Microsoft today announced a new Surface device: the Surface Laptop. The device had been leaked last night, but Microsoft's Panos Panay officially revealed it today at the company's event in New York. It's a 13.5-inch laptop designed to run the company's new Windows 10 S operating system
Mr. Panos Panay, head of Microsoft's new devices division, said that the company created the new laptop with future students graduating from high school in mind.
Microsoft's new laptop uses an Alcantara "fabric" keyboard, just like the one on the premium Surface Pro 4, which features 1.5mm of travel for the backlit keys. A video teaser of the device shows that it's clearly designed to be a high-end device to promote the new Windows 10 S operating system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74kPEJWpCD4
The Surface Laptop is a clamshell device, a true laptop, unlike the Surface Book 2-in-1. Traditionally, Panos Panay gave the Surface Laptop to someone in the audience to show off its new burgundy color.
The Surface Laptop will come in four colors: platinum, burgundy, cobalt blue, and graphite gold, and will weigh less than 3 pounds.
Microsoft is using a 13.5-inch PixelSense display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. “It’s the thinnest LCD touch display ever built and put into a laptop,” Panay says, and it has a total of 3.4 million pixels. The display even supports Microsoft’s Surface Pen, which will let you draw on the screen.
Microsoft is using the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and claims battery life of up to 14.5 hours. Microsoft claims that the Surface Laptop is faster than the i7 MacBook Pro and will have “more battery life than any MacBook Air on the market today.”.
There are no speaker grilles or holes, and Microsoft has integrated the speakers under the keyboard so the sound comes from your fingers.
Microsoft is taking pre-orders for the Surface Laptop today, with prices starting at $999 for the Core i5 version with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The Surface Laptop will start shipping on June 15.
