The new, faster Surface Pro is Microsoft’s all-purpose AI PC
The new Surface Pro. It comes in blue! | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
Microsoft just announced the new Surface Pro, the latest in its lineup of tablet / laptop hybrid devices and the first in a new generation of what Microsoft is calling Copilot Plus PCs. The numbers are gone from the model numbers, which seems to signify a full reboot of the lineup. “Compared to previous Surface generations, it isn’t even close,” said Brett Ostrum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Surface, at a launch event.
The consumer-focused Surface Pro has a lot in common with the business device Microsoft launched in March. That device had a 13-inch display, up to 64GB of RAM, the newly ubiquitous Copilot key, an improved keyboard attachment, and a 5G-capable option. It also has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the chip that Microsoft relies on for a lot of its on-device AI features.
This new Pro is up to 90 percent faster than the previous model, Microsoft said, and has optional 5G. There’s also a new, optional OLED screen, “the best Surface camera ever,” Wi-Fi 7 support, and a new keyboard attachment called the Surface Pro Flex. It comes in four colors, including a very nice-looking new shade of blue.
The new Flex keyboard works both attached and detached to the Pro, and should be sturdier than the previous model. Microsoft says there’s also a new option with bold keys, and a 14 percent larger touchpad, in an effort to make the devices more accessible to more users.
The Surface Pro’s hardware has been solid for a while now — the full kit with keyboard and stylus can be expensive, and power users have been asking for more ports, but the Surface Pro 9’s design and build quality didn’t get much wrong. The problem, as ever, was the chip. You could buy a Pro 9 with a Qualcomm processor inside, which came with some extra camera features, 5G connectivity, and a series of pretty brutal performance tradeoffs. Windows on Arm has steadily improved over the years, but it was still a laggy, glitchy, problematic experience even in 2022. The Intel model offered significantly worse battery life but significantly better and more reliable performance.
The new Pro, in theory, is the best of all worlds. With the Snapdragon X processor lineup, Qualcomm has been promising that its chip is finally fast enough to rival Apple, AMD, and Intel. Microsoft appears to be confident that this is the year Windows on Arm works out for real. The company hasn’t said yet onstage which chip the new Pro is running, but it seems overwhelmingly likely to be the X.
All that performance exists in the service of AI, of course. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off Monday’s event by talking about building computers that “not only understand us but anticipate what we want” and said that the next phase of Windows and computing starts with Copilot. The event also included a new AI feature called Recall, more Copilot integrations in File Explorer, notifications, and elsewhere around Windows. With better devices, Nadella said, you can solve problems with latency and privacy, and give AI systems better power. He called Copilot Plus PCs “the fastest, most AI-ready PCs ever built.”
The new Surface Pro. It comes in blue! | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
Microsoft just announced the new Surface Pro, the latest in its lineup of tablet / laptop hybrid devices and the first in a new generation of what Microsoft is calling Copilot Plus PCs. The numbers are gone from the model numbers, which seems to signify a full reboot of the lineup. “Compared to previous Surface generations, it isn’t even close,” said Brett Ostrum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Surface, at a launch event.
The consumer-focused Surface Pro has a lot in common with the business device Microsoft launched in March. That device had a 13-inch display, up to 64GB of RAM, the newly ubiquitous Copilot key, an improved keyboard attachment, and a 5G-capable option. It also has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the chip that Microsoft relies on for a lot of its on-device AI features.
This new Pro is up to 90 percent faster than the previous model, Microsoft said, and has optional 5G. There’s also a new, optional OLED screen, “the best Surface camera ever,” Wi-Fi 7 support, and a new keyboard attachment called the Surface Pro Flex. It comes in four colors, including a very nice-looking new shade of blue.
The new Flex keyboard works both attached and detached to the Pro, and should be sturdier than the previous model. Microsoft says there’s also a new option with bold keys, and a 14 percent larger touchpad, in an effort to make the devices more accessible to more users.
The Surface Pro’s hardware has been solid for a while now — the full kit with keyboard and stylus can be expensive, and power users have been asking for more ports, but the Surface Pro 9’s design and build quality didn’t get much wrong. The problem, as ever, was the chip. You could buy a Pro 9 with a Qualcomm processor inside, which came with some extra camera features, 5G connectivity, and a series of pretty brutal performance tradeoffs. Windows on Arm has steadily improved over the years, but it was still a laggy, glitchy, problematic experience even in 2022. The Intel model offered significantly worse battery life but significantly better and more reliable performance.
The new Pro, in theory, is the best of all worlds. With the Snapdragon X processor lineup, Qualcomm has been promising that its chip is finally fast enough to rival Apple, AMD, and Intel. Microsoft appears to be confident that this is the year Windows on Arm works out for real. The company hasn’t said yet onstage which chip the new Pro is running, but it seems overwhelmingly likely to be the X.
All that performance exists in the service of AI, of course. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off Monday’s event by talking about building computers that “not only understand us but anticipate what we want” and said that the next phase of Windows and computing starts with Copilot. The event also included a new AI feature called Recall, more Copilot integrations in File Explorer, notifications, and elsewhere around Windows. With better devices, Nadella said, you can solve problems with latency and privacy, and give AI systems better power. He called Copilot Plus PCs “the fastest, most AI-ready PCs ever built.”