Microsoft, while being on the forefront of software, has been rather laid back with its Surface hardware, and it has thankfully caught up with its OEM partners in time with the introduction of the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, these devices come exclusively with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon ARM processors that rival with Apple Silicon, no Intel 14th Gen model has been announced at this time.
All-New Surface Pro
Known as the Surface Pro 11th Edition, it is powered by either the X Plus model with a 13-inch LCD display starting at US$999 or the X Elite variant with a 13-inch OLED display starting at US$1499, they feature Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU that can perform 45 TOPS, while paired to either 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe Gen4 storage.
Like the Surface Pro 9, you get two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 for connectivity, optional 5G, and now comes with faster WiFi 7 connectivity, Microsoft promises up to 14 hours of video playback and 10 hours of active web usage.
Microsoft has introduced an all-new Flex keyboard that allows users to use it wirelessly without docking to the tablet, the new keyboard interestingly can be titled while detached for a more comfortable typing experience, it also gains a dedicated CoPilot key for quicker access to the company’s AI assistant, the Surface Pro will still be compatible with the older Surface Pro Signature Keyboard if users prefer.
All-New Surface Laptop
The new Surface Laptop 7th Edition comes in 13.8-inch and 15-inch models, offering up to 20 hours and 22 hours of video playback battery life respectively, they are also powered exclusively by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series processors, the 13.8-inch model can be configured with an X Plus or X Elite processor, the 15-inch model will solely be powered by the X Elite processor.
In terms of connectivity, the Surface Laptop has two USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, one USB-A, 3.5mm headphone jack, a MicroSDXC card reader and WiFi 7. Unlike the previous models, the new Surface Laptop now features a haptic touchpad just like Apple’s MacBooks, which can have its sensitivity adjusted.
The Surface Laptop 7th Edition starts at US$999 for the 13.8-inch model and US$1299 for the 15-inch model.
Microsoft has not announced whether these devices will be made available in Malaysia at this time of writing.