Microsoft Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 announced with Snapdragon X Elite — everything you need to know
In a rather secretive media-only event the day before Build 2024, Microsoft has just announced the laptops we were waiting for — Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 with Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chipsets.
It would be fair to say we were left a little disappointed in March to see these debut with Intel Core Ultra for business customers only. But as it turns out, Redmond has been sitting on something special with what the company is calling a range of "Copilot+ PCs."
Microsoft says that this new generation of Copilot + PCs is up to 58% faster than the MacBook Air M3, and that GPT-4o capability is coming to Copilot within Windows 11. As you would expect, this new AI-focused initiative is being spearheaded by the new Surfaces — both starting at $999 and launching on June 18. Let's take a look at what these offer.
Specs
On the lap
This is Microsoft's next big jump into making Arm-powered laptops a thing in the Windows space, and the performance speaks for itself. Microsoft claims it is "80% faster than our previous generation," and in terms of battery life, it can pack up to "22 hours of local video playback." That is mightily impressive when you put it next to the M3 MacBook Air's claim of "up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback."
On top of that, Microsoft has confirmed that the Surface Laptop will support three 4K monitors, as well as its own display — clearly a glancing blow at Apple's restrictive monitor support.
As for options, you've got a choice of four colors, and either a 13.8- or 15-inch screen in the Surface Laptop. Pricing starts at $999 and you can pre-order right now for its June 18 release.
Going pro
Meanwhile, turning our attention to the Surface Pro, you've got one size in that 13-inch display, but this is the first Surface ever to feature a gorgeous new OLED display with HDR.
On top of that, the Flex Keyboard has received some big updates too — including a 14% larger touchpad with haptic feedback, and more carbon fiber to reduce flex and improve the keyboard's performance/durability. Plus, the slim pen is implemented into the keyboard cover itself, and you can use it while disconnected from the Surface Pro itself.
Up top, you've got a new QHD ultrawide webcam built into the bezel, which I'm definitely keen to try out and see whether the resolution lives up to the hype in that small sensor.
For the Pro, you've got a choice of four colors: Sapphire, Dune, Platinum or Black, and you can pre-order one now for $999 — ready to launch on June 18
What these unlock
Of course, Qualcomm's NPU inside these devices (capable of up to 45 trillion operations per second) is used to unlock some key functionality in the form of a vastly improved AI-centric experience in Copilot. Features like Recall give you an impressive device-wide and network-connected contextual search that you can give simple prompts too to gather information.
For example, if you lose a powerpoint presentation in your sea of files, you can ask for "the powerpoint with a purple chart" and it'll know which one you mean.
Elsewhere, Cocreator is the AI image generation portion of this, where you can sketch and Microsoft will generate what you're trying to create with whatever level of detail you're looking for.
And there is even integration with Xbox too, so if you get to a point of a game where you're stuck, you can query Copilot to help walk you through a particularly difficult section!
