Key Takeaways
- New Surface Pro 10 features OLED display for better viewing experience, vibrant colors, and power savings. A media upgrade we need.
- Surface Laptop 6 consumer version brings small bezels, rounded corners, and haptic touchpad for modern design. New port layout with Thunderbolt 4.
- With Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 will offer top performance and battery life, outshining Intel. LGlyphicon.
Microsoft recently launched the Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business, which are set to become fully available in early April. But if you follow us, you already know we’re not that interested in these devices, because what’s coming in May is far more exciting.
On May 20, Microsoft will be holding another Surface event where we’re expecting to see the real Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 — the models for consumers, that is. These are going to be truly exciting devices and, unlike previous generations, they’re going to differ a lot from the business versions. Here are a few ways that will make these devices different.
3 The Surface Pro 10 will have an OLED display
A truly great media experience is on the way
The Surface Pro 10 for Business brought some much needed improvements to the display on Microsoft’s tablets, especially thanks to the new anti-reflective coating, but also the brighter display backlight that allowed for proper HDR support. But the consumer version of the Surface Pro 10 will take things a step further with the introduction of an OLED display. OLED panels have become increasingly common in premium laptops and even some mid-range models, but Microsoft has stuck to its IPS panels until now. Thankfully, that’s changing.
OLED displays offer a much better viewing experience because every pixel is self-illuminated. What this means is that each pixel can individual control its own brightness, and use it to produce more vibrant colors and brighter whites when it makes sense. But most notably, it can also produce pitch black by simply turning off the backlight when that specific pixel is black, which can result in power savings and a more comfortable experience at night. Overall, though, this all contributed a far better viewing experience, so movies will look better than ever in HDR.
Surface Pro 10 for Business: Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s flagship tablet
Microsoft’s latest tablet is a business-oriented product, featuring Intel Core Ultra processors and a new HDR display.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Surface Laptop 6 will get the same treatment.
2 A new look for the Surface Laptop 6
The first major change the Surface Laptop 6
Over on the Surface Laptop side, there’s a different kind of upgrade on the way, but a major one all the same. While the business model announced in mid-March looks about the same as its predecessors, the consumer version will shake things up for the first time ever.
This new design is going to bring smaller bezels around the display, which have been sorely needed on the Surface Laptop series. In the modern landscape, these laptops look fairly outdated. With smaller bezels, the 13-inch Surface Laptop 6 may actually have a slightly larger display, going grom 13.5 to 13.8 inches. For the 15-inch model, the screen size will be the same, but the overall footprint of the device will be smaller, making it easier to carry around. What’s more, the display will have rounded corners, similar to the Surface Laptop Studio series and a few other modern laptops.
This design is also said to include a new port layout, with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and USB Type-A on the left side, with the Surface Connect port staying on the right. Curiously, Microsoft already added a second Thunderbolt 4 port to the Surface Laptop 6 for Business, but only the 15-inch model, so we’ll have to see if the same applies to the consumer models.
Surface Laptop 6 for Business: Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s professional laptop
The Surface Laptop 6 may look similar to the old model, but it promises double the performance, plus other upgrades.
The Surface Laptop 6 will also come with a haptic touchpad, meaning it won;t physically move when you press it. Instead, it uses vibrations to simulate clicks, similar to the Surface Laptop Studio 2.
1 Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
The real game changer
Even with all the other changes, the real star of the show is going to be the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. Both the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 are going to be packing Arm-based processors, and if reports are to be believed, there won’t even be Intel versions at all. Just that factoid is kind of crazy when you think about it, considering the huge reliance the PC industry has had on Intel for decades. A full shift to Arm is a huge step, and it should tell you just how confident Microsoft is in these chips.
Indeed, the Snapdragon X Elite is poised to totally change the Windows laptop industry, just like Apple Silicon redefined the expectations we have for laptops when it debuted in 2020. It’s been nearly four years and Microsoft finally has its response, and it will be great. With this processor, you’ll finally get performance to rival the best Intel has to offer, but you’ll get far better battery life, making for truly portable devices that can still be powerhouses. You won’t have to worry about performance drops when you’re using the laptops unplugged either, because these processors are so much better at power efficiency.
Snapdragon X: Everything you need to know about Qualcomm’s Arm computing chips
The Snapdragon X Elite will finally reach laptops very soon, and here’s everything you need to know about the X series.
And in fact, performance on the Snapdragon X Elite won’t just match Intel, it will outdo it in a few ways. Graphics performance is expected to be noticeably better, and Qualcomm has been doing AI for much longer than Intel, so you can expect better AI performance, too. From what we’ve seen in a recent demo of DaVinci Resolve, the NPU can process effects at least twice as fast as the NPU in Intel Core Ultra processors.
The best is yet to come
The Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for business were both great devices with important improvements to their respective lineups, and those will also come to these new models. That includes the upgraded webcams and anti-reflective screens, which are more than welcome.
But with everything we’re expecting from the consumer versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6, it’s easy to see that the best versions of these devices aren’t here yet. We’re going to see those on May 20, so we recommend waiting so you can get some really cool devices.
The Surface Pro 10 for Business is good, but the one you want is coming in May
Microsoft recently announced the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Business, but these aren’t the devices you’ve been waiting for.
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