Microsoft Surface Book: fastest 13'' laptop, but also a tablet

Surface is now a laptop – the Microsoft Surface Book. Well, to be precise, it's a hybrid device with a keyboard base and a detachable tablet. "Ounce for ounce the most powerful 13-inch laptop," says Microsoft's new head of devices.

Yes, the other Surface tablets have keyboards too, but thanks to the Dynamic Fulcrum hinge the Surface Book handles much more like a traditional laptop, you can safely pick it up by the screen. And if you detach the keyboard, you're left with a 720g (1.6 pounds) tablet. With the keyboard that goes up to 1,515g (3.5 pounds).

The screen is bigger – 13.5" – but keeps the sharp 267ppi pixel density, which means the resolution has been bumped up to 6MP (3000x2000px). The screen supports the same pen and touch experience Surface users are familiar with.

For an old-school input, the keyboard offers backlit keys with 1.6mm travel and a glass trackpad with 5 touch points.

The Microsoft Surface Book is massively powerful, Microsoft claims its twice as fast as a MacBook Pro. It comes with a 6th gen Intel Core (i5 or i7), up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. All that and you're looking at 12 hours of battery life.

The Xbox team was asked to lend its GPU know-how and the Book packs a GeForce GPU. It will be used for gaming, of course, but will help GPU accelerated apps too (the demo was video editing). Note that the GPU is optional and goes into the keyboard base, when you detach that the Intel GPU takes over.

Other goodies include stereo speakers on the front, a magnesium body, two USB 3.0 ports and a full size SD card slot. You also get a 5MP selfie camera plus an 8MP camera on the back (which looks unusual on a laptop).

The Microsoft Surface Book will cost $1,500. Pre-orders start on October 7, while full retail availability will come on October 26.