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The laptop has a 13.5-inch, 3000×2000 PixelSense touchscreen with 6 million pixels, and it includes an Intel Skylake processor and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory. It also has PCI Express-connected solid-state storage. Microsoft claims it's the "fastest 13-inch laptop anywhere on any planet," a statement that we don't have the means to confirm, and that it's "two times more powerful" than the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The Surface Book's screen detaches from the base to function as a standalone tablet, and like the Surface Pro 4, it works with a Surface Pen that can be docked magnetically along the top of the screen. The dedicated GPU is in the base of the Book, and it will switch to the Skylake integrated GPU when the screen is detached—if you want all of the GPU power, you'll have to have the laptop docked.

If you want that GPU power in a form factor that's still relatively tablet-y, Microsoft has equipped the Surface Book with a "dynamic fulcrum hinge" that bends at multiple points. Though you can't flip the screen over 360 degrees to touch the base as you can with designs like Lenovo's Yoga series, you can flip the tablet over so that the screen is facing up while the laptop is closed.

The base of the laptop includes a backlit keyboard with 1.6mm key travel and a glass trackpad with 5-point multitouch, and there are two USB 3.0 ports and a full-size SD card slot. Microsoft claims the Book has 12-hour battery life.

The Surface Book starts at $1,499 and is available for pre-order today. It will start shipping on October 26. UK and European pricing isn't yet known. We'll find out more information about the exact specs of that model (and any higher-end models) as soon as we can.