Microsoft unveils all-new Surface Pro with major battery life improvements

[Shawn Knight]

Microsoft as anticipated on Tuesday announced a long overdue upgrade to its popular Surface. As rumored, Microsoft dropped the conventional numbering scheme with the new 2-in-1, instead electing to refer to the device simply as the Surface Pro.

Visually, not much has changed with the Surface Pro. The Verge, which got some hands-on time with the new system, notes that the edges are now rounded and a perimeter cooling vent has shrunk a bit. There’s also a new hinge borrowed from the Surface Studio.

On the inside, however, is where most of Microsoft’s attention has been focused. It starts with new processors – specifically, 7^th-gen (Kaby Lake) Core m3, Core i5 and Core i7 chips. The two slower CPUs are fanless; only the Core i7 model requires active cooling.

Microsoft is also claiming the new Surface Pro will get a major bump in battery life, all the way up to 13.5 hours on a single charge. If true, that’d be close to twice as good as its predecessor and a serious boon for the Surface family.

The Surface Pro comes with a revised Surface Pen that bumps the level of pressure sensitivity from 1,024 levels up to 4,096 (its activation force has also been lowered). Unfortunately, it’s no longer included with the machine and is sold as a $99 optional accessory. The size of the screen – 12.3 inches – and its resolution – 2,736 x 1,824 (267 PPI) – remain unchanged.

Sadly, Microsoft failed to bake in a USB Type-C connector. Instead, you’ll get a USB 3.0 Type-A connector, microSD card slot, headset jack and a mini DisplayPort on top of the Surface connector.

Panos Panay, head of the Surface division, told the publication that there are around 800 new custom parts in the Surface Pro.

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro is available to pre-order from today starting at $799 which gets you a Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of solid state storage. The high-end configuration with a Core i7 chip, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage can be yours for $2,699.

Look for units to ship in mid-June.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69432-microsoft-unveils-all-new-surface-pro-major-battery.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

Barely an update - except for the battery... Kaby Lake doesn't really add much - but I suppose first time buyers will be happy... waiting for another generation at least.... I want the ability to use a real docking station, which requires USB C

 

[treeski]

It sucks that the pen is no longer included. That said, I think this will be my first Surface.

 

[Kibaruk]

Barely an update - except for the battery... Kaby Lake doesn't really add much - but I suppose first time buyers will be happy... waiting for another generation at least.... I want the ability to use a real docking station, which requires USB C

A "Real" docking station? You do know it has it's own docking station?

 

[Squid Surprise]

A "Real" docking station? You do know it has it's own docking station?

Yeah... and it's not that bad... but not fast enough for me I can wait...

 

[oldikes]

Come on now refresh the non-pro.

 

[Kibaruk]

Yeah... and it's not that bad... but not fast enough for me I can wait...

Oh then you mean a "port replicator", not a dock. Gotcha.

 

[Arris]

Been very happy with my Surface Pro 3 paired with the Surface pro 4 keyboard. Much better typing experience than the previous keyboards.

The thing I will say is that I don't use the pen as much as I thought I would. I usually just end up using mouse in Lightroom and Photoshop. I also don't use it as a tablet all that much, but then again I don't miss my tablet that I sold once I switched to the Surface Pro 3.

Also if they have managed to make it quieter and cooler that is a big improvement. The Surface Pro 3 suffers somewhat from thermal throttling when running anything truly demanding (actually have an Arctic USB fan that I plug in ghetto style when playing a little Heroes of the Storm on it).

 

[ForgottenLegion]

I'd be interested to see real world battery tests. 13hrs is bullsh*t.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

We're all still going to call it a Surface Pro 5 M$...

This is good for new buyers, but not much reason to upgrade for those of us with older units. I hope they have worked out some of the reliability issues in this. I will say they have been getting better, the 4 was more reliable than the 3... so hope this continues the trend. I still have plenty of problems with my SP3.