Microsoft’s Surface Pro strategy has been a bit strange lately. The 2022 Surface Pro 9 it came in both Intel and Arm configurations, but the Arm-powered device was slower and significantly more expensive. Then, earlier this year, Microsoft announced and Intel-powered Surface Pro 10, nice but boring device Focuses on IT professionals.
Finally, Microsoft has a new Surface Pro that might make the average person in the market sit down and pay attention to a laptop. The new Surface Pro Copilot+ PC (no more model numbers!) is another Arm-powered device, but this time Microsoft says performance won’t be compromised. Actually, a A rebuilt version of Windows 11Microsoft claims these machines are 58 percent faster than the “fastest MacBook Air” with an M3 processor.
Specifically, Copilot+ computers should achieve 40 trillion operations per second with the M3, compared to Apple’s claimed 18 trillion. The Surface Pro itself reaches 45 TOPS. The company further clarified that peak performance is 23 percent faster and “sustained” performance is 58 percent faster. Note that Microsoft did not mention the M3 Pro or M3 Max chips here.
It’s also 90 percent faster than the Surface Pro 9, and Microsoft promises 14 hours of video playback time until the end of its battery life. Physically, it looks like what you’d expect—a tablet with a kickstand and keyboard attachment. But it has slimmer bezels and a 13-inch OLED screen for the first time. Finally, there’s a “quad HD” front-facing camera, which looks identical to what we saw on the Surface Pro 10 for work.
There’s also a new keyboard called the Flex Keyboard, which can be attached or detached from the device for more convenient use. The trackpad is 14 percent larger than before. You’ll pay a lot for a new keyboard, though, with the Surface Pen coming in at $450. So far, it seems that the keyboard cannot be bought on its own.
Of course there is has artificial intelligence powered features here thanks to the NPU in all new Copilot+ PC devices announced today. And most of it happens on the device, so you won’t have to wait for data to reach the cloud or pay for various “pro AI subscriptions. One of the more interesting ones is Recall, which uses natural language to retrieve data. Everything you remember Other features to reinvent your PC include live translations in video chats in over 40 languages, as well as a Windows Photo tool called Super Resolution to enhance old photos.
Pre-orders start today and they will go on sale on June 18th. The Surface Pro starts at $1,000 and comes in four colors; it includes a Snapdragon X Plus chip with a standard LCD display, 256 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM. Stepping up to OLED models raises the price to $1,500. Microsoft also says you can get a Surface Pro with built-in 5G, but the company’s website says those models won’t be out until “later this year.”
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