The Gen XY Lifestyle
Scratching the Surface of All-in-One Laptops
With every iteration of the Surface, Microsoft inches closer to its vision of the perfect all-in-one tablet and notebook combination (Totebook, anyone?).
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery, but in this day and age, it’s inevitable that most modern gadgets share some common attributes. The recently released Apple iPad Pro for example, has more than a passing resemblance to Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
Indeed, the Surface Pro is conceptually the prototypical ‘professional tablet’, even if it hasn’t exactly set the world on fire when it was first released. Microsoft’s grandiose vision proved to be way ahead of its time, and it’s only with the release of the previous generation Surface Pro 3 that we start to scratch the surface of mobile computing’s future.
As such, for those looking for the ultimate portable, Microsoft’s announcement of a new Surface Pro is always something to look forward to. Will they get it right this time?
Surface Pro 4
Like most releases these days, the Surface Pro 4 is an iterative update, promising a marked improvement and experience. The latest edition of the Surface Pro sports the latest batch of power-efficient Intel processors, which go some way to improving portability (every little bit counts). Microsoft touts a battery life of nine hours (continuously running video) for a mid-range i5 model, which certainly qualifies it as an all-day ultra-portable workhorse.
The portability of the Surface of course, is its key selling point. The 29 by 20 centimeter (approximate) tablet weighs less than 800 grams sans the optional Type Cover keyboard. You get a work-friendly, 12.3-inch, high resolution display in a comfortable 3:2 aspect ratio. Microsoft says this is the best display they’ve ever made for the Surface; the pixel-rich (267 ppi) screen has a rich palette of colour and detail thanks to its 1,300:1 contrast ratio and 100% standard RGB colour capabilities.
The Surface Pen gets the most noticeable update, and it now has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity as opposed to 256 levels, which will up its appeal amongst artists or those who demand a more natural pen experience. Also, the optional keyboard now uses a glass trackpad for an improved trackpad experience.
The new Surface Pro 4 will be available for pre-order from 7-18 October at a special pre-order price, starting from as low as S$1,338 for an Intel Core M3 variant 128GB storage and 4GB of RAM, up to S$3,278 for an Intel Core i7 variant with 512GB storage and 16GB of RAM (See below).
Surface Book
And over the horizon, Microsoft also announced perhaps its most exciting Surface in recent years: the Surface Book. We don’t know how they thought up the name, but it certainly brings to mind the Apple Macbook Pro.
But unlike the Surface Pro (and the Macbook Pro for that matter), think of the Surface Book as a laptop that can double up as a tablet when you need it to; it’s good that Microsoft are ‘defining’ how their products are to be used more clearly. The Surface Book also has a larger 13.5-inch display.
From what has been revealed so far, the Surface Book has an option for an external graphics card – it’s built into the keyboard – for more intensive tasks like video editing, which makes perfect sense as a laptop. The laptop’s ‘Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge’ is rather interesting and fancy, and it also holds a One-button Muscle Wire detach mechanism that holds the tablet in place, and lets you detach it with a press of a button.
There are minor differences between the Surface Book and the Surface Pro that reflect their intended use, such as the Surface Book having a five point multi-touch instead of 10 on the Surface Pro 4, and having two USB 3.0 ports (instead of one) and a SD card reader.
Alas, if you’re wondering when this will be released, then you may be disappointed; no news as of yet, so there’s only the Surface Pro 4 to mull over.
Surface Pro Prices
Please note that the prices denoted below valid for the pre-order period only. The Surface Pro 4 does not come shipped with the Type Cover keyboard, but comes with the new Surface Pen.
Tablet configurations
- 128 GB 6th Generation Intel Core M3 with 4 GB of RAM – S$1,338
- 128 GB 6th Generation Intel Core i5 with 4 GB of RAM – S$1,488
- 256 GB 6th Generation Intel Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM – S$1,938
- 256 GB 6th Generation Intel Core i7 with 8 GB of RAM – S$2,378
- 256 GB 6th Generation Intel Core i7 with 16 GB of RAM – S$2,678
- 512 GB 6th Generation Intel Core i7 with 16 GB of RAM – S$3,278
Accessories
- Type Cover (Black, Blue and Light Blue) – S$199
- Docking Station – S$314
- Power Supply – S$124
- Surface Pen – S$94
- Surface Pen Tip Kit Pack – S$79
- VGA Adaptor – S$64
- HDMI Adaptor – S$64
- Ethernet Adapter 3.0 – S$64
- Surface Pen Tip Kit – S$14
