Today’s Microsoft event ended recently and it brought us some new and interesting products, like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and also a bit of a surprise, the Surface Book laptop. Windows Hello, Cortana and all the goodies are included here.
Starting at $899, the Surface Pro 4 tablet gets the latest Intel Skylake processors and Windows 10 on board. This time we also get a fingerprint sensor on the keyboard and Cortana integration, including on the Surface Pen, that activates Cortana if you keep its button pressed. The new slate brings a 12.3 inch screen fit in the same frame as the 12 inch predecessor.
The new Surface Pen has 1024 pressure levels and can be magnetically attached to the Surface Pro 4 when not in use. This is supposed to be the “thinnest and most powerful” Intel Core PC ever shipped and to achieve said small waistline, Microsoft also used an ultraslim 0.4 mm thick Gorilla Glass 4 layer upfront. A special G5 chipset was also developed to run the optical stack.
Up to 1 TB of space and up to 16 GB of RAM are available here, plus that Intel 6th gen CPU. The product becomes available on October 26th.
Then there’s the surprise: Surface Book, a 13.5 inch display laptop with a starting price of $1499. This model is basically a Surface turned full fledged laptop, with a fully removable screen, so you can use it as a tablet. You can also flip the screen all the way around and turn this into a convertible. The device has a body made of machined magnesium and uses an unique hinge called “dynamic fulcrum”.
It feels a bit like an office lamp, as it bends and flexes almost. Surface Book includes a backlit keyboard and offers deeper keys, with 1.6 mm of travel. The product is compatible with the latest Surface Pen as well and offers the user the choice of the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, plus an Nvidia GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory, but that one’s located in the dock, so it’s a must have.
The dock also brings two USB 3.0 ports and an SD card slot. Another interesting aspect here is the promise of 12 hours of usage on a single charge. Sounds better than the MacBook Pro? Well, on paper it does… Preorders start tomorrow!
