a week has passed since Apple dropped a deluge of hardware, but brace yourselves—it’s Microsoft’s turn. Today, the company announced new Surface laptops, accessories, and a phone, at a virtual event. From a wacky folding laptop to the new-and-improved Surface Duo 2, there’s plenty to choose from if you’ve been holding out on an upgrade.
Here’s everything Microsoft announced.
Surface Laptop Studio
If the Surface Book and Surface Studio had a baby, it would be the Surface Laptop Studio. The 14.4-inch touchscreen laptop comes complete with a 120 Hz refresh rate, but the display can adjust depending on what you need to do. There’s Laptop mode, with full access to the keyboard and touchpad; Stage mode, where you can pull the display toward you to watch movies or play games; and Studio mode (aka tablet mode), for drawing and writing. This is all possible thanks to a dual-hinge design embedded into the center back behind the display and the base. The screen doesn’t fold, but the casing behind it does.
It comes equipped with a 1080p front-facing camera and an 11th-gen Intel processor. (You can choose between Core i5 or Core i7.) It’s compatible with Microsoft’s new Surface Slim Pen 2, also announced today and sold separately, which adds haptic feedback for a more interactive experience and lower latency. The latter means it should feel more responsive when you write or sketch. It attaches magnetically to the bottom edge of the laptop, below the trackpad, similar to Apple’s iPad Pro.
Surface Pro X
This time around, Microsoft is offering a Wi-Fi-only model of the Surface Pro X in addition to the LTE version. The starting price has also dipped by $100, making it a bit more affordable at $899. The Surface Pro X comes with improvements to Windows on ARM too, with a variety of optimized apps including Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Teams.
Just like its predecessor, the Surface Pro X includes a 13-inch touchscreen display, up to 15 hours of battery life, up to 16-GB of RAM, and runs on Microsoft’s very own custom processors.
Surface Pro 8
The Surface Pro 8, on the other hand, brings improvements to both the inside and out. Its 13-inch display is bigger and brighter than the Surface Pro 7. Like the Surface Laptop Studio, it packs a 120 Hz screen, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and works with the Slim Pen 2 (sold separately). You can also charge and store the pen on the detachable keyboard (also not included). Microsoft made some improvements to its cameras too, adding better low-light capabilities for when you’re Zooming in the dark.
