Microsoft Unveils Much-anticipated Surface Pro 4, Surprises With Brand-new Surface Book Notebook

One of the most anticipated products at Microsoft’s event in NYC this morning is the newest Surface Pro. With Windows 10 having been launched this past summer, it took a bit longer for the Surface Pro 4 to arrive than most had expected, but that extra wait does mean one important thing: Intel’s latest and greatest Skylake processors are under the hood.

While the Surface Pro 4 was an expected announcement, the Surface Book was not – and it turned out to be quite a surprising one. It’s still strange enough to think that such a software-focused company now builds its own hardware, but now it doesn’t just make a cool all-in-one tablet, with the Surface Book, it makes a full-blown notebook.

Behold, both the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book:

Let’s tackle the Surface Pro 4 first. Starting out at $899, it sports Intel’s latest processors, ranging from Core i3 to i7, between 4GB and 16GB of RAM, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, between 128GB~1TB of SSD storage, up to Intel Iris graphics, and a 12.3-inch screen that fits into the same form-factor of the last Surface Pro that boasts a resolution of 2736×1824. Because the form-factor remains the same, the fourth-gen Surface Pro is compatible with previous-gen keyboards.

The latest Surface Pro is both thinner and lighter than the previous model, coming in at 11.50″ x 7.93″ x 0.33″ and 766~786 grams.

You can see a lot about what makes this latest Surface Pro so cool with the video below:

In addition to everything mentioned so far, the latest Surface Pro also makes use of updated pens, which come in eight colors (four of which can be seen below). These pens have 1,024 levels of sensitivity, include an eraser, and stick to the side of the unit with magnets.

Perhaps the more notable of these two launches is the Surface Book, a device that can act as a real notebook one moment, and a tablet the next. This is wholly Microsoft-designed hardware here, and overall, I’d say that it looks great. It one-ups the SF4 in the size department, coming in at 13.5-inch, and like the SF4, it supports a pen just as well as your finger. With its glass trackpad, it’ll hopefully be easy to use without touching the screen.

The Surface Book starts out at a hefty $1,499, and features Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, between 128GB and 1TB of SSD storage, 8GB or 16GB of memory, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a 3000×2000 resolution (a bit more height than 16:9), and is said to last up to 12 hours on a single charge.

Microsoft calls its Surface Book the “ultimate laptop”, and I think it well should be for a starting price of $1,499.

Both the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are available for pre-order now, and are expected to ship on October 26.