Perhaps in response to the lower volume of Surface systems sold, Microsoft today introduced two cut-price Surface models.

For $799, there's a new Surface Laptop with a Kaby Lake Core m3 processor, 4GB RAM, and 128GB storage. The previous cheapest model had the same RAM and storage with a Core i5 processor, and it sells for $999. This new system is a lot cheaper, and we'd suspect that most people, most of the time, won't notice the reduction in processor performance relative to the $999 version, making it much better value.

The big sticking point is the RAM; 4GB isn't much, and there is, of course, no provision to add any more later. If you can live with that amount of memory, the new cheap model is very compelling.

The other cheaper system is a $1,199 Surface Book 2. This is a 13.5-inch model with a 7th generation (two core/four thread) i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 128GB storage. While the more expensive Surface Book 2s include discrete Nvidia GPUs, this base model only offers Intel integrated graphics.

Even with the price cut, though, it feels hard to recommend: for the same money, you can get HP's Spectre x360 with an eighth generation (that is, four core/eight thread) i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB storage, albeit with a display that's only 1920×1080 rather than Surface Book 2's 3000×2000. The higher-end Surface Book 2s are blisteringly fast thanks to their discrete GPUs and four core/eight thread chips, but this base model, with no discrete GPU and only a two core/four thread processor, is much more ordinary. Unless you simply must have its detachable screen, we'd recommend looking elsewhere.