Microsoft conducted its Annual Hardware Event 2019 on Wednesday, 2nd Octoberin New York. The officials at the event introduced new & refreshed versions of its Surface products. It has set a new benchmark for fellow leaders in the technology industry by redefining Surface Laptops, Tablets, & one surprise phone.
Microsoft Surface is a series of touchscreen-based personal computers and interactive whiteboards. The product series has been underestimated over the years since its first product launched in 2012. However, the recent moves and improvements made by Microsoft in its product line will turn the techno-freak inside you into a Microsoft Freak.
The event started with the CEO Satya Nadella addressing the audience followed by Panos Panay taking the stage. Panos Panay is the chief product officer at Microsoft and introduced most of the products along with Robin Seiler, Corporate Vice President (Program Management, Devices at Microsoft).
Here is a short review of Microsoft’s new launches.
# Microsoft Surface Laptop 3
Panos introduced the first product of the event, Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, the 3rd member of the surface laptop family. It is powered with AMD Ryzen 7 processor & AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics. The developers have increased the trackpad’s size by 20% & added a USB-C port to the device. With the key travel of only 1.33mm, it offers a silent typing experience.
They are using a quad-core 10th generation Intel processor from the 10 nanometer Ice lake family. As explained by the product chief himself, the product is 3 times more powerful than Macbook Air.
While introducing the 15-inch edition of Surface Laptop 3, Panos said that the laptop is powered with AMD Ryzen 7 Microsoft Surface Edition Processor. Microsoft & AMD joined hands to develop the fastest graphics performance of any laptop in 15-inch ultrabook class.
Apart from being equipped with a battery that can last a whole day, the company has added the fast charging feature which can give 80% charge in less than an hour.
Its weight starts at around 2.76 lbs and has a battery life of up to 11.5 hours. The laptop is available for pre-order starting at $ 749 & will hit the markets by 22nd October.
The laptop is available in two sizes viz 15-inch & 13.3 inch. The 13-inch model is available for pre-order and will be delivered to customers from 22nd October onwards. The 13-inch version is available for $ 999 whereas the 15-inch costs $1,199.
You can get an overview of the product & pre-order/Order it from Microsoft’s Official Website by clicking the below link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-laptop-3/8vfggh1r94tm
The video below will give you a look at the product.
# Microsoft Surface Pro 7
Introduced by Robin Seiler, Surface Pro 7 laptop cum tablet is the refreshed version of its predecessor Pro 6. As said by Robin, the company’s design & engineering focus has been on improving power, performance & better experiences.
The device can be used to do inline editing in MS word using Surface Pen. Users can add & delete texts using a surface pen. Not only office but the pen works amazingly with excel as well. The surface laptops are equipped with the Surface Studio Mics.
It weighs around 1.70 lbs and has a battery life of up to 10.5 hours. The laptop is available for pre-order starting at $ 749 & will hit the markets by 22nd October. (Keyboard sold separately).
You can get an overview of the product & pre-order/Order it from Microsoft’s Official Website by clicking the below link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-pro-7/8N17J0M5ZZQS/D4M3?activetab=overview
The video below will give you a look at the product.
# Microsoft Surface Earbuds
Robin further introduces the first-ever wireless Earbuds by Microsoft & the 2nd member of Microsoft’s audio product lineups. The ear-buds can be connected to your phone over the Bluetooth network. Each earbud is equipped with 2 mics, which helps in filtering the noise reduction and picking up the clear voice of the user than the noise around.
It provides better sound aid using noise reduction technology. The earbuds come with 24-hour long battery life and can be recharged by putting in the charging case which comes with a USB-C port.
The earbuds come with touch sensors which enable the user to navigate through music & calls with the help of gestures only. You can play, pause and change music as well as change volume levels, just by gesturing with your fingers on the earbuds. They are compatible with all devices. While using it with android devices, you can even start streaming through Spotify without any screen.
Designed with supreme precision, the earbuds provide ease of access by fitting between the two muscle points in the ear, to help you use them without any discomfort.
Microsoft and Azure Cognitive Services collaborated to create real-time captions with the Earbuds. Developers have developed a technology, where the users can use Microsoft Office PowerPoint Presentation interface to use real-time captions on screen, while they speak in front of an audience or address a lecture in colleges. This feature supports over 60 languages, thus if you are not speaking the language of your audience, then earbuds can translate captions for the user as they speak and generate caption in the requisite language.
Earbuds come with an Office 365 integration and will be available from this holiday season for $ 249.
You can get an overview of the product & pre-order/Order it from Microsoft’s Official Website by clicking the below link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-earbuds/920bnghqjshs?activetab=overview
# Microsoft Surface Pro X
Introduced by Panos, Pro X has the 5.3mm thin body and comes with two USB-C ports. The 13.3 inch display laptop cum tablet supports 1,400:1 contrast, 2,880 x 1,920 resolution, 267 PPI with edge-to-edge pixel sense. Below the screen, there is an inherent Surface Pen storage, which supports wireless charging for the pen. So your pen is always charging when u r not using it. The laptop weighs merely 1.68 pounds and has a 12-inch chassis which is the thinnest bezels on any 2-in-1 device.
Pro X has Microsoft’s SQ1 processor (Snapdragon) developed on ARM platform. Microsoft & Qualcomm has worked together to develop a processor which is more powerful than chips in smartphones. It has a removable storage disk.
It is available for pre-order now and will be available from November 5th at $999. (Keyboard sold separately)
You can get an overview of the product & pre-order/Order it from Microsoft’s Official Website by clicking the below link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-pro-x/8vdnrp2m6hhc?activetab=overview
The video below will give you a look at the product.
# Microsoft Surface Neo
Panos, while introducing the dual-display product, explained that the device is merely 5.6 mm thick from each side and is designed for the users to carry it in any posture they want. It has the thinnest LCD ever created, surrounded by Gorilla glass from the backside and weighs only 655 grams.
The two ‘9-inch’ screen device has a 360-degree hinge and can be folded to all angles possible. It is installed with dual-screen support, Windows 10, specially designed for Dual Screen devices. The device runs on a combination of micro gears, adding a torque system which helps in smooth & perfect opening & closing of the two hinges. The two screens are connected with 60 micros coax cables passing between the hinges.
The Surface pen stays magnetically connected on the back of the device and continuously gets charged wirelessly, lest you are using it. Not only the pen, but the keyboard also stays connected to the back of the device, and can be turned over, smoothly, when you want to use it.
The device’s OS has been designed to recognize the hinge of keyboard turning on top of the screen, and hence it can switch the bottom screen into a typing interface, which can be used as a magic trackpad, or a wonder bar.
The Windows 10X operating system, specially designed & optimized for dual-screen devices, like Surface Neo. It allows you to run different applications on the two-screen, as well as you can expand the contents of one screen on the bigger dual-screen interface.
The product is enabled with a brand new Lakefield processor, developed by Intel, a hybrid CPU with 11th Generation graphics processor & uses half the size of a regular PCB. Although there have been no price specifications whatsoever, the officials claimed that it will be released by coming holidays in 2020.
The video below will give you a look at the product.
# Microsoft Surface Duo
The showstopper and the main attraction of the event, Microsoft Surface Duo is more like a Tablet cum Dual Screen phone. Microsoft’s effort to re-enter the mobile phones market with Surface Duo seems strong as the device may look like a smaller version of Surface Neo but is powered by Google’s Android. The company has partnered with Google and managed to develop a dual-screen phone cum tablet, based on Android OS.
As said by Panoy, Microsoft is aimed at creating amazing APIs with the help of associated developers for a Dual screen phone like ‘Duo’ itself.
The device has two 5.6-inch displays. There have been no price specifications for Duo either but it is claimed to be released by coming holidays in 2020 along with Neo.
The video below will give you a look at the product.
Here is a short review of the whole event by The Verge:
