In their online launch even held Wednesday, Microsoft announced the latest Surface Pro 8. The two-in-one comes with Intel’s 11th Gen Evo processors, a 120Hz screen, Thunderbolt 4 support and a new keyboard that houses the new Slim Pen 2.
It seems like Microsoft has taken the best bits from Surface Pro X and paired them up with an Intel chip.
The Surface Pro 8 starts at $1099.99 and will be available alongside Windows 11 starting October 5, with pre-orders beginning on Wednesday.
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The Surface everyone has been waiting for?
The new Surface is more than a simple refresh. Sure the design might look familiar on the outside. The internals has been majorly flipped around.
Display
The Surface Pro 8 has a 120Hz, 13-inch PixelSense Flow Display, to quote Microsoft. The display also supports Dolby Vision alongside Adaptive Colour Technology, pretty similar to Apple’s.
The display also takes advantage of Windows 11’s Dynamic Refresh Rate feature. So for most bits, your screen will be running at 60Hz to preserve battery; however, as soon as you whip out the Slim Pen 2, it switches to 120Hz. Once again, this is pretty similar to Apple’s ProMotion displays.
Hardware
There’s finally support for Thunderbolt 4. In terms of ports, Microsoft has dropped the USB-A and has gone with two USB-C ports instead. The Surface Connect Port for charging stays. These ports mean that you can hook up the Pro 8 to multiple 4K displays, use external SSDs without bottlenecks and even connect an external GPU if you’re willing to go that far.
The new Slim Pencil 2 also has been refreshed. It lives in the keyboard base and also gets charged there. It also comes with a built-in haptic motor that can replicate the feedback you get from a traditional pencil or brush when writing or drawing on the screen. To top it all off, the new stylus has a reduced and better precision owing to a better tip.
The new Pro 8 ships with Intel’s 11th Gen quad-core processors and up to 32 GB RAM. The claimed battery life as per Microsoft is around 16 hours.
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