Last week, we stumbled upon a Venture Beat report that said Microsoft had plans to refresh the Surface Pro 4 this week. Well, this week is here and in fact, the American tech giant has already taken the wraps off the new Surface Pro, with the device already up for pre-orders.
According to Microsoft, the new Surface Pro, which is the name the tech giant preferred to the Surface Pro 5 as the successor to the outgoing Surface Pro 4, is one hell of an upgrade when compared to not just previous Surface Pro slates, but also Apple’s own powerhouse in the shape of the iPad Pro. The Redmond Company says that the new tablet has an impressive 13.5 hours of battery life on a single charge.
When compared to the Surface Pro 4, this battery life is a massive improvement of 50%. As for the iPad Pro, the Surface Pro boasts 35% more battery life than the Apple tablet, which Cupertino says offers 10 hours of battery life on a single charge.
The tablet, just like previous rumors had pointed out, is equipped with Intel’s latest processors, the Kaby Lake. The base model has an M3, the midrange variant has an i5 while the high-end model has an i7 chipset. Once again, the Windows OS maker says that the high-end model is 1.7x faster than the Apple iPad Pro, which is based on Apple’s A9X chipset and a whopping 2.5x faster than the Surface Pro 3. Where the Microsoft Surface Pro models with the M3 and i5 chipsets have a new fanless cooling system, the high-end i7 variant brings you an improved hybrid cooling system.
Microsoft also notes that the new slate has a new design that features clearer lines and curves on the edges, an improved 165-degree hinge that lets users place the tablet in Studio Mode, similar to the Surface Studio, as well as a visually softer camera. Weighing at just 1.7 lbs, the Surface Pro is the lightest tablet ever in the Surface Pro lineup, yet heavier than both variants of the iPad Pro.
The previous 12.3-inch display screen and a pixel density of 267ppi is still in use, which is still not so far away from the 264ppi available on the iPad Pro. However, the tech giant claims that its custom PixelSense technology promises “more vibrant, precise and impactful” colors than ever before.
As for the rest of the technical specs, the Surface Pro has a massive storage of up to 1TB, an impressive RAM of up to 16GB as well as Intel Iris Plus 640 graphics. The tech giant is still sticking to USB 3.0 for the ports, there’s a microSD card reader, a 3.5mm audio jack and a Mini DisplayPort. For the software, the Surface Pro has Windows 10 Pro.
Like the previous model, you get a new Surface Pen on the latest Surface Pro. This new Pen has over 4096 pressure points, a mere 21milliseconds of latency as well as brand new tilt functionality. In fact, the tech giant adds that with the new Surface Pen, users will be enjoying a device that is over 2x more accurate as well as 4x more pressure sensitivity when compared to the original Surface Pen. The new Surface Pro also comes with support for LTE connectivity.
As noted at the beginning, the new Microsoft Surface Pro is now ready for pre-order. The base model, which has an M3 processor paired with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage is valued at $799. The prices will start increasing depending on the configurations you pick, where you’ll come across models valued at $999, $1,299, $1,599, $2,199 or $2,699 for the high-end core i7 variant that has 1TB storage and a massive 16GB RAM.
Shipping of the Microsoft Surface Pro will kick off on June 15.