Microsoft Surface lineup leaks ahead of Wednesday's event

[HEXUS]

Combined Twitter-storm from EVLeaks and WalkingCat leave little to the imagination.

Read more.

[KultiVator]

The article mentions an 'SD Card' reader on the Surface Pro 7, but looking at that image, it looks as though the larger slot beaneth the USB-A port is Microsoft's proprietary 'Surface Connector'. The micro-SD reader looks to have been retained.

The devil will be in the details as to whether it's just USB-C that's been added, or whether there's some Thunderbolt capability in play this time around (really should be given the premium price point of Surface Pro devices).

[[GSV]Trig]

So, the rumours about the mDP port being swapped out for USB-C appear to be true, other than that and the CPU I wonder what else will change, perhaps a bit better battery life and perhaps speed improvements on the "Hello" camera/functionality.

[[GSV]Trig]

Also wonder if you will be able to charge via USB-C....

[Zhaoman]

Thunderbolt and SD card slot would really make the Surface Pro a very attractive proposition. I currently use a Pro 6 as my work computer and those two features would pretty much make it perfect for me.

There's been no leaks of the potential new Surface Book so I am waiting to see what they do with it; Thunderbolt and/or a more powerful GPU and slimmer bezels are on my wishlist. I have no intention of ditching my original Surface Book anytime soon though so not that it actually matters to me

[Lord Midas]

I want them to be much much lighter (though I don't know how). The weight of the current Surface Pro 6 is heavier than my Surface Pro 2, and yet I find the 2 just too heavy for long tablet use.

I'm excited to see the specs of this new generation.

[Spud1]

THis iwll be really dissapointing if it's all they announce - no one in the real world cares about an ARM based surface, and simply adding USB-C and removing the useful bezels so that it's harder to hold the surface as a tablet, does not excite me at all.

Really still hoping for either a refreshed surface book or even better, a courier type device...lets hope they managed to keep that under wraps and will announce tomorrow...

[LSG501]

no one in the real world cares about an ARM based surface,

.

I'm actually more interested in the arm surface over a minimally upgraded version of the existing surface pro.... we can pretty much guess what's happening there.

On the otherhand if they size the amd one and price it to take the place of the surface go (unlikely but we can hope) it would make a good all day device to take to meetings etc imo.

[Spud1]

I'm actually more interested in the arm surface over a minimally upgraded version of the existing surface pro.... we can pretty much guess what's happening there.
On the otherhand if they size the amd one and price it to take the place of the surface go (unlikely but we can hope) it would make a good all day device to take to meetings etc imo.

Out of interest, what about an arm surface attracts you? I've seen a lot of comment in the tech press about them (the tech sites) being excited about the prospect of one, but I can't see any end user/consumer benefits. Yes you will get much better battery life and thinner devices, but you also lose x86 app support and are stuck with UWP apps on the windows store which is pretty much the main advantage the Surface Pro has over it's competition.

There are plenty of ARM based tablet/hybrids that have access to a rich app ecosystem which the Surface ARM simply won't have. I struggle to compete with that (and I tried both of MS's previous attempts, before giving in and just getting a Pro).

[LSG501]

Out of interest, what about an arm surface attracts you? I've seen a lot of comment in the tech press about them (the tech sites) being excited about the prospect of one, but I can't see any end user/consumer benefits. Yes you will get much better battery life and thinner devices, but you also lose x86 app support and are stuck with UWP apps on the windows store which is pretty much the main advantage the Surface Pro has over it's competition.

There are plenty of ARM based tablet/hybrids that have access to a rich app ecosystem which the Surface ARM simply won't have. I struggle to compete with that (and I tried both of MS's previous attempts, before giving in and just getting a Pro).

You don't completely lose x86 support, there's emulation although obviously that has it's limitations (They showed adobe photoshop etc running on arm for example). Obviously I'm waiting on reviews and price etc but I just don't see the point in getting an iPad because of compatibility issues and lack of 'full programs', plus it's really designed for people using macs imo. Android is pretty lacklustre on tablets and there's the obvious google connection if you want some sort of 'privacy'.

To me I think it comes down to partly curiosity and realising that I'm never going to use the full power of a x64 cpu because I'll just use my desktop in most cases which is more powerful, so I started thinking about what I actually 'need' in a mobile device.

I don't do any major work with my clients (don't want that sort of 'management' of their designs) and so as long as I can show them images/videos/powerpoint and can do annotations or basic adjustments to images I should be fine, I can realistically do that on a surface go so don't see any reasons why I can't do that on an arm cpu (likely the arm 8cx) that's supposedly around i5 performance.

It also looks really thin/light and should in theory have good battery life.... that to me is a good thing for a 'mobile' device.

[[GSV]Trig]

If it comes with "Full" Office support then an AMD based unit would be acceptable for a lot of people I reckon that just use the device for Office use or Remote Desktop to another PC/Server for workload stuff...