31 October 2017
As speculated on previous occasions, Microsoft has finally made its new Surface Pro official at an event held in Shanghai. While many were expecting to be named as Surface Pro 5, it has decided to release the new convertible laptop as simply Surface Pro. As for the comparison between the predecessor and newer version, both are pretty much same except for a few noteworthy changes and improvements.
Microsoft has kept the overall design on the new Surface Pro as the older ones which is likely to make sure that older accessories and cases stay compatible with the newer version. But it has made changes to the hinge to make sure that the new Surface Pro can be placed in a flatter state (165-degree range of motion) as compared to previous models. This allows you to use the device at a new angle called Studio Mode which is inspired from the Surface Studio. It sports a 12.3-inch PixelSense display with support for touchscreen input.
But most of the changes on the newer model has been made under the hood. Microsoft has opted for Intel's 7th gen Kaby Lake Core i7 processor which are also fanless. This is a significant upgrade over the predecessor which are powered by older Sky Lake processors. The new Surface Pen with the Surface Pro is now sensitive to 4096 pressure levels and supports tilting and shading for better accuracy and performance. The good thing for professionals is that the Stylus Pen is now compatible with Office suite apps as well.
Microsoft has made the newer Surface Pro lighter than before as well as made improvements to the audio aspect. It is also claiming that the latest model is capable of offering up to 13.5 hours of battery life which is said to a 50% improvement over Surface Pro 4 and 35% over iPad Pro. Other than all these improvements, you will get all those cool features which make the Surface Pro lineup different and special including support for the Surface Dial.
The new Surface Pro starts at $799 and will become available from June 15th in 25 markets. For selected markets, Microsoft will start taking preorders from today which can be done via Microsoft.com, Microsoft Store, BestBuy, and JD.com. Additionally, the Surface Pro has also been made available in 12 new markets.
comments
After going through all the details, the Surface Pro looks impressive. Now the only thing that I am looking forward to is the pricing or availability.
The battery backup of around 14 hours is really worth it as many laptops these days are offering more than 10 hours of backup regularly.
I don't see much change in the design for the new Surface Pro. And more or less it's the same as the devices from the older generations. Nothing new here :(
As explained in the story, maybe the design hasn't been updated for this reason as to allow the older accessories to stay compatible with these latest Surface Pro.
Though the design hasn't been altered, the good thing is that these gadgets now carry the latest Kaby Lake processors from Intel. So, the processing is going to be smooth and clean.
Finally the Surface Pro is official from Microsoft after some delay. It's Surface Pro instead of Surface Pro 5.