Microsoft launches the latest Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2

Microsoft updated and expanded its Surface device line to showcase the new Surface Pro 6, the new Surface Laptop 2, and the Surface Studio 2. Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay introduced the updated Surfaces at an event in New York City. The unifying themes: Helping you focus. And black. All black.

The event was launched by Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Microsoft Hyundai Life and Equipment, and he made it clear that we are all very busy. Mehdi defines three drivers for shaping Microsoft's strategy: Life and work are blurring. Digital devices have always caught people's attention; people want to pursue their passion. “We saw these opportunities and we were excited about what we could do,” Mehdi said.

Why this is important: Since Microsoft announced its press conference in early September, the issue has been unresolved. After the launch of the first Surface Studio and Surface Laptop, how big was the company's second-generation design? Similarly, how does it significantly improve Surface Pro? The answer to all of this: enough to keep up with the pace of the times.

Surface Laptop 2

Remember the original Surface laptop for this reason: light weight, optimized design, and longer battery life. (Compromise? Windows 10 in S mode, although you can also switch to Windows 10 Pro.) This is the same as the latest version of Surface, provided that the components are improved.

It is incredibly quiet, Panay said, and it has a signature keyboard, with 1.5mm of key travel. Other features include Instant on and Windows Hello. The display has 3.4 million pixels, with a best-in-class contrast ratio, and the thinnest LCD on a laptop. Naturally, it has a quad-core, 8th-gen Core CPU that’s 85 percent faster than the original Surface laptop's. And yes, it ships in black. It’s still about 2.76 pounds.

(The original Surface Laptop offered a choice of 7th-generation Core i5 and Core i7 processor, with 4GB to 16GB of RAM and 128GB to 512GB of storage. The original Surface Laptop included a 2256x1504 display with touch, a capability that Macs lacked.) Microsoft quickly listed the specs of the Surface Laptop 2, and they’re apparently similar, with up to 16GB of memory and up to 1TB of storage.

Surface Pro 6

Microsoft released the latest Surface Pro tablet Surface Pro (2017) in June 2017. Obviously it's time to update, and that's what Microsoft is offering on Surface Pro 6.

Although the Surface Pro (2017) has a built-in 7th generation Core processor, Microsoft has introduced the 8th generation quad-core Core chip for this iterative Surface.

Of course, a new range of optional type covers will be available in the new Surface tablet and shipped in four colors: red, blue, grey and black. The Surface stylus is also optional. Keep in mind that both accessories have been added and are usually required and are already a relatively expensive tablet.

The real focus of the Surface tablet line-up is price. Microsoft offers the original Surface and Core m3 CPUs for $799, but for the Core i5 with 8B RAM / 256GB of storage, the price quickly climbs to $1,300, and for the streamlined Core i7 with 1TB of storage, the price is $2,799.

Surface Studio 2

The original Surface Studio was a fascinating study of contrasts: a collection of mobile components that you might normally find in a laptop were instead housed in a compact desktop, itself dwarfed by a massive, swiveling 28-inch 4,500x3,000 touch screen. At a whopping $4,100, the Studio was an aspirational device that all would covet, but few could afford.

What could Microsoft do for an encore? The Surface Studio 2.

Microsoft's Surface Studio 2 is still the all-in-one product you've always dreamed of.

Microsoft has adopted a new display design that uses different transistors with smaller pixels but larger apertures. Using the new LCD material, Microsoft is better able to align the LCD with the polarizer, increasing its contrast by 22% and brightness by 38% - more than 500 nits.

Although the original Surface Studio used many mobile components, they were similar to desktop power supplies. There is a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-6820HQ and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GPU, and up to 32GB of memory, a huge 2TB hard drive and a 128GB SSD for caching. For Surface Studio 2, you might think that Microsoft has upgraded to the 8th generation quad-core Core i7 CPU, but it doesn't: it's the 7th generation Core i7-7820HQ. In addition, it uses older Nvidia Pascal graphics, especially the GTX 1070 and 1080 components.

Look forward to Microsoft's products to bring more surprises, more in line with our imagination of new technology for laptop.