technology news: Microsoft’s new tablets and laptops just Surface’d a day early

mardi 1 octobre 2019

Microsoft’s new tablets and laptops just Surface’d a day early

Microsoft Surface ARM based leak Evan Blass

Microsoft is a day away from its big Surface event set to take place in New York City. However, the Redmond-based company has had its cards revealed by leaker Evan Blass. The three new devices in the Surface lineup have now surfaced in the form of pre-release images posted by Blass on Twitter. The images allegedly show the new Surface Pro 7 tablet, two variants of the Surface Laptop 3, and an Arm-powered Surface likely to be named Surface 7.

Surface Pro 7

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 leak Evan Blass

The Surface Pro 7 pictured in Blass' leak shows a device that looks a lot like the Surface Pro 6. It's got the same thick bezels surrounding the display. The Surface Type Cover and kickstand also carry the same design as before. The only visible difference in the images posted by Blass is a USB-C port which seems to have replaced the Mini DisplayPort this time around. The other connectivity options, including the USB 3.0 port and microSDXC card reader, are seemingly being carried forward to the Surface Pro 7.

Surface Laptop 3

Microsoft Surface laptop 3 leak Evan Blass

Blass has posted images of what could be the 13-inch and 15-inch variants of Microsoft's Surface Laptop 3. The 15-inch variant is a new size option since the Surface Laptop 2 has a single 13.5-inch screen model. Rumours suggest Microsoft is planning to use an AMD Ryzen octa-core processor on the Surface Laptop 3.

The images don't show the port placement on the laptop, but the keyboard looks different this time around. We can't really say for sure, but the keyboard pictured in the images looks to have a metallic finish. Is Microsoft moving on from its Alcantara fabric keyboard design on the Surface Laptop? There's no guarantee, but it would be a welcome change since the Alcantara keyboard is prone to staining.

Arm-powered Surface

Arm Based Surface leak Evan Blass

Lastly, Blass posted images of a Surface device powered by an Arm processor. Microsoft's Arm-powered Surface has been rumored for a good part of the year. The tablet is expected to feature a Snapdragon SoC based on Arm Cortex technology, giving it the status of an always-connected device.

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Leaked images show that this alleged Arm-based Surface has more of an iPad Pro look with thin bezels around the screen. The overall form factor also looks slimmer.

We can see that it sports Microsoft's fabric keyboard with a housing for the Surface Pen. There's also a kickstand at the back of the device, just like the alleged Surface Pro 7. Reports suggest this device could be called the Surface 7.

Blass has threaded another tweet to this leak lineup saying, "Not pictured here: dual-screen Surface." Microsoft has been rumored to be working on a dual-screen Surface device codenamed "Centaurus." Hopefully, the company will have its big surprise intact for announcement day on October 2.