Microsoft has unveiled two new Surface devices — the 13-inch Surface Laptop and the 12-inch Surface Pro. Both new products feature eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processors. These devices from the Copilot Plus PC ecosystem will go on sale on May 20. Business versions of the new products will begin shipping on July 22.
Image source: Microsoft
Both systems have very similar specifications. They have 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and offer 256 or 512 GB of SSD storage. Their processors include a neural processing unit (NPU) with a performance of 45 TOPS.
The Surface Pro tablet features a 12-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a resolution of 2196 × 1464 pixels and a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. The equipment includes a front 10-megapixel camera with support for the Windows Hello authorization system, as well as an additional webcam with support for 1080p resolution. The new product supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
The dimensions of the device are 274 × 190 × 7.8 mm, the weight is 686 grams without the keyboard, which is not included in the package. The tablet is not equipped with a proprietary Surface Connect connector, but instead received a USB Type-C connector for charging. The charger itself is not included in the package. It must be purchased separately, with a power of at least 45 W (60 W to support fast charging). The tablet also has a second USB Type-C 3.2 port.
The base 12-inch Surface Pro (with a 256GB SSD) costs $799. The 512GB SSD version costs $899. The keyboard case is available separately for $149, as is the Surface Slim pen, which costs $129. The Surface Pro will be available in three colors: platinum, purple, and a deep blue-green that Microsoft calls “ocean.”
The new Surface Laptop offers a 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. It has a webcam with support for 1080p resolution, supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, received a pair of USB-C 3.2 ports, one USB-A 3.1, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. The Surface Laptop comes with a 45 watt USB-C power supply. The laptop’s power button has a fingerprint scanner built into it.
Microsoft says the new Surface Laptop, powered by the eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus, is “up to 50% faster than the Surface Laptop 5 and even outperforms the MacBook Air M3.” It should be noted that the Surface Laptop 5 was released in 2022 with 12th-generation Intel Core processors, while the MacBook Air received a more powerful M4 chip. Unlike the 12-inch Surface Pro, which has a passive cooling system, the Surface Laptop uses a cooling system that includes a fan.
The laptop is assembled in an anodized aluminum case and will also be offered in purple, platinum, and dark blue-green colors. The dimensions of the device are 285.65 × 214.14 × 15.6 mm, weight is 1.22 kg. The cost of the Surface Laptop with a 256 GB solid-state drive is $ 899. For the version with a 512 GB SSD, you will have to pay $ 999.
Along with the announcement of the new Surface devices, Microsoft also announced a new set of Copilot+ features that will be available to Windows Insiders in the coming month. These include natural language search in Windows, a Snipping Tool screenshot feature that lets you crop images, a sticker generator in Paint for charts and documents, and updates to the Narrator feature for describing images. A new Relight photo editing feature lets you change the lighting in your images. It will be available first on PCs with Snapdragon X processors, and will be available later on systems with AMD and Intel processors.
Additionally, the company will redesign the Start Menu, adding a sidebar displaying recent activity on the smartphone connected to the system, and will also expand the AI functions of Explorer.