Somewhat new on the inside, identical on the outside. That could well be the summary of Microsoft's renovation of its Surface product range yesterday. At a special event in New York, several company executives launched the new Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Studio 2.
The event didn't stop there: Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Microsoft's great operating system update, is now available for download, although the surprise of the event was the new Surface Headphones with noise cancellation and Cortana support.
Rumors pointed to a modest renewal of the models of the previous generation, and the event confirmed these leaks. The improvements came mainly on the inside features of these machines, with only a few aesthetic changes in products that are quite conservative. These are the highlights of each one:
The absence of USB-C ports on the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2 -but hey, they do have a Surface Connect charging port, duh- is a bit strange since products such as Surface Book 2 or Surface Go have integrated these connectors. Also contradictory is the decision not to update the processors of a Surface Studio 2 that is halfway to a more ambitious renovation.
These hardware launches were accompanied by a new payment option called Surface All Access. The idea here is similar to the Xbox All Access proposal, but in this case Microsoft combines the devices of the Surface family with access to Office 365 through a monthly payment that will depend on the machine chosen. For example, a Surface Go with its Type Cover and two years of Office 365 will cost around $600 instead of the $670 that would cost to buy the model in the conventional way.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
The event didn't stop there: Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Microsoft's great operating system update, is now available for download, although the surprise of the event was the new Surface Headphones with noise cancellation and Cortana support.
Rumors pointed to a modest renewal of the models of the previous generation, and the event confirmed these leaks. The improvements came mainly on the inside features of these machines, with only a few aesthetic changes in products that are quite conservative. These are the highlights of each one:
- Surface Pro 6: Microsoft removed model numbering last year ("Surface Pro 5" was in fact simply called "Surface Pro") only to recover it now with this latest revision. The new models have Intel's 8th Gen processors and a new matte black finish, but the rest of the features remain and for example we still don't have USB-C ports. They will be available on October 16th starting at $899.
- Surface Laptop 2: as in the case of Microsoft convertibles, the company's laptop also integrates Intel's 8th Gen processors. The difference is more noticeable here, though, because the original Surface Laptop integrated dual-core microprocessors. Almost no changes in design either: the Alcantara fabric is again the star of the show, but the family also has a model with a matte black finish. There is an additional, welcome improvement compared to the first generation models: in this second generation we have more RAM, and for the base model we will have 8 GB of RAM (and 128 GB SSD). They will be available on October 16th, and will be priced starting at $999.
- Surface Studio 2: The spectacular format of this All-In-One is still just as spectacular, but now its screen improves dramatically according to Microsoft: it has 38% more brightness and 22% more contrast. In addition we have a new Pascal-based NVIDIA GPU that promises "6 TFLOPS" of performance (similar to what we would achieve with a GTX 1070). The jump to SSD (no more hybrid disks) and the addition of one USB-C connector contrasts with the decision to keep 7th Gen Intel Core processors inside. There is no availability date, but we know that the starting (and spectacular) price for the 16 GB RAM model will be $3,499.
The absence of USB-C ports on the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2 -but hey, they do have a Surface Connect charging port, duh- is a bit strange since products such as Surface Book 2 or Surface Go have integrated these connectors. Also contradictory is the decision not to update the processors of a Surface Studio 2 that is halfway to a more ambitious renovation.
These hardware launches were accompanied by a new payment option called Surface All Access. The idea here is similar to the Xbox All Access proposal, but in this case Microsoft combines the devices of the Surface family with access to Office 365 through a monthly payment that will depend on the machine chosen. For example, a Surface Go with its Type Cover and two years of Office 365 will cost around $600 instead of the $670 that would cost to buy the model in the conventional way.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
