This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of utilise.

541117-surface-laptop

Microsoft's next-generation Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are both expected to be announced tomorrow, but the size of the update may disappoint those who were hoping for more than a small refresh. Having been criticized roundly in 2017 for offering a minor update to the Surface Pro 4 with the Surface Pro (2017), Microsoft is more-or-less doing exactly the same thing once again, at least every bit far as the physical chassis and design are concerned. Happily, internal hardware will be getting a operation nudge.

Externally, the only deviation, according to WinFuture, is the add-on of a new black model to the Surface Laptop two and Surface Pro 6 — which I suppose means nosotros're back to model numbers? The Surface Laptop is receiving two important performance tweaks that should make it more attractive — a Core i5-8250U quad-core SoC will replace the Core m3-7Y30 that formerly dropped into the bottom-end SKU, while RAM will get a bump from 4GB to 8GB. The machine will remain under-provisioned in terms of SSD storage, however, with only 128GB.

This is undeniably an improvement to the baseline model, which was previously a terrible bargain, just the bear upon on price is unknown. Right now at Microsoft, the simply Surface Laptop models you tin can order are the Core i5-equipped machines with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $1,299.

Surface-Laptop

Hopefully, this simply means that Microsoft has pulled the older model but won't update the stack with new pricing until tomorrow. The alternative suggests that either the new Surface Laptops will cost more $999 for the base of operations unit or that MS is going to accuse one heck of a premium to move from 128GB to 256GB of storage. Given the caste to which the company now pumps its own cloud storage offerings, either is possible — Microsoft would much rather sell y'all a reoccurring subscription to its own services than sell you lot an SSD you won't pay for in perpetuity. Hopefully, however, this is all prelude to some toll cuts that bring the Surface Laptop down to a price worth paying for.

The Surface Pro half-dozen reportedly retains the Core M option, simply swaps in 8th generation cores up the stack likewise. This move would give the new Pro a bit more oomph at every level — the new Core m3-8100Y offers a maximum turbo clock of 3.4GHz as opposed to the two.6GHz on the older m3-7Y30, while the eighth Gen Cadre i5 and Core i7 CPUs typically offered higher core counts than the seventh Generation CPUs the Surface Pro 2017 relied on.

Still No USB-C

If the hardware upgrades are skilful news, the ongoing lack of any kind of USB-C support on either system is, well, less-good news. Both systems reportedly retain the aforementioned port configurations: 1x USB-A 3.0 port, microSD carte du jour reader, mini-Display Port, and the proprietary Surface Connect port for the Surface Pro, with just a USB-A port, mini-DisplayPort, and Surface Connect for the Surface Laptop. Both also feature a headset jack.

The lack of ports is something you're either willing to live with or not, but the ongoing lack of USB-C support is merely laziness at this point. There's zippo stopping Microsoft from offer a USB-C port and a USB-A port, thereby giving users to use either standard. It wouldn't fifty-fifty need to accept up more room — non if the visitor ditched the Surface Connect port.

So once more, ditching the Surface Connect port wouldn't let MS sell the giant adapter version of a USB-C to Surface Connect port for $fourscore, which probably explains why the system hasn't changed. Overall, nosotros're glad to see the internal improvements, only some connectivity enhancements wouldn't have gone awry.

Now Read: Microsoft Surface Go Review Roundup: A Mixed Bag, Microsoft Surface Pro LTE (2018) Review Roundup: Flexible, Expensive, and Microsoft Unveils Its 2d-Generation Surface Hub two