Because the Surface Pro 7 is more than a year old, everyone was naturally expecting for the Surface Pro 8 to come out next. Rumored just last week for a potential February announcement and fully detailed from a US pricing standpoint over the weekend, Microsoft’s upgraded 2-in-1 detachable tablet is already official… under a surprising name.
More power, more juice, same old design
First and foremost, the outdated 10th Gen Intel processors inside the 2019-released Windows 10 tablet are replaced with 11th Gen Core i3, i5, and i7 options guaranteeing a solid jump in raw power and graphics performance, as well as enhanced energy efficiency. The latter upgrade enables a massive battery life boost from up to 10.5 hours to a maximum of 15 hours between charges for a device that incredibly looks identical to its predecessor.
For better or worse, the 12.3-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels and a 3:2 aspect ratio is also unchanged, and the same goes for the decent but short of impressive selection of ports including one USB-C, one full-size USB-A, a 3.5mm headphone jack (huzzah!), and a microSD card reader on Wi-Fi-only models that buyers of LTE-enabled variants will have to do without.
Options, options, and more options
Expect the LTE Advanced technology to reduce the battery endurance score by around an hour and a half, and expect Microsoft’s first 5G-capable device to arrive… at some point down the line.
The aforementioned $899 entry-level configuration, by the way, packs 8 gigs of memory, compared to the modest 4GB RAM count of the cheapest Surface Pro 7 version, with 16 and 32 gig options also set to go on sale later this week (through the appropriate channels).
Last but certainly not least, the Surface Pro 7+ stands out from its cousin and predecessor with removable solid-state drive (SSD) options ranging from 128GB all the way up to 1TB for security and control over your data. All upgrades considered, it’s really hard to understand why Microsoft doesn’t want to sell more of these bad boys, at least for the time being.
