I have a Surface Pro 4 with Core i5, Type Cover keyboard and docking station with me now and I’ve just finished the first of a set of videos for Notebookcheck (see it in the Surface Pro 4 review here) and come away, as you’d probably expect, impressed. One of the first things I did, however, was to put the new Type Cover keyboard on my Surface Pro 3. The ‘upgrade’ is significant and is one of a number of considerations to be made if you’re thinking of making the jump from Pro 3 to Pro 4.
The usual suspects got their Surface Pro 4 devices before anyone else and have been allowed to publish their reviews. I think you can skip many of them to be honest but one stands out. No, it’s not my review (I was 6 months behind the curve with my Surface Pro 3 review,) it’s the Anandtech review. It’s jam-packed with good information.
Surface Pro 4 and stylus.
Microsoft just launched a new Surface Pro 4 and a new Surface Book 2-in-1 at their #windows10devices event.
“The ultimate laptop” say Microsoft. Starting $1499. Available Oct 26th. It’s 2-in-1 and it looks damn amazing. It just received a standing ovation at the Microsoft event.
Pricing goes up to $2699 if you want 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Nvidia GPU and Core i7.
Muscle Wire lock.
Surface Dock
Update: A detailed comparison Surface Pro 3 vs Surface Pro 4 can be found here.
A new Surface Pro Type Cover was lanuched. It has mechanical keys and a 40% bigger trackpad. Fingerprint reader included on the new keyboard (in the USA only.) The keyboard will work with the Surface Pro 3.
As expected, Microsoft announced two new Lumia devices. Hexacore and Octacore processors from Qualcomm. 5.2-inch and 5.7 inch displays with USB-C, Pureview camera, 32GB storage, MicroSD, tripple RGB-flash.
2 antennas. “vast and some of the best on the planet.”
Starting at $549 (Lumia 950), $649 (Lumia 950 XL) available November. 
There’s also a Microsoft Display Dock accessory with three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort.
Microsoft also announced new Windows 10 Store Universal Apps coming from Facebook, Instragram Facebook Messanger, CBS, Audible and Uber.
It seems that the world and her husband have written their thoughts on what could happen at the Microsoft Windows 10 event on October 6th. My thoughts on Surface Pro 4, anchored in engineering rather than floating with rumors, are here. The poll results so far say that 50% of readers, given the option of having both a 12-inch and 14-inch Surface Pro 3, want a silent 12-inch model based on Core M and a high-powered 14-inch model based on 6th-gen Core U-series processors. If that were to be the case on Oct 6th it means that a 12-inch Surface Pro 4 won’t out-perform Surface Pro 3 in high-power scenarios. But there’s enough ‘showtime’ potential in the new Core M to keep anyone happy. Maybe it’s time to take ‘Pro’ to a higher level?
Hopefuly you’ve seen the news that Microsoft has sent out invites for an Oct 6th Windows 10 event in New York. No-one doubts that we’re going to see Lumia, Surface and Band products along with an official launch of Windows 10 Mobile which makes it an extremely important event for anyone who reads UMPCPortal. Lumia, with Continuum, could form an important part of an entry-level ultramobile PC set-up. Surface sits at the very high-end of ultramobile computing solutions.
It seems certain that we’ll see a Surface Pro 4 with much the same sizing as the previous model but two questions remain unanswered. 1) Will it be fanless? and 2) Will there be a second, 14-inch model? The reason I ask the latter is that there have already been rumors about a 14-inch model and in a recent search I found screen covers for a 14-inch Surface Pro 4. If a 14-inch model is coming how can Microsoft position the two devices ? There’s a poll below and i’d like to see what you think would be the best constellation of Surface Pro 4 devices. But first, some thoughts on what’s possible and what it brings to a 12-inch and a 14-inch Surface Pro 4.
I went into the Apple keynote and an expected iPad Pro yesterday via Microsoft Edge on a Surface Pro 3. It was fun to take screenshots of the live stream, annotate them and share them via Universal apps. Connected via Gigabit Ethernet I was sure of a smooth Internet experience and I even had a webcam connected in case I wanted to dive into a Google hangout. The flexibility of the Surface Pro 3 just can’t be beaten.
Annotation via Edge on Surface Pro 3!
You’re looking at what is highly likely to be the processor details for Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4. Intel have just released architecture and feature details for Skylake, the next generation 4W-to-64W mobile processor. Read on for a feature-by-feature insight.
If you want to jump to the details, these two links should take you directly to the Intel IDF slide-set PDFs. Skylake Architecture. Skylake Gen 9 GPU.
Surface Pro 3 is an amazing piece of engineering. Even with the keyboard it’s one of the most powerful self-contained PCs by weight and with 5-6 hours of working battery life, fast storage and a digitizer it doesn’t cut corners. We’d all like to see a full SD card slot and for it to run a little cooler under load but unless you’re really doing a lot of ‘lapping’, it’s a true notebook replacement. Now that the Intel Core M has been launched we have an idea of what’s possible for 2015. Core M or Broadwell-U are highly likely to be in the Surface labs already as Microsoft try to work out where the next super-tablet should be positioned but there are other options too. Could Cherry Trail play a part in Surface Pro’s future?
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