Microsoft is scheduled to host an event on Monday 20 May where it is expected to announce new versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 that you’ll be able to buy. The real excitement is around what’s inside though, as the computers are expected to have brand new Snapdragon X Elite chipsets, a switch from the usual Intel and AMD chips that Microsoft uses in its Surface computers. The firm had previously announced the devices but only for business customers, and running on Intel and AMD hardware.
For consumers, Microsoft will use Snapdragon’s much-hyped new chips that are, according to The Verge, going to be more powerful than Apple’s MacBook with M3 processor for both pure performance and also AI tasks.
Apple has led the way with laptop chips since the M1 MacBook Air in 2020 pulled ahead for speed and battery life compared to the Intel and AMD-made silicon in Microsoft’s Surface computers and other Windows 11 machines made by manufacturers such as Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, HP, Samsung and others.
In fact, Asus seemed to accidentally list its new Vivobook laptop with the X Elite chip in its own Vietnamese store on Thursday, but not before a tech leaker screenshot it and posted it to X.
Asus has confirmed it’ll also launch a new “AI PC” on 20 May.
Microsoft has said 2024 is “the year of the AI PC”, so the company is likely to big up its Copilot AI assistant, which has replaced Cortana on Windows 11 devices, but is not available for Windows 10.. It’s an AI chatbot that can not only answer questions but is designed to perform tasks within apps and programs. That needs compute power, which is what we think we’ll see in the Snapdragon X Elite and slightly less powerful (but cheaper) X Plus chips from Qualcomm.
The Surface Pro 10 is rumoured to have an OLED display for the first time, moving away from LCD. It would come just after Apple put an OLED screen in an iPad Pro for the first time, a computer that also includes the even-newer Apple M4 chip.
The new Surface Pro 6 allegedly will have a big redesign compared to the last few generations, with smaller bezels around the screen.
These machines will be tempting for Windows die-hards, but they are likely to be expensive. It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft positions them, and how its PC-making partners decide to market these powerful new laptops.
Express.co.uk will be reporting from the events, so come back here to find out all the details on about what Microsoft has announced.