Surface Pro 2017

The latest Surface Pro features performance and battery life improvements and a kickstand with a range of motion that can emulate the screen tilt of the Surface Studio, designed to enable working with pen and digital ink. The Surface Pro (which with this version drops the single-digit version number from the device’s name) continues to offer models with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, but it is also available in a configuration with an Intel Core m3 processor that does not have a cooling fan. Enterprises looking to deploy hardware and software from a common vendor might find Surface hardware worth consideration, while OEMs can use Surface devices to see how hardware can exploit all the features of the Windows client OS.

In specific configurations and workloads, Microsoft claims a battery life of 13.5 hours of video playback. A PixelSense accelerator enhances color and pen responsiveness. Placing the kickstand in a 165-degree position matches the positioning range of the Surface Studio. This position allows the Surface Pro to more readily enable use of the Surface Dial peripheral, although the small screen size of the Surface Pro could make it impractical. The newest version of the Surface Pen (now sold separately) supports 4096 pressure points and 21 milliseconds of latency, which should make using a pen on the screen feel more natural. Surface Pro models that support 4G LTE networking will be available, adding networking flexibility.