Microsoft Surface Book i7 specs, news, update: Features upgraded battery life and processor

Microsoft has just unveiled the most powerful Surface Book laptop yet and it's described as the "ultimate laptop" because of its undeniably impressive upgrades.

According to reports, the Surface Book i7 is named after its processor on board, which is the Intel Core i7. With this chipset under the hood, the laptop is twice as powerful compared to last year's model which only carried the i5.

Microsoft exec Panos Panay said that the design goal of the new Surface Book i7 was simple. "We took the Core i7, and then we gave it more," he said. And true enough, the portable device has more with it especially in its battery which has greatly improved.

As detailed in reports, Microsoft claimed that the device has 16 hours of battery life. This is actually 30 percent more compared to its predecessor. It can be recalled the last year's Surface Book model came with 12 hours of battery life, which is actually already pretty good.

Aside from its battery life and processor, the powerful laptop also received an upgrade in its graphics power. The hybrid machine now comes with more graphical capabilities brought by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPU paired with 1.9 teraflops of graphic performance.

The laptop also has a redesigned cooling system with an extra fan to sustain the processors and make sure they are running at maximum strength. With regards to the design, not much has changed. In fact, it still looks identical to last year's model. It still easily transforms into a tablet using their new technology, the dynamic fulcrum hinge.

The computer is heavier though most likely because of its bigger battery. It now weighs 3.63 pounds while the original one weighed 3.48 pounds. And as expected, the Surface Book i7 is more expensive. Price is $2,399 for the 256 GB model and $2,799 for the 512 GB. The most expensive is $3,299 for the 1 TB model.

The Surface Book i7 is now available for pre-order. Shipping will start on Nov. 10.