From Surface Duo phone to Earbuds: Everything Microsoft announced yesterday
Last night, Microsoft held its annual Surface event and unveiled a bunch of new products to mark its dominance in the hardware category. Some of the devices, as many expected, were refreshed avatars of the products we already know and love, but there were also some mind-boggling surprises we didn't really expect. Let's take a look a everything the company showcased.
First of all, Microsoft announced a refreshed Surface Laptop 3 in two screen sizes: 13.5 and 15 inches. The notebook looks similar to its predecessor but incorporates a 20% bigger trackpad, fast charging, USB-A and USB-C ports, and far-field microphones. Under the hood, the 13.5-inch model runs Intel 10th Generation quad-core Ice Lake processors, while 15-inch one runs a special Ryzen Surface Edition processor.
Microsoft also unveiled an upgraded Surface Pro 7 to treat tablet lovers. The fancy tablet-cum-laptop starts at $749 and incorporates Intel's faster 10th Generation processor, USB-C (instead of the regular Surface connector), USB-A and more effective microphones. However, it's worth noting that the promised backup of the machine - on a single charge - has fallen from 13 hours to 10 hours.
Along with Surface Pro 7, Microsoft also debuted Surface Pro X, a similar, albeit refined, premium tablet. The device runs Windows 10 out-of-the-box, sports a 13-inch display with slimmer bezels, and a re-engineered Type cover to place the Surface Pen. It even runs an ARM-based, Snapdragon-built SQ1 chip, which allows for LTE connectivity, better regular, gaming performance, and a slimmer profile.
Now, coming to the big surprise from Microsoft: a multi-screen tablet called Surface Neo. It sports two 9-inch displays, connected with a 360-degree hinge, and runs a custom Windows 10X designed specifically for dual-screen devices. Under the hood, you get Intel's Lakefield processor. The company is planning to release Neo in 2020, with a touch-bar-integrated keyboard that would rest on top of one display.
Microsoft also showcased a second dual-screen device - a phone called Surface Duo. It runs Android instead of Windows and boasts two Snapdragon 855-powered 5.6-inch displays connected with a 360-degree hinge. Basically, Duo is a smaller version of Neo that will give you the features of a phone with enhanced multitasking capabilities, something like what Galaxy Fold offers.
After Google, Apple, and Amazon, Microsoft has also jumped on the bandwagon of truly wireless buds with new $248 Surface Earbuds. They offer omnisonic sound and a directional dual-array microphone as well as touch-controls for letting you play Spotify or trigger Office-integrated features.
