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| Microsoft introduces the Surface Pro 8 |
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 8 at its hardware event, the biggest upgrade to Intel-powered Surface Pro series products since the Surface Pro 3 in 2014.
While we've seen design tweaks to the Surface Pro over the past seven years, the Surface Pro 8 has moved to a 120Hz display, with thinner bezels, Thunderbolt 4 support, and a new keyboard that includes the improved Surface Slim Pen.
The Surface Pro 8 took most of the best parts from the Surface Pro X and combined it with Intel chips.
The 13-inch PixelSense Flow display is larger and has a higher resolution than the 12.3-inch display found on most other Surface Pro devices.
The screen also supports Dolby Vision and adaptive color technology. It is 11% larger than before, brightness has increased by 12.5%, and resolution has increased by 11%.
The larger screen helps reduce the bezels on the sides of the Surface Pro 8, making it look more like the Surface Pro X. However, the most important part of the screen is the 120Hz refresh rate.
Although it runs at 60Hz by default, the screen changes dynamically to 120Hz for touch or pen tasks.
Surface Pro 8 takes full advantage of Windows 11's new Dynamic Refresh Rate feature.
Dynamic refresh rate works similarly to Apple's ProMotion monitors with a high refresh rate, so the monitor can fluctuate between different refresh rates depending on the task.
Microsoft mainly uses the new Surface Pro 8 display to improve the ink performance of the entire device and to make touch scrolling more smooth.
Microsoft introduces a larger 13-inch screen
The Surface Pro's premium discrete keyboard also includes the new Surface Slim Pen 2, which is similar to the Surface Pro X keyboard and pen set.
The stylus mounts at the bottom of the keyboard and has an integrated touch motor to recreate the experience of writing on paper. Thanks to the redesigned tip, this new stylus can also reduce latency more precisely.
The company supports Thunderbolt 4 and works without the old USB-A port. The device has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and the usual Surface Connect port for charging.
This means you can connect your Surface Pro 8 to multiple 4K displays or use high-speed external storage. Or you can even connect it to an external graphics processing unit to turn this tablet into a gaming PC.
Surface Pro 8 also offers the choice between 11th generation quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 processors.
In terms of business, there are also Core i3 and LTE models to choose from. The base model includes 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage space. And up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage space.
Microsoft said the Surface Pro 8 is 40% better than the Surface Pro 7, with sustained processor performance and 74% graphics processing speed.
The company said the battery can last up to 16 hours. Microsoft has already started taking pre-orders for the Surface Pro 8 and will ship it for $1,100 on October 5th.