Microsoft is launching two new Surface devices — the Surface Pro 12 and the Surface Laptop 13. The new Surface Pro tablet comes with lots of design changes over the larger 13-inch Surface Pro 11. It is an Arm-powered device that is a spiritual successor to the even smaller Surface Go. Both devices are powered by the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip and we had a chance to preview the devices recently.
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00:00Hey guys this is Tom with The Verge and I'm at Microsoft headquarters checking out two new
00:06Surface devices that have been shrunk down in size. Now the first one up is the Surface Pro 12-inch
00:12and it's very similar to the Surface Pro 11 that Microsoft introduced last year. It's a co-pilot
00:18plus PC but it's a lot smaller. Now this time around it is a device that is 12-inch on the
00:25actual display and Microsoft has basically rounded off the corners the
00:30bezels are kind of more uniformed around the device now and they've done some
00:34interesting changes to the actual keyboard now. So like with the Surface Pro 11
00:38they had the type cover that kind of snapped onto the display and it was a
00:42little bit angled. This one is a lot flatter so there's no angle to it so it
00:46should be a little bit better on the lap. We'll have to obviously test that.
00:49Yeah I don't know, I don't know which one I prefer. I'm torn.
00:53But in terms of the actual keyboard as well Microsoft has ditched Alcantara on the
00:58area where your palm rests but on the outside of the actual type cover there's
01:02still that Alcantara soft material. Oh. Is it just keyboard now? I've just been
01:10informed it's not a type cover anymore it's a keyboard now. So simplifications
01:14all around. What you will notice here as well is that there's a new color scheme
01:19for these new Surface devices. So this is the violet color. It's gonna ship all
01:23so in the Platinum so the regular silver color and there's an ocean color which
01:27is kind of like a more racing green color I would say. In terms of the actual
01:32kickstand obviously this has been with the Surface for a decade now. Not many
01:37changes here it's pretty much the same but what you will notice is when you peel
01:40the kickstand all the way back there's no removable storage here so you're not
01:43gonna be able to easily be able to swap out an SSD here like you can on the
01:47regular Surface Pro. Other than the fact that it's obviously a smaller Surface Pro, at the
01:52rear of the device Microsoft's actually moved the camera into the corner now so
01:55you can use it in portrait mode if you really want to take photos that way. You
01:59also notice that the Surface Pen has been moved from the type cover to the
02:03rear device and it snaps into place. Now Microsoft's done a bunch of testing just
02:08to make sure that this isn't going to just sort of peel off when you put it in a
02:11bag or anything like that and it does feel pretty rigid and magnetically
02:15attaches and charges at the back here. In terms of ports you will notice that the
02:19two USB-C ports are still here but Microsoft has actually removed the
02:22Surface Connect port that you use for the magnetic charging so that's gone. That
02:26could be a sign that we're going to see that port go from future Surface devices
02:30as well but we'll have to say but it's definitely gone from these ones. In terms
02:34of specs on the Surface Pro 12 inch it's going to have Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus
02:40chip-in so similar to sort of the base model of the Surface Pro 11 from last year.
02:44I'm going to have 16 gig of RAM on the base model and 256 gig of storage. In terms
02:49of battery life it's roughly around about 12 hours. We're still waiting for
02:53some final testing from Microsoft's numbers on that one but that's for like
02:57web browsing. You should probably run pretty well with this sort of battery
03:00life on this device. One big difference between the Surface Pro 11 last year the
03:04larger model should we say and this Surface Pro 12 inch is that this one is
03:09actually fanless so you're not going to get the sort of like venting that you see
03:12around the device. It's like a much cleaner look but it's also going to mean
03:16that the fan is never going to spin up because it's not even there.
03:18The second device that Microsoft is introducing is the Surface Laptop 13 inch so
03:27like the name implies it's got a 13 inch display and again like the Pro it's kind
03:33of shrunken down in size. Think of this is kind of like the spiritual successor to
03:36the Surface Laptop Go in the same way that the Surface Pro 12 inch is the
03:41spiritual successor to the Surface Go. With this one this one actually does still
03:46have a fan inside. Microsoft is using the Qualcomm X Plus chip inside. You've got 16
03:52gig of RAM and 256 gig of storage. In terms of the actual design of the Surface Laptop
03:5713 inch is very similar to the Surface Laptop 7 that we saw last year. The one
04:01thing that Microsoft has changed with this device is that the Windows Hello
04:04camera isn't there anymore so you're gonna have to use the fingerprint reader on
04:07the actual keyboard here which is on the power button. So that's how you basically
04:10log into it. And on the Surface Laptop 13 inch you notice you still got the two
04:15USB-C ports and the USB-A port and the headphone jack but gone again is the
04:21Surface Connect charging ports. You will need to charge this device over USB-C. In
04:25terms of battery life it's looking like it's going to be between sort of 16 and
04:2817 hours running sort of like the web test that Microsoft does. So again you're
04:33going to get some pretty good battery life out of this Copilot Plus PC. And
04:37obviously the main thing about these two new devices is that they join the
04:40Copilot Plus PC initiative that Microsoft kind of kicked off last year with
04:44its Surface devices and it basically lights up a bunch of AI experiences in
04:48Windows. Now one of the main ones is Recall which takes snapshots of what
04:52you're doing on your PC and you can sort of like recall what you're doing for a
04:56week ago or two weeks ago and there's a timeline you can scrub through and you
05:00can search and all that sort of stuff. It also improves Windows search so say
05:04you've got a photo of some text in it you can search for that text and it also
05:08lights up a bunch of other AI powered features inside of paint and all that
05:12sort of stuff. All of that is thanks to Qualcomm's chipset inside these devices
05:15because it has an NPU which lights up all of these AI experiences in Windows.
05:20Okay I'm back home from Microsoft headquarters where at the time pricing and
05:25availability wasn't finalized but we have it now. The Surface Pro 12 inch will be
05:30priced starting at $799 but you'll have to purchase the keyboard on top for $149.
05:36Unfortunately older keyboards won't work with this smaller Surface Pro. The
05:40Surface laptop 13 inch will be priced starting at $899 and both of these new
05:45models will be available on May 20th for consumers with businesses able to
05:49purchase them in July. Both of these new devices represent a new era for
05:54Surface at Microsoft, after the departure of former Surface Chief Panos Panay in 2023.
06:00Outside of this push towards Windows on ARM or AI features through Copilot Plus PCs,
06:06I'm still not sure exactly when Microsoft will start experimenting with wacky new
06:10Surface hardware again. Microsoft has done some truly innovative hardware design over the past decade,
06:16including the Surface Book that surprised everyone with a detachable display or the Surface Studio with a unique floating hinge.
06:24But these smaller Surface devices, well they're more of a safe bet on shrinking down the size of these popular models,
06:30rather than anything radically new. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I'm still eager to see
06:36if Microsoft is still willing to make a big bet on what's next for PC hardware.
06:40Okay, thanks for watching right until the very end. I also write a newsletter called Notepad,
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