New Surface Laptops, Pros reach potential

  • mayaskmayask
  • AI
  • September 22, 2024
  • 0 Comments
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Copilot+ marks a significant turning point for Windows laptops and brings a fresh makeover to the Surface as well. Notice that the generational number has been dropped in this new era, ushering in a design that’s new, performance that’s enhanced, and AI features that are revolutionary.

Both the updated Surface Laptop and Surface Pro come equipped with the highly capable Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, which brings about massive leaps in performance, extends battery life remarkably, and infuses AI capabilities like never before. Compared to the previous generation of Surface devices, this is a quantum leap.

The new Surface Laptop sports a large, highly responsive touchpad, with thinner bezels on the top and sides, and now offers a total of four new color options. It also supports up to three 4K external monitors and is loaded with features like two USB4 ports, one USB-A port, a Surface Connect magnetic charging port, and a headphone jack. The 1080p webcam remains a part of its design.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

There are two size options available – the 13.8-inch and the 15-inch. While the larger model starts with the more powerful Snapdragon X Elite chip and includes a microSD card slot, the touchpads on both devices are of the same size. However, on the 15-inch model, there’s a significant amount of extra unused space around the palm rests.

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

The Surface Pro gets an even more substantial upgrade this time around. It now has the option for an OLED display that can reach an astonishing 800 nits of brightness in HDR. The standard LED model, on the other hand, tops out at 600 nits in SDR, which is incredibly bright. The device also comes with an ultrawide quad-HD Surface Studio Camera and a 4K rear-facing camera. Just like the Surface Laptop, the Surface Pro can support up to three 4K external monitors using the two USB4 ports and the Surface Connect port.

One of the most intriguing features is the new Surface Pro Flex keyboard. It can be used either when connected to the screen or detached. By integrating a battery and Bluetooth receiver, you can use the keyboard even when it’s detached. And it charges automatically when connected. In theory, this opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for interacting with the device, such as using the keyboard and Surface Pen together or on your lap during a flight.

There’s also a new keyboard option with larger, more prominent characters to be inclusive of those who might benefit from it. Unfortunately, only the Black and Blue keyboard color options have these enhanced features.

The detachable keyboard also features a 14% larger haptic feedback touchpad that is wider and taller than before. Thanks to the use of haptics, the touchpad feels even smoother and is not as loud when clicked compared to the past.

Digital Trends

Digital Trends

When it comes to performance, Microsoft claims it’s a whopping 90% faster than the Surface Pro 9. And the battery life is truly outstanding, with a claimed 22 hours of local video playback battery life, which is longer than the MacBook Air and a significant improvement over the previous generation.

Microsoft also spent time highlighting the new AI capabilities that can take advantage of the on-device AI processing provided by the 45 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS) neural processing unit (NPU). One such feature is Cocreator, a diffusion-based image generation feature that can transform hand-drawn photos into more realistic AI images. A new feature in the popular video-editing app Capcut was also showcased. It allows the presenter to quickly mask five dancers from a video and replace the background, all running on the NPU.

Both devices start at $999, coming with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop and Surface Pro both will start with the Snapdragon X Plus (with the option to upgrade to the X Elite), while the 15-inch Surface Laptop comes with the Snapdragon X Elite standard. As always, you’ll have to pay extra for the detachable keyboard on the Surface Pro, but Microsoft says previous versions of the keyboard, going back to the Surface Pro 8 keyboard, are compatible.

Like the rest of the Copilot+ PCs, the new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro will be available for preorder today and will be shipping on June 18.

This is a developing story, and we’ll continue to update as more information becomes available.

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