At Microsoft’s education focused event in New York, the tech giant announced the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop, the company’s first laptop.
Unlike the tech giant’s other 2-in-1 Surface hardware devices like the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, the Surface Laptop does not include a detachable tablet display and instead features a more traditional clamshell design.
Meet the new Surface Laptop. Performance made personal. pic.twitter.com/dk9BB0IPwL
— Microsoft Surface (@surface) May 2, 2017
While the device leaked late last night, Panos Panay, Microsoft’s head of devices took to the stage at the company’s New York City event to officially unveil the company’s first laptop.
During the press conference, Microsoft also showed off Window 10 S, the company’s answer to Google’s Chrome OS operating system. Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop is set to feature Windows 10 S. The laptop will be sold in four colours: Platinum, Burgundy, Cobalt Blue and Graphite gold.
The Surface Laptop’s PixelSense display measures in at 13.5-inches with a 3:2 aspect ratio. During the keynote, Panay stated that the Surface Laptop’s features “the thinnest LCD touch model ever created and put in a laptop.” The device’s screen is also compatible with the Surface Pen, allowing users to draw on its display like other Surface devices.
Panay says that the Surface Laptop will utilize Intel’s latest Core i5 and i7 processors and claims that battery life will measure in at 14.5 hours. Taking a shot at Apple and the company’s new USB-C MacBook Pro line that suffers from battery life issues, Panos also says that the Surface Laptop is faster than the i7 MacBook Pro and that it has “more battery life than any MacBook Air on the market today.”
Panos spent a significant portion of the presentation discussing the integrated vapour chambers built into the rear of the Surface Laptop’s laptop’s aluminum finish, allowing the laptop to stay cool. The laptop also doesn’t feature speaker grills or holes, with Microsoft instead opting to integrate the speakers underneath the device’s Alcantara-made keyboard.
“In Surface, we want to give students all the tools they need to enable them to keep learning, from the Pro to the Book and now the Surface Laptop,” said Panay.
Microsoft says the Surface Laptop is available for pre-order right now, with the core i5 iteration of the device with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage starting at $999 USD (approximately $1,375 CAD).
Microsoft said the following when MobileSyrup reached out about Canadian pricing and availability for the Surface Laptop.
“Surface Laptop will also be available in Canada and China later this year and we will announce availability in other markets in the coming months.”
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