Black is the new silver for Microsoft as the company has come back to its roots for its Surface devices. Launched today were the new Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2 and new Surface Headphones.
What started out years ago as one 2-in-1 device is now a billion dollar business for Microsoft encompassing a wide range of portable devices as well as as Surface Studio and Surface Hub. Known for making cutting edge peripherals like mice and the Surface Dial, Microsoft's design team has gone and created its first Surface headphone, which brings the same exclusive and premium feel to a pair of smart headphones.
Following on the heels of the Surface Go a few months ago, Microsoft has once more gone for the premium space in the market. The Surface Pro 6 is the most accomplished embodiment of the original 2-in-1 product which offers the performance of a PC in a slim and convertible form factor. The latest version incroporates a new matte black colour, the latest Intel Core processors.
The Surface Laptop, Microsoft's first full-fledged non-convertible laptop also gets a welcome refresh. The industry's obsession with black colours and dark mode in software permeates the colourful Surface Laptop line with a new all-bacl colour variant. Surface Laptop also gets updated hardware and better overall performance.
While new the new colour and updated specs are the big news, neither the Surface Pro 6 nor the Surface Laptop have received any drastic changes to their design. USB Type-C ports have not been added unlike with the Surface Book 2.
Surface Headphones are an interesting if not surprising addition to the Surface line. These are Cortana-enabled smart headphones that offer superior comfort and premium sound. Coming to the US only this Christmas, the Surface Headphones are noise-cancelling cans which integrate some Surface Dial functionality for selecting between noise cancellation modes. They also charge using USB Type-C, which makes the decision to omit the port on the latest Surface devices something of a head scratcher.
My take is that Surface Go and Surface Headphones are newer products that were developed ahead of the iterative Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 which were not provisioned for USB Type-C. How popular will a Cortana-enabled headset be in limited quantities remains to be seen. Still, it is good to see Microsoft expand its horizons.
Microsoft also released an update to the Surface Studio desktop. Now featuring the latest Intel Core desktop processors with up to 32GB of RAM, Surface Studio has the muscle to complement what many believe is the sleekest form factor in all-in-one desktop computing today.
Microsoft also announced various feature updates to Windows 10 2018 Fall Update as well as feature refinements to Windows 10 and Office 365 which are now considered one product family under Microsoft 365. The Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 are available for preorder now and will ship on October 16 in Canada.