Microsoft's new and highly anticipated Surface Book 3 laptop starts at $1,599, and you can pre-order it right now

• Microsoft's latest Surface Book 3 starts at $1,599 and is available for pre-order now. It'll be available to buy on May 21.
• The Surface Book 3 comes in two screen size options, including a 13-inch model and a 15-inch model.
• The Surface Book 3 laptops also run on Intel's latest 10th-generation of processors and use the latest standard in fast and power efficient laptop memory.
• These laptops are designed for professionals who need the power or for anyone who wants fast and smooth performance for web browsing and common apps.

Microsoft has finally revealed its Surface Book 3 laptop almost three years after releasing the hugely popular Surface Book 2.

The Surface Book 3 laptops will start at $1,599, and they're up for pre-order now. They'll be fully released and available to buy starting on May 21.

The Surface Book 3 is a powerful laptop with high-end specs designed for those with power-hungry workloads or for those who want a fast and lag-free experience while browsing the web and running common apps.

The Surface Book 3's main differentiator compared to the countless other powerful laptops with high-end specs is its detachable screen and keyboard. It means the Surface Book 3 can turn into a tablet once it's detached from the keyboard.

The new Surface Book 3 laptops run on Intel's latest 10th-generation of processors, leading Microsoft to claim that the Surface Book 3 offers 50% more performance than the previous Surface Book 2. It'll also support up to 32GB of the latest LPDDR4x RAM for laptops.

There are two sizes of the Surface Book 3 with different screen sizes, including a 13-inch model and a 15-inch model, both of which have Microsoft's signature 3:2 aspect ratio. Both models use Microsoft's PixelSense screen, which is to say they'll look great and they'll be plenty sharp.

Microsoft says the 13-inch Surface Book 3 has a 15.5-hour battery life, and the 15-inch model has a 17.5-hour battery life. The larger 15-inch model can support an Nvidia dedicated graphics chip suitable for gaming and intense video editing. The 13-inch model supports an Nvidia 1650 graphics chip for light gaming and graphical tasks.

Thankfully, Microsoft has kept two traditional USB-A ports for legacy accessories that use USB-A — in fact, even new accessories still come with USB-A cables. This instantly makes the Surface Book 3 more versatile and handily useful than laptops that don't have USB-A ports.

The Surface Book 3 laptops have a USB-C port, but it doesn't support Thunderbolt 3. Still, the USB-C ports on the Surface Book 3 support a wide variety of functions, including charging and connecting to an external display.