Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Hands-on: Microsoft Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Studio 2 Plus”.
Microsoft just announced a bunch of new surfaces, the Surface Pro 9, the surface laptop 5 and the surface Studio 2 plus so that’s exciting. But it’s also the 10-year anniversary of surface a line. That’S become hugely successful and ambitious for Microsoft. So we wanted to know how’s that changed over the last 10 years and what’s coming next, so we came out here to Redmond Washington to meet with Panos penet, The Man Behind surface and windows. But first we got to see what Microsoft has in store for surface.
This fall out of the three new Services coming later this month. The Surface Pro 9 really has the most changes both on the outside and inside new. This year are colors across the entire Surface Pro device. So it’s not just on the type cover anymore that matches what we’ve seen on the surface laptop and I have a bit of a soft spot for the forest, green color and the new sapphire blue.
If you really want to get fancy, there’s even a special Liberty, limited edition that has been laser etched with a custom design, it’s great to see more than just type covers for customization here now. The other big story is R. Microsoft must be confident in its windows. On arm work, because the Surface Pro 9 now comes in two options: there’s the regular Intel Edition with 12gb and chips or an arm powered version powered by the sq3, a chip designed by Microsoft and Qualcomm.
That’S right. The Surface Pro X has merged into the main line, and the only real difference on the outside is that the arm version feels a little bit lighter, but there’s obviously, some really big differences inside top of those differences is that the sq3 Surface Pro 9 ships with 5G support for the first time now we tested it briefly in Microsoft, Surface robot, room where you can’t see in or out of the windows and 5G reception. Wasn’T that great, but setup was seamless and just a matter of putting a SIM card inside.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get 5G support on the Intel version, as Microsoft is keeping this exclusive to the sq3. The sq3 version also has a neural Processing Unit, which is a fancy way of saying it can run AI tasks without hitting your CPU and GPU. Microsoft is bringing impressive background and portrait blur across all video conferencing apps on windows, with this sq3 chip and even a voice Focus feature that is particularly good at removing background noise, we’ve seen similar efforts from Nvidia Discord, zoom and plenty of other apps, but all of Those are hitting your CPU and GPU, whereas this is running separately on a chip. This is a big next step for surface, but it’s not a reinvention of the line that defined the last 10 years of tablets, so it asked Panos. Where does the kickstand go over? The next 10 years, I think the thing that will be here in 10 years is the need to create the kickstand itself. It might be here, but it’s more about how does a product adapt to you so like when we did the kickstand? It was all about. If we were going to move from consuming to producing – and you and I talked about this – I think the mode switching is here to stay in the in the in the mode.
Switching from you know, leaning back to leaning in is my way of saying it. So creating versus consuming next up is the surface laptop 5.. Much like the previous laptop 4. This year’s model will come in a variety of colors and options to pick between the 13.5 inch or 15 inch displays and alcatara material or a metal finish. There’S a slightly lighter Green Sage, color, that’s new this year, alongside the regular matte black sandstone and platinum, alcatara, specs, wise you’re, picking between pure Intel. This time, though, like the Surface Pro 9 surface, laptop 5 will be powered by 12th gen Intel chips with the base model, starting with a core i5, so AMD, is nowhere to be found here. Microsoft is also finally adding Thunderbolt 4 support to the surface laptop this year, so you’ll have those super Speedy file, transfers, there’s also Dolby Vision, support for the display and Dolby Atmos for the sound Microsoft had us step inside their super fancy. Anarchoric chamber one of the quietest places on Earth. The silence was met with a thundering demo of Dolby Atmos sound, which was an impressive and slightly surreal experience, but this same Dolby Atmos support is also available on the previous surface laptop 4 model. Finally, a Microsoft is refreshing, its surface Studio 2 with a new two plus model, it’s largely the same outside, although Microsoft has added free, USBC, Thunderbolt 4 ports at the rear. The 28 inch display still supports, pin input and touch, but it won’t come cheap with prices. Starting at 4 299 you’ve really got to want that moving display inside the internals have also been improved, but as we’re about to enter Intel’s 13th gen era, the surface Studio 2 plus will only ship with 11th gen core i7 h-series chips.
Microsoft squeezes these chips into a tiny case bloated display. So it says it went for a liability rather than the latest CPUs. Frankly, it’s disappointing, but thankfully there’s now an RTX 3060 inside with 6 gig of vram, that’s enough to power plenty of games at 1080P, and it should also be a step up for Creative tasks. I’D still like to have seen something slightly more powerful, though I’ve been asking for service to take gaming seriously for years, and I think the studio 2 plus probably comes as close as we’re gon na get, but will Microsoft ever do a surface gaming PC? Here’S? What I’ll say our gaming customers on windows are amazing in like what we want now on from the windows side is to make sure we’re doing things like direct storage or dx12, or just the elements that you just built the gaming right guys. So you know like we’re now in this world of how do we make sure we’re giving the gamers their best experience? So I don’t think it’s about. I don’t think it’s about surface Hardware.
Actually, I just you know we have incredible oems right now that um what they’re delivering you know, whether it’s Legion or omen or Alienware like Razer, these products are phenomenal, so don’t expect a surface gaming laptop anytime soon. What I thought was most interesting about meeting with Panos and the surface team this week is a revelation that Microsoft started his surface not just to take on the ipower with its own tablet. Panos tells me it began with a vision for a tablet, a laptop and a PC to uplift, the entire ecosystem, the surface team only shipped the original surface, two in one device. A decade ago, now, 10 years later, we’ve got the Surface Pro 9.
The surface laptop 5 and the surface Studio 2 plus that really Mark the success that Microsoft has had in building PCS. Microsoft seems confident that surface could be around for another decade and well beyond just the first 10 Tom yeah, it’s just the first ten I mean. There’S another 10 right right behind it and – and I think the first 10 years have been pretty amazing, but at the same time like we we’re just starting on the journey for what’s tomorrow, none of the success was guaranteed and it was a huge risk that involved Microsoft, Engineers working in rooms without windows, but the result has changed the PC and laptop space forever. Everyone has copied the Surface Pro and it’s become the default two-in-one device.
Now, thanks to Microsoft, giving away it’s reference, designs, pen, technology and much more, I thought I’d end. My time by asking paddles about the haters there were many people doubting, Microsoft would even keep surface around and hey. There was Apple there saying that the surface of Windows 8 were kind of like merging a fridge in a toaster, but now it’s a two billion dollar business say to that. I think I say thank you, that’s what I say like thank you.
Thank you for motivating us and thank you for being on this journey now. I think, don’t get me wrong like there’s a little bit. I know there’s a t, but here that has a bit of a chip, I’m sure, but it gets buried very quickly in the you know. What’S next yeah, you believed in it right yeah.
We always believed him. We still do both the Surface Pro 9 and surface laptop 5 start shipping on October 25th and a price for starting at 999 and then there’s the surface Studio 2 plus, which also starts shipping October 25th. But the prices there start at 4 299 so definitely get saving. If you want that PC thanks for watching – and we will see you in the next one – .