A welcomed new splash of color
While most power users and long-time Surface fans might think the Pro 9’s already rumored jump to 12th Gen Intel “Alder Lake” processors would prove the biggest change over last year’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake-based Pro 8, today’s reveal makes us more excited for a… color expansion.
This is the black-coated Surface Pro 8 with a matching Type Cover.
While the familiar aforementioned black and platinum shades are reportedly not going anywhere, Microsoft might also be working on a “Forest” flavor vaguely described as a “kind of green” and a very interesting “Sapphire” model likely to be a “more or less strong blue.”
It remains to be seen, of course, if the availability of these two additional color options will be limited in some way to certain regions or configurations and if Microsoft can release all four versions at the same time shortly after a product announcement event expected to take place on or around October 11.
A relatively small upgrade in power, a big price, and lots of questions
Just like its 2021 predecessor, the Pro 9 may not come in a budget-friendly Intel Core i3 variant (at least for general consumer use), instead possibly starting at a rather extravagant €1,300 in Europe with Core i5 processing power and a speedy 256GB solid-state drive paired with 8 gigs of RAM.
That Intel Core i5 chip, by the way, should provide roughly 20 percent more raw power than a comparable processor found under the Surface Pro 8’s hood. If you want all the details, the Surface Pro 9 is expected to pack Core i5-1235U and Core i7-1185G7 processors composed of two high-performance and eight energy-efficient cores each. Unfortunately, the new 12th Gen i7 beast may only upgrade its forerunner’s muscle by “up to 12 percent”, which doesn’t exactly sound like a game-changing improvement.
Meanwhile, the 13.5-inch “PixelSense” display is unlikely to get any sort of upgrade, retaining last year’s resolution of 2880 x 1920 pixels and admittedly nice 120Hz refresh rate support. There are no words on battery life or camera enhancements yet, which doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t happen, while the memory count could curiously cap off at 16GB, down from the 32 gig ceiling of the Pro 8.
