Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Go will be released on Oct. 13. (Microsoft Photo)

Microsoft will release a budget version of its Surface Laptop, the Surface Laptop Go, looking to appeal to quarantined home and student users with a 720p video camera and an advanced speaker system that the company describes an ideal combo for video calls, remote learning, and video streaming.

The new laptop, with a 12.4-inch touchscreen, starts at $549.99 in the consumer market for a configuration with an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage. A model of the Surface Laptop Go with an i5 processor, 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage will sell for $899.99.

With the new device, Microsoft is searching for the sweet spot between premium machines and entry-level laptops, looking to compete with Google Chromebooks and Apple MacBooks, clear a path for other Windows PC vendors, and boost usage of Microsoft Teams and other Office programs.

The upgraded Surface Pro X. (Microsoft Photo)

Microsoft also introduced an upgrade of its Surface Pro X two-in-one tablet, promising better battery life and performance. A version with the company’s new Microsoft SQ 2 processor, 16 GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will sell for $1,499. The base model, with an SQ 1 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage sells for $999.

The company is releasing the new Surface products at a time when “the PC is more essential than it’s ever been before,” said Panos Panay, the company’s chief product officer, in a video briefing for reporters in advance of the launch.

After years of stagnation and declining demand, global PC shipments rebounded in the second quarter, limited only by supply chain disruptions caused by pandemic-related manufacturing slowdowns.

Revenue in Microsoft’s Surface hardware business rose 28% to more than $1.7 billion in the same period, its biggest result ever outside the holidays.

Features of the new Surface Laptop Go include a full-sized keyboard with a fingerprint reader in the power button for one-touch sign-in, the first Microsoft laptop to offer that feature. Microsoft promises up to 13 hours of battery life.

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Go is targeted to home and student users. (Microsoft Photo)

By comparison, the base price is $999.99 for the existing Surface Laptop 3, a 13.5-inch notebook with an i5 processor, 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage. The 10.5-inch Surface Go 2 tablet with a Type Cover starts at $399.99 for a base configuration of 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage, and an Intel Pentium chip.

Microsoft introduced the original Surface Laptop in 2017 as its first bona fide notebook computer, not counting the high-end Surface Book hybrid tablet-laptop.

As with the original Surface Laptop, the new Surface Laptop Go will come with Windows 10 in S mode, a version of the operating system that is limited by default to running apps from the Microsoft Store and the company’s Edge browser, but it can be switched to Windows 10 Pro.

Surface Laptop Go and the new Surface Pro X configuration are both available for preorder today, slated for release on Oct. 13. Pricing and configurations vary in education and commercial channels.

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