Microsoft has updated its Surface portfolio with a new range of devices that were unveiled at the Surface event. The company launched devices such as the Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Studio 2+ among others. Here are the biggest highlights.
Surface Pro 9 specs, price, availability details
Featuring Intel's 12th Gen and ARM-based SQ3 processors, there are two versions of the Surface Pro 9 to choose from. Microsoft collaborated with Qualcomm for the ARM based SQ3 variant, which is similar to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC's with 5G connectivity.
The Windows 11 based touch-tablet/laptop also features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) which enabled on-device AI Algorithms and delivers AI enhancements to Windows 11. If you choose the Intel variant however, it won't have the NPU.
The Intel variant is up to 50% faster than the Surface Pro 8 and features Intel's 12th Gen Evo-series chips. Besides the internal hardware, the Surface Pro 9 has a 13-inch Pixel Sense display that the company says has been designed for the Surface Pen and Windows 11.
Microsoft promises a battery life of up to 15 hours on the device and 19 hours of battery life on the Qualcomm SQ3 variant.
Customers can choose between an Intel based system with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM or the ARM variant with up to 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM. The Intel version has storage options of up to 1TB, while the ARM version tops out at 512GB.
Indian availability for the device has not been announced yet but pre-orders are live right now for $999 (about Rs 82,000), and it will be available starting October 25.
Surface Laptop 5 specs, price, availability details
Available with Intel's 12th Gen processors, the Surface Laptop 5 gives you two screen sizes to choose from - 13.5 or 15-inches. The 13.5-inch variant will give options between an Intel Core i5 or i7, while the 15-inch variant is only available with Core i7.
You can customize both models with up to 32GB LPDDR5x RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Microsoft is promising up to 18 hours of battery life for the 13.5-inch variant, while the 15-inch version will last for 17 hours.
The Surface Laptop 5 has been priced starting at $999 (about Rs 82,000) and will be available on October 25.
Surface Studio 2+ specs, price, availability details
An all-in-one system for people who need to handle heavy workloads, the Surface Studio 2+ comes with 28-inch touchscreen with support for resolutions up to 4500 x 3000.
It also has the laptop version Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 GPU and can be configured with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of internal storage. Strangely, Microsoft has seen it fit to stick with Intel's 11th Gen Core i7-11370H processor. Microsoft also bundles the Surface Pen, Surface Keyboard and Surface Mouse along with your purchase.
The Surface Studio 2+ has been priced starting at $4,499 (about Rs 3,70,000) and will be available starting October 25.
Microsoft Audio Dock specs, price, availability details
The Microsoft Audio Dock is a premium audio speaker with full connectivity I/O featuring two USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2ports, an USB Type A 3.2 port and a HDMI 2.0 port.
The dock also has support for 60W power passthrough, which means it can charge your laptop if you keep it connected to the dock. It has a 15-watt woofer and two 5-watt tweeters.
It also has dedicated buttons for Teams, mute, and volume right on the top and is priced starting at $250 (about Rs 20,000).
Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator
Besides hardware, Microsoft also announce a new AI-based software that can help graphic designers with unique visuals. Using DALLE-2 by OpenAI, graphic designers can now simply type what they want from a project, and Microsoft Designer will generate a template with unique visuals and design for you.
The app is web-based, which means it can be accessed anywhere and is available as a free preview with a restricted set of features.
Microsoft said that eventually the Designer features will be rolled into Microsoft's browser Edge, and will help people jazz up their posts on social media, emails and more.
The Redmond technology giant also said that the DALLE-2 OpenAI technology will eventually make its way to Microsoft's Bing Search, where users will be able to generate images using just a few keywords. Microsoft said that it was still a work in progress, and it is working hard to make sure the generated images aren't offensive.
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