On Tuesday, October 6, 2015, Microsoft took to the stage as they gave their long-awaited announcement about new Windows 10 devices. In addition to the new smartphones 950 and 950 XL, the second version of the Microsoft Band, they had a lot to say about the Surface Pro 4 as well as the new Surface Book, not to mention pre-order and official release dates.
According to CNET, the new Surface Pro 4 is 8.4 mm thick, and it has a 12.3-inch display at 267 pixels per inch. There had been many rumors circulating before the big announcement that there would be a Surface Pro 4 and some kind of Surface Pro Mini, with the Pro 4 having a huge screen at 14 inches. As it is, the size of the Pro 4 is the same as the Pro 3, but the display is bigger due to less bezel.
The touchscreen of the Surface Pro 4 has some new technology known as PixelSense, that can support a stylus with 1,024 levels of pressure. As for the stylus, it attaches magnetically to the device and has a one-click launch with a battery life good for a year. Just to let you know, it does have palm-detection, like Pixar loved with the iPad Pro.
Other rumored features that the Surface Pro 4 ended up having include a fingerprint sensor as well as an "enterprise-level" facial recognition with Windows Hello. Other specs include up to 1 TB of storage, up to 16 GB of RAM, and it is 30 percent faster than before. The camera is at 8 Megapixels, and it has a docking station with four USB 3.0 ports, two 4K display ports and Ethernet.
In addition to the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft also announced something very new with the Surface Book. The company calls this "the ultimate laptop", as it is the first laptop built in-house, according to Engadget.
The Surface Book has a 13.5 inch display, sixth-generation Intel Core processor, up to 16 GB GDDR5 RAM and a 12-hour battery life. Microsoft claims that the Surface Book is twice as fast as a MacBook Pro. Like the Surface, it has a removable keyboard, with a "Dynamic Fulcrum" hinge in both directions, but doesn't appear to bend all the way backwards. The Surface Book will support the Surface Pen (which is included) as well as the Surface Pro Dock. It also has backlit keys and a glass trackpad.
The Surface Pro 4 will start at $900 and will ship on October 26th, with pre-orders beginning on October 7th. The Surface Book also begins its pre-orders today, and ships on the same date. The price of a Surface Book is $1,499 for the 128GB/8GB Core i5 Intel HD graphics configuration version, and $2,699 for the 512GB/16GB Core i7 NVIDIA GPU version.
