In anticipation of the upcoming Windows 11 launch, Microsoft is introducing an almost complete top to bottom refresh of their Surface device lineup. Some devices are getting some minor tweaks, while other devices are completely new. As tends to be the case, all of them feature quirks which are distinctively Surface.

Surface Refresh 2021
Component Surface Laptop Studio Surface Pro 8 Surface Pro X
CPU Core i5-11300H
Core i7-11370H
Consumer:
Core i5-1135G7
Core i7-1185G7
Commercial
Core i3-1154G4
Core i5-1145G7
Core i7-1185G7
Microsoft SQ 1
Microsoft SQ 2
GPU Core i5 - Intel Iris Xe
Core i7 - NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti
Commerical: RTX A2000 Option
Core i5/i7: Intel Iris Xe
Core i3: Intel UHD
SQ1: Adreno 685
SQ2: Adreno 690
Display 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow display
2400 x 1600
201 PPI
Up to 120 Hz Refresh
Dolby Vision
13-inch PixelSense Flow display
2880 x 1920
267 PPI
Up to 120 Hz Refresh
13-inch PixelSense Flow display
2880 x 1920
267 PPI
RAM 16 / 32 GB LPDDR4x 8 / 16 / 32 GB LPDDR4x 8 / 16 GB LPDDR4x
Storage 256 GB to 2 TB SSD Wi-Fi: 256 / 512 GB / 1TB
LTE: 128 / 256 GB
128 / 256 / 512 GB SSD
Networking Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.1
Wi-fi 6
Bluetooth 5.1>br />Optional LTE
Wi-Fi 5
Bluetooth 5
LTE Option
I/O 2 x Thunderbolt 4
1 x Surface Connect
Headset jack
2 x Thunderbolt 4
1 x Surface Connect
Headset jack
2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
1 x Surface Connect
1 x nano SIM
Battery Up to 19 hours
65 W Adapter (i5)
102 W Adapter (i7)
Up to 16 hours
60 W Adapter
Up to 15 hours
Camera 1080p front camera
Windows Hellow IR
5.0 MP 1080p Front
Windows Hello IR
10.0 MP 4K Rear
5.0 MP 1080p Front
Windows Hello IR
10.0 MP 4K Rear
Dimensions (inches) 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.25
Weight i5: 3.83 lbs / 1.74 kg
i7: 4.00 lbs / 1.81 kg
1.96 lbs / 891 grams 1.7 lbs / 774 grams
Starting Price (USD) $1,599.99 $1,099.99 $899.99

 

Surface Laptop Studio

The one new design in the lineup is the Surface Laptop Studio which brings some exciting changes to Surface. The most obvious design element is the new Dynamic Woven Hinge, which lets the display ease forward. This is not a new concept but does add some versatility to the design which is one of the elements Surface is most known for. Compared to the Surface Book design, which featured a detachable display, the new Surface Laptop Studio will be much easier to transition from one mode to another.

The new 14.4-inch PixelSense display also gets some new branding thanks to the inclusion of a 120 Hz refresh rate, which Microsoft is branding as Flow touch. The increased refresh rate is a welcome addition to the lineup, and is also included on some of the other Surface devices being announced today. The increased smoothness is always welcome for GUI tasks, but will also be a nice addition when using the inking experience with the new Surface Slim Pen 2, which can be stored under the keyboard on the Surface Studio Laptop. Interestingly, and perhaps to keep costs down, the 14.4-inch display offers a resolution of 2400x1600, in the now standard Surface 3:2 aspect ratio. This translates to just 201 pixels-per-inch, well short of the 267 PPI found on the Surface Pro and 260 PPI on the Surface Book. It is very much in-line with the Surface Laptop.

Microsoft has been offering one of the best trackpad experiences on the PC for several years now, and the Surface Laptop Studio adds a new Precision Haptic touchpad to the mix. There is little doubt what lineup they are trying to compete against, and hopefully the experience works as well as the Mac’s haptic design.

The new Surface Laptop Studio packs in a lot of performance too. Microsoft has opted for the new Tiger Lake H35 series processors, with Core i5-11300H and Core i7-11370H offerings. The Core i5 model utilizes the Intel Xe GPU, while the Core i7 models will feature NVIDIA Ampere GPUs. Consumer models will be outfitted with the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, while commercial customers can choose the RTX A2000.

Memory options are 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4x, and for storage, Microsoft is offering 256 GB to 2 TB SSD options, and like most of the Surface devices now, the SSD is user replaceable and no longer the soldered in BGA drive.

Although somewhat late to the party, the Surface Laptop Studio also features two Thunderbolt 4 ports, as well as the traditional magnetic Surface Connect expansion/charging port. Microsoft has been very slow to adopt changing expansion port choices, so it is nice to see the new model offering the latest right out of the gate.

The Surface Laptop Studio looks like a great addition to the Surface lineup. Prices start at $1600 and go up from there, with it being available for pre-order today. What this probably means is that the Surface Book will be removed from the lineup as this new design offers a very similar alternative, but without the somewhat complicated and error-prone detachable display.

Surface Pro 8

The most iconic design from Microsoft is certainly the Surface Pro, and that design really came into its own with the launch of the Surface Pro 3. For 2021, Microsoft is calling the Surface Pro 8 “the most significant leap forward since Pro 3” and has improved the design to bring it into a more modern era, without removing the aspects that make it such an iconic look.

The first big change is the display, which now comes in at an even 13-inches across, compared to 12.3-inches on the previous models, and mimicking the Surface Pro X. The Surface team did most of that by shrinking the display bezels further, as overall dimensions are very similar to the outgoing model. The new display features a 267 PPI 2880x1920 resolution, and offers up to 120 Hz refresh, much like the Surface Laptop Studio. The 11% larger display is also 12.5% brighter than the Surface Pro 7, and still features the individually calibrated display that all Surface devices offer. Microsoft is still shying away from wider-than sRGB color gamuts which is still likely the right decision until the software side comes around if it ever does.

Based on the Intel Evo platform, Surface Pro 8 ships with Intel’s 11th gen processors with the Core i5-1135G7 and Core i7-1185G7 in the consumer models. Commercial customers can choose a Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1145G7, or Core i7-1185G7, and the latter two optionally have LTE as well. The Surface Pro 8 starts with 8 GB of LPDDR4x, which is really the bare minimum with Microsoft Teams, and 16 and 32 GB options. Storage options are 128 GB to 1 TB, depending on the configuration.

Like the Surface Laptop Studio, the Surface Pro 8 also finally adds Thunderbolt 4 ports, with not one but two of the Type-C connectors, in addition to the traditional magnetic Surface Connect offering.

Love it or hate it, video conferencing is a big part of the modern workforce, and the Surface Pro 8 features a 5.0 MP front camera for full HD video, as well as offering Windows Hello biometric sign-in. On the back is a 10.0 MP camera which supports up to 4K video. There are dual far-field microphones, as well as 2-Watt stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support.

Finally, Microsoft has updated the detachable keyboard to include storage for the Surface Slim Pen. There are, of course, new type-covers for this model since the exterior dimensions have changed slightly.

Surface Pro has always been a great device from Microsoft, although the company has erred on the side of caution when updating it. The Surface Pro 8 looks to be a very nice re-think of the classic design, improving it in all the area where it needed some tweaks, without losing the essence of Surface Pro.

Surface Pro X

The Arm powered Surface Pro X does not get much of a refresh this year, although there will now be a new Wi-Fi only version starting at $900. It is still powered by the same Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2 processors. Surface Pro X will begin shipping with Windows 11 which offers both x86 and x64 application emulation.

Surface Go, Surface Duo 2, Accessories, and Summary
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  • lmcd - Friday, September 24, 2021 - link

    You're kidding yourself if you really think consumers aren't interested in docks at home in today's WFH environment
  • m1013828 - Thursday, September 23, 2021 - link

    Id love to see a Ryzen surface pro.

    Hell, Call it the Surface pro Type R! make it a little fatter with more heatsink to allow 25w power budget as a point of difference to allow the ryzen and its GPU to fly.
  • brantron - Thursday, September 23, 2021 - link

    The current Surface Pro 7+ already runs in 28 watt mode, yet the fanless i5 doesn't even warm up. I have mine set to idle at the 2.4 GHz base clock because it's overzealous about trying to shave off a fraction of 1 watt while it's barely above room temperature.

    ...which raises further questions about the obese Laptop Studio stuck with the same CPU.
  • DigitalFreak - Thursday, September 23, 2021 - link

    Microsoft is always a hardware cycle behind everyone else.
  • ChrisGX - Friday, September 24, 2021 - link

    High end Tiger Lake parts are fast and relatively energy efficient. Alder Lake is another Intel part not a revelation. At 35W TDP or below Tiger Lake is a sensibly specced CPU for the Surface Laptop Studio. The upgrade over what other run-of-the-mill Surface devices offer is the GPU and making allowance for a powerful GPU makes very good sense on this new product (just as it did on the Surface Book and the Surface Studio).

    The Surface Book is a great product with many of the virtues of the Surface Laptop Studio in a detachable configuration that arguably would satisfy the needs of many users better than this new tablety laptop. I don't know the answer to your question but it would be a miserable thing to cut short the life of the Surface Book for the sake of the Surface Laptop Studio.
  • MrCommunistGen - Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - link

    Microsoft probably can't make Qualcomm to build a better SoC (or at least doesn't want to spend the money to force the issue), but the SQ1/SQ2 are getting a bit long in the tooth.

    I'd really love to see what the latest and greatest generation ARM cores bring to the table for Windows on ARM performance.

    Maybe Microsoft can go the Google route and build their own ARM SoC or commission someone other than Qualcomm to build something that's actually modern at time of release.
  • DigitalFreak - Thursday, September 23, 2021 - link

    An extremely low number of people want a Windows device that has to run Windows apps through emulation. They've tried to push them over and over again.
  • ChrisGX - Friday, September 24, 2021 - link

    All critical applications will be built for ARM in time and higher performance ARM chips are coming - the NUVIA/Qualcomm SoC should be pretty good. No one is being forced to run Windows apps in emulation. Early Windows on ARM adopters (and everything is still at an early stage) will primarily be interested in the low power draw and energy efficiency of ARM parts which will be great for tablets and fanless laptops. If anyone needs to run x86 application binaries on ARM and they don't like the performance they won't be buying ARM but that won't stop the progress of WoA. None of this will be happening overnight. (For the record, x86 applications already run well on ARM, namely x86 Mac applications on the Apple M1 SoC, but that is no help to Windows users, unfortunately.)
  • MakaanPL - Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - link

    According to Microsoft website, Surface Pro 8 supports Dolby Vision as well, it's not only for Laptop Studio. This probably means the display will eventually go beyond sRGB.
  • lemurbutton - Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - link

    None of these are competitive with the M1 Macbooks and the upcoming M2X (A15 based) Macbook Pros slated for release later this year.

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