Right off the back of a massive Windows 11 update, Microsoft has set October 12 2022 as a big day with some big announcements. It’s around this time of year that Microsoft drops new devices, and the expectation is that we will be seeing new Surface hardware.
WinFuture (often a reliable source for all things Windows) reports that the Surface Laptop 5 and the Surface Pro 9 are set to be showcased rocking the latest 12th Gen Intel processors. Roland Quant, another familiar source, suggests that both the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 share a few components. He suggests that the two new laptops will be equipped with the Intel Core i5-1235U and Core i7-1255U processors, and not the more powerful Alder Lake P-series.
The Surface Pro 9 5G is expected to feature a customized version of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, the Microsoft SQ3. Quant also claims the Surface Laptop 5 will have the same processor options.
Both models are, according to (you guessed it) Quant, will be sold with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage capacities.
As for price, we should brace ourselves to see the Surface Pro 9 at around $1,1270 (£1,130 or 1,920 AU$) and the Surface Pro at around $1,350 (£1,200 or 2040 AU$)
What we’re expecting
While we are very hyped for the new Surface goods, we do have a few expectations and things we’d like to see when the Surface Pro 9 comes out.
The Surface Pro 8 was near perfect, so we simply can’t wait to see how the Surface Pro 9 will improve on all the older models’ qualities, like the 4K video capabilities, long battery life and vivid display.
However, there were a few quibbles that we hope will be addressed with this new launch (like the Type Cover being included for the substantial price of the laptop/tablet). When we reviewed the Surface Pro 8, we hoped that its successor would bump up its processors to the Intel Alder Lake series, which if Quant is accurate, might not be the case.
The price of the Surface Pro 9 is paramount to how well the device may be received. Should it stay at around the same price as its predecessor (around $1,130, £999 or AU$1,699), it may be better received even if the keyboard and Type Cover still aren’t included (they should be, really). Any jump in price might make future users reluctant to purchase the Surface Pro 9 when you consider the 2-in-1 laptop would require a $179 (£159 or AU$270) keyboard to be a functioning laptop.
So you’d be paying for an expensive tablet and the keyboard as well, which is just a big ask when you could just get any other laptop that will (more than likely) come with everything it needs.
Hopefully Microsoft hears our cries for a keyboard and trackpad bundle, but we can only wait and see. Should the Surface Pro 9 build on its exceptional predecessor, it may surpass many of the current tablets and laptops – and perhaps even its main rival, the iPad Pro.