD 620 chip. There is also no longer an option for a more powerful Intel Graphics Iris Plus 640 graphics in the Core i7 model due to Intel not making such a GPU for the 8th Gen of 15W processors. Instead, there is a quad-core Core i5 with 8GB and 128GB for $999 – a substantial bump in price but also performance. There is no longer a Surface Laptop Core m3 entry-model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB starting at $799.

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