A new portable gaming PC, which features a 14-inch OLED display and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, is being teased by One-Netbook on social media. We got an email from the firm, best known for its handheld gaming PCs and eGPUs, sharing a few other tantalizing details of this Microsoft Surface-like 2-in-1 design, which it has dubbed the OneXPlayer Super X.

The above video shares only a meager amount of specifications, but One-Netbook tells us the headline specs are:

• AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor & Radeon 8060S graphics (which One-Netbook claims delivers “RTX 4060 Ti level” performance in this instance)
• 14-inch 2.8K AMOLED HDR display with 100% DCI-P3 & VRR
• Up to 128GB LPDDR5x RAM, dual SSD expansion, and 83.5Wh battery
• And there’s an XDNA 2 NPU onboard delivering 50+ TOPS for local LLM execution

Now well past the mid-point of 2025, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 field is starting to become crowded, with all sorts of devices. However, there’s already a tablet packing this potent SoC, from PCs and components Goliath Asus. It is, therefore, natural to want to compare the upcoming OneXPlayer Super X with the established Asus ROG Flow Z13 2025. Thankfully, One-Netbook produced exactly such a comparison chart for its Discord followers, and you can check through it below.

One-Netbook has had plenty of time to prepare a solid ROG Flow Z13 competitor, and according to this table, it can beat the Asus machine by every important metric. Probably the most pleasing ways it seems to outclass the Asus are in its screen, expandability, and battery capacity. However, it also boasts an impressive 50% greater TDP. On paper, of course.

At WWDC this year, Apple announced iPadOS 26, which will finally introduce proper windowing support to the iPad. If you're looking to get in on the new features, the 11-inch iPad Air with Apple's M3 chip is on sale for Prime Day.

• Check out all the deals in Amazon's Prime Day Sale

The 11-inch, M3 iPad Air is going for $479. This is the lowest price we've seen on the iPad Air with M3, which has a list price of $599.

For this sale, you can get 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi connectivity (cellular boosts the price to $629), and your choice of color. The 11-inch Air uses Touch ID for authentication, boasts 12-megapixel front and rear cameras, and is compatible with Apple Pencil Pro and the Magic Keyboard.

M3 also supports Apple Intelligence features. At the moment, those aren't terribly. useful in my opinion, though it does mean you should eventually get the new Siri and anything else that comes down the pipe.

iPadOS 26, which is expected to be released this fall, should greatly improve multitasking. Beyond a "liquid glass" redesign, the big feature for iPad is vastly improved windowing, letting you arrange them as you would on, well, most other computers. It should make that Magic Keyboard accessory far more useful if you opt for it. The new OS version will also add menu bars to apps.

Apple's M-series chips have long felt overpowered in iPads, but iPadOS 26 may greatly enhance multitasking, which means you can make better use of the M3 in the iPad Air. Then again, the 11-inch form factor is pretty portable, so it'll be just fine as your go-to ebook reader, too.

We are working hard to find the best computer hardware deals for you this Amazon Prime Day. We cover the hottest deals in real-time at our Best Amazon Prime Day Deals Live page. If you're looking for more savings, check out our Amazon Prime Day deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

Every now and again, a tech deal can really change your life in a very immediate and critical way. That happened to me just this weekend ,when I purchased the Lenovo M9 tablet at Best Buy for $79 and gave it to my six year old daughter.

For months, I had been pushing aside a growing problem. My daughter loves watching videos on YouTube Kids, but she can't run the YouTube or YouTube Kids apps on her Amazon Fire for Kids tablet.

So my daughter would frequently come to me and ask to borrow my phone so she could run those apps. Being a doting dad and a sucker, I let her borrow my phone and she even learned how to unlock it herself and launch the apps.

However, lending your phone to a kid is not without its issues. And here's where the problems started.

I missed a lot of alerts on text messaging apps, including Slack, which I use for work. My daughter would bring me the phone if I was getting a call, but she would just swipe away notifications if they appeared while she was using my handset.

I ended up late to get some messages and this became more and more of a problem. But I didn't want so spend a lot of money just so my daughter could watch YouTube Kids. Then I saw a sale.

The Lenovo M9 tablet is now just $79 at Best Buy. This 9-inch tablet is has a 1340 x 800 resolution screen, a MediaTek Helio G80 processor with 8 cores, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It charges over USB-C and seems to have a long battery life.

The M9 is not an Android tablet that runs standard Google apps such as YouTube and YouTube kids. Unlike many Android tablets, it has Google Kids Space that provides a custom child-friendly UI with parental controls baked in.

I bought the tablet via Best Buy's in-store pickup so I could get it in time for the weekend.

So my daughter got a tablet that is kid-safe, she gets to watch her favorite videos and I got my phone back so I can get alerts from work right away. It's a win-win for $79. The tablet seems light, bright and fast enough for what she's doing with it.

Whether you're shopping for a kid or an adult, this $79 Lenovo M9 deal is hard to beat.

Microsoft has new flagship AI PCs. The company today announced a 13-inch Surface Laptop and a 12-inch Surface Pro with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processors. These new Copilot+ PCs will be available starting May 20, while business versions will ship on July 22.

Both systems share similar specs, including 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage, though the Pro has a faster, higher-resolution display than the Laptop and also comes with Windows Hello support in the webcam, which the laptop relegates to a fingerprint reader.

The Surface Pro 11th Edition and Surface Laptop 7th Edition, which debuted last year with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus (10 Core) processors, each starting at $799.99 as of this writing. Unless the prices for those more powerful models go up, potential buyers may want to consider one of those more powerful systems if they don't care about having the thinnest, lightest designs. It's possible that these Snapdragon X Plus (8 Core) models are priced higher due to tariffs, but Microsoft hasn't commented.

Update: May 6, 10:04 a.m. ET: Microsoft's Surface Laptop 13.8 now starts at $999. The Surface Pro 11th Edition still starts at $799.99. The story continues below.

Surface Pro, 12-inch

This new Surface Pro is a smaller size than the existing 13-inch device and offers a fanless design. Microsoft claims it's the "thinnest and lightest Copilot+ PC yet," and it seems to fill in the gap left by the Surface Go (the Surface Go 4 was only released for businesses).

This tablet is 1.5 pounds before adding the optional 0.27-pound keyboard. That keyboard, which will be a must-have accessory for many, will start at $149. The $129 Surface Slim pen is also sold separately. Microsoft says that the new keyboard lies flat "for a grounded and quiet typing experience," and that it folds back flat against the Surface Pro for when you want to write or draw.

The new Pro will come in three colors: the default platinum seen on so many Surface devices, a bold new violet, and a dark, blue-green color called "ocean."

Perhaps the other biggest physical distinction is that this system won't have Microsoft's proprietary Surface Connect port, instead relying entirely on USB Type-C for charging. In fact, the two USB Type-C 3.2 ports are the only I/O on the entire system.

The system will come with a USB Type-C cable for charging, but it won't include a wall charger in the box. It's possible this is a result of European Union rulings requiring USB-C charging on tablets, meaning that a charger isn't strictly required, like with phones. You'll need at least a 45W charger in order to fast charge the new Surface Pro.

The Surface Pro has two cameras: a 1080p webcam with support for Windows Hello facial recognition, and a 10MP rear shooter for people who like to take pictures with tablets.

The Surface Pro starts at $799 in platinum with the Snapdragon X Plus (8 core), 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For $899, you bump up to 512GB of storage and can also get the violent or ocean color options.

Surface Laptop, 13-inch

The new Surface Laptop, which Microsoft claims is the thinnest and lightest Surface Laptop to date, is a more straightforward update. It's smaller than the existing Surface Laptop, which comes in 13.8-inch and 15-inch screen sizes.

Like the Surface Pro, the new Laptop cuts the Surface Connect port and charges over USB-C. The Surface Laptop has a pair of USB-C 3.2 ports, a USB-A 3.1 port, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Unlike the tablet, the Surface Laptop will come with a 45W USB-C wall charger in the box (though you need a 60W charger for fast charging).

The laptop's anodized aluminum casing will come in the same violet, ocean, and platinum colorways as the new Surface Pro.

The Surface Laptop has a 1080p webcam like the Pro, but it doesn't support facial recognition. Instead, the Laptop has a fingerprint reader in the power button, similar to the MacBook Air.

Microsoft claims that the Surface Laptop and its Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (8 core) processor is "50% faster than Surface Laptop 5 and even outpaces the MacBook Air M3." While that might be what some users are upgrading from, the Surface Laptop 5 launched in 2022 with 12th Gen Intel processors, while the MacBook Air is now on its next iteration with the M4 chip.

Unlike the Surface Pro, Microsoft is using a fan here for improved sustained performance.

Like the Surface Pro, the $899 base model has the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and only comes in platinum. The $999 configuration that jumps to 512GB of storage also comes in violet or ocean.

Copilot+ and new feature

Alongside the new Surfaces, Microsoft is announcing a series of new Copilot+ features that will show up in Windows Insider builds over the next month.

These include an update to settings to let you use natural language to search for and change settings on your PC. There will also be a new AI-based Snipping Tool to perfectly crop screenshots, a sticker generator in Paint for chats or documents, and more updates to Narrator for better image descriptions.

A tool in photos called Relight will let you adjust light sources in photos. This will debut on Snapdragon X Series PCs and come to AMD and Intel later on.

Additionally, there will be a redesigned Start Menu that adds a sidebar showing recent activity from your phone, as well as AI actions in File Explorer.

Microsoft is continuing to push the Copilot+ as the future of the PC, especially with support for Windows 10 ending on Oct. 14, 2025.

The company has been slowly expanding Copilot+ features that run on the NPU, including launching Recall to find what you previously looked for and an improved Windows Search. AI PCs haven't been a huge boon for upgrades, and despite being called Copilot+, Microsoft's Copilot chatbot doesn't actually run on device. But the clock running out on Windows 10 may drive more sales as potential buyers look for the latest updates, features, and security patches.

At its Surface event scheduled for May 6th next week, Microsoft is expected to unveil two new compact offerings under its Surface Pro and Surface Laptop families, according to WinFuture. It's important to note that these smaller variants are not a new generation, but rather expand the existing Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 product lines. Information about technical details, pricing, and availability remains in the dark, but Microsoft is expected to reveal more on Tuesday.

Microsoft offers a range of Surface devices, designed for various use cases. The Surface Pro family features 2-in-1 tablets that can function both as a tablet and a laptop with the detachable keyboard (purchased separately). The Surface Laptop series, on the other hand, sticks to the basics with a traditional clamshell laptop form factor.

Starting in June 2024, Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop 7 (15-inch and 13.8-inch) and Surface Pro 11 (13-inch) families, initially equipped with Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X chips, for the mainstream. Variants with Intel's Lunar Lake followed, targeted towards business users.

12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11

Microsoft is reportedly extending these product lines with compact offerings, starting with a 12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11. In terms of display, we're looking at a PixelSense Flow LCD panel (likely IPS), though the refresh rate has not been specified. Under the hood, it reportedly features the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 SoC with 8 Oryon cores, along with a 45 TOPS capable Hexagon-based NPU.

The SoC is connected with 16GB of LPDDR5x memory (likely 8448 MT/s), which is non-expandable. The laptop is expected to be available in 256GB and 512GB storage capacities, supplied by a UFS-based solution, which, unlike SSDs, is not upgradable. Microsoft claims 16 hours of local video playback, but real-world usage will vary. The leaked press slides only mention two USB Type-C ports for data transfer, charging, and hooking up external displays.

13-inch version of the Surface Laptop 7

Microsoft is reportedly working on a new Surface Laptop powered by Intel's Lunar Lake processors, following leaks from Chinese marketplace Goofish discovered by Windows Central. The recently launched Core Ultra 200V processors are expected to bring improved power efficiency and better graphics performance compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipsets currently used in Microsoft’s consumer Surface Laptop lineup.

The leaked prototype suggests that the new Surface Laptop, potentially the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, will feature the Core Ultra 7 268V, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, offering notable enhancements for power users. The launch is speculated to happen in 2025, possibly around CES or later in spring.

While the leaks are not highly credible, they echo a similar situation from previous years, when a Surface Pro 7 Plus prototype was leaked before its release. Additionally, the prototype’s "NOT FOR SALE" engraving further indicates that the device could be a legitimate early sample unit.

Notably, the design of the leaked device appears to retain the same aesthetics as the Surface Laptop 7, meaning that the refresh will mainly focus on internal upgrades. The possibility of a 2025 release aligns with Microsoft’s typical product update schedule, and many speculate that CES 2025 could be the platform for the official unveiling.

Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chipsets earlier this year, receiving exclusive access to its new consumer Surface Laptop and Surface Pro releases. As the company continues to refine its Surface line, including Lunar Lake processors, it may offer users more powerful and versatile hardware options, addressing the growing demand for efficient and performance-oriented laptops.

Intel’s Lunar Lake processors prioritize power efficiency while delivering robust performance, especially in GPU-intensive tasks like gaming. Initial impressions of Intel’s Lunar Lake architecture on laptops like the Asus ZenBook S 14 have been primarily positive. The new Core Ultra 200V outperforms Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite by a good margin, especially in games offering playable frame rates at 1080p resolution, a feat beyond the capabilities of current Snapdragon-powered Surface devices.

As with all leaks, the final specifications and design are subject to change until Microsoft provides official confirmation.

Yesterday, Juno Computers launched its Juno Tab 3, a 12.1-inch, 3:2 PC tablet based on an Intel N100 CPU and one of three pre-installed Linux flavors, starting at $699 for the 512 GB model and quadrupling storage to 2 TB for $799. All models of this new tablet also have 12 GB of soldered LPDDR5 RAM, which is an excellent baseline, though soldered RAM handily removes your usual memory upgrade options. The most exciting aspect of this tablet for most should be the operating system options— proper Linux tablets are incredibly uncommon, after all.

The Intel N100 is an Alder Lake-N chip with a quad-core design without Hyper-Threading. Clocked at 3.4 GHz, it isn't as fast as the N200 or Core i3-N300, but the chip should be more than adequate to power the Juno Tab 3. The fact that the table utilizes the Linux operating system means that the N100 doesn't have to do a lot of heavy lifting.

The three flavors of Linux that can be pre-installed on the Juno Tab 3 are Mobian Phosh, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, or Kubuntu 24.04 LTS. Ubuntu and Kubuntu are pretty standard desktop Linux flavors, but Mobian Phosh is a derivative of the also-standard Debian distribution that provides a more touch-friendly interface.

Juno Tab 3 Core Specifications

All that being said, it's difficult not to address the elephant in the room here: the pricing of this tablet for its specifications isn't excellent. While a small US-based hardware vendor like Juno Computers probably shouldn't be expected to be price-competitive with the biggest PC manufacturers, $700 is still a lot of money to ask for any single piece of hardware— particularly when much cheaper tablets of the same spec for close to half the price still exist.

Overall, more robust Windows machines will be available if you're willing to spend $700. But if your desire to use (and support) Linux is strong enough and you don't want to bother with the risks and tedium of installing Linux yourself, Juno Tab 3 could be a nice companion. Your mileage may vary, though.

DeepComputing, one of the leaders in RISC-V development, just announced its DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II tablet. This mobile device is powered by a SpacemiT Key Stone K1 SoC, the same processor found in its upgraded DC-ROMA Laptop II. Thus, it is easier for developers already familiar with the system to use the new tablet.

The Pad II runs Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 and supports touch inputs, too, allowing developers to test and develop RISC-V mobile apps directly on it. Of course, writing code using an on-screen keyboard will likely be a punishment for a developer, so DeepComputing ensured that the Pad II also supports external keyboard connectivity.

The DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II starts at $149 for the 4GB RAM version and is already available for pre-order on the DeepComputing store. If you get the 16GB RAM variant, the tab is compatible with the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) Android 15 operating system. Here are the complete specifications of the DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II tablet.

The Premium variant of the tablet is expected to be available starting September 15, 2024, while the Android 15 upgrade should arrive by 4Q24 for all 16GB-equipped Pad IIs. This RISC-V-powered tablet is helping developers build more mobile apps for the open standard, which suggests that DeepComputing is seeing a future where more users use it daily.

This development is crucial for companies in China, especially as the U.S. is continuously trying to block access to proprietary hardware via bans and sanctions to hold back its progress. Since RISC-V is an open-standard instruction set, with the entity overseeing its development, RISC-V International, based in neutral Switzerland, the U.S. cannot legally stop anyone, including Chinese companies, from using this technology.

Washington D.C. has tried to investigate how it can prevent its East Asian competitor from using the technology, saying that the Chinese government is using RISC-V to develop chips it needs to overcome American dominance in semiconductors. However, Callista Redmond, the chief executive of RISC-V International, is adamant that it remains open to all. Redmond said, “RISC-V is an open standard and has incorporated meaningful contributions from all over the world. As a global standard, RISC-V is not controlled by any single company or country.”

Nevertheless, owing to RISC-V’s open-standard/open-source nature, advancements in this technology will benefit the entire world, not just China. So, as DeepComputing and other entities continue investing in this technology, we hope to see a future where we have multiple competing processor architectures, giving consumers the option to pick and choose what works best for them.

Earlier today, the product page for the upcoming GPD Pocket 4 handheld/tablet/mini laptop went live on GPD's website. The product page reveals a full set of system specifications and a fairly expansive list of optional expansions and potential use cases, focusing on creativity and productivity.

While the gaming utility is somewhat understated, the Pocket 4's status as the first Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 handheld, physical keyboard, multi-touch interfaces, and motion controls should all have it fairly equipped for those scenarios, too. Steam Input used with a device with this power and this range of utility shows some promise despite gaming not being the focus of the form factor.

Of the four expansion modules listed on the original product page to be slotted in with the module system, only the microSD card Reader Module is actually included with the device. The other three listed Modules (EIA RS-232 Module intended for use in Terminal Display use cases; KVM Control Module intended for use in data center/server and multi-PC use cases; 4G LTE Module self-explanatory) are all separate purchases.

GPD Pocket 4 Specifications

 *Both these USB-C ports support USB power delivery.

At this point, all that's missing is an OCuLink eGPU Module, though GPD touts the Pocket 4's support for USB4 eGPU docks as an intended use case. However, OcuLink is still faster, so if these Expansion Modules use enough PCIe lanes, there could be more potential.

While the general CPU and iGPU specs are quite impressive, one important caveat is worth noting. This PC can only run its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 at up to 28 Watts, the default TDP of a CPU that can otherwise be configured to use a 54-watt TDP.

Such a TDP tweak on this handheld is intended. However, a higher TDP could result in dramatically fast battery depletion or overheating, which isn't ideal for its intended handheld enthusiasts or tech professional environments. It also means that the true GTX 1070-esque highs of the new top dog iGPU, the Radeon 890M, aren't quite explorable on this device.

That said, the most impressive aspect of the GPD Pocket 4 was never its hardware power— the sheer versatility of input and use case potential is staggering. All that on top of an 8.8-inch multi-touch tablet display with 97% DCI-P3 coverage and ICC calibration support, and the Pocket 4 looks to be an enticing offer— but no word is yet available on pricing or release date, and the usage of 45W TDP Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 benchmarks on the Pocket 4's page is misleading of GPD.

Bluegen has launched a dual-screen OKPad tablet on Kickstarter, joining the dual-screen PC party at a much lower price point — and with a unique caveat that the lower screen is an E-Ink display rather than a duplicate of the top screen, which is usually an IPS panel. The unit starts at $199 through Kickstarter's Super Early Bird pricing, but the final price is telegraphed to double up to a $399 MSRP.

The unique combination of dual-screen panel types is also supplemented by a 360-degree hinge form factor that allows for tablet, tent, and stand modes adjusted precisely to your surface of choice. And of course, you can also choose to use a single screen at a time and turn off the other entirely.

The Kickstarter campaign quickly reached 321 backers and hit full funding at $84,011 of the $5,054 goal at the time of writing, so the Bluegen OKPad is already funded and should be guaranteed for a release in the coming months. Technically, it met its funding goal within two hours of the original campaign launch, but of course, the funding available to Bluegen now exceeds that number significantly and, on paper, should allow for lots of happy preorder-ers.

OKPad Dual-Screen Tablet Specifications

• Operating System: Android 10
• Battery: 7,000mAH
• CPU: Snapdragon Kyro 250, with 4x each Perf and Efficiency cores based on Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53, respectively. All cores go up to 1.8 GHz.
• RAM: 4GB RAM
• Storage: 64GB onboard storage (likely eMMC)
• Top Screen: 8.8-inch IPS at a resolution of 800 x 1,280 pixels
• Bottom Screen: 7.8-inch E-Ink at a resolution of 1,404 x 1,872 pixels
• Stylus: 4,096 pressure levels
• I/O: 1x USB Type-C Port, 1x 3.5 mm audio jack
• Wireless Technologies: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac max), Bluetooth 4.2

Bluegen's OKPad does have a few caveats, like not running Windows or being particularly powerful compared to modern mid-range or high-end laptops, but it's not meant to compete with those devices. 

Compared to the range of most other Android tablets, the OKPad looks a lot more interesting and useful, and should still be price-competitive with those units when the Early Bird pricing wears off. With its current $199 Early Bird pricing, though, it's genuinely a great value for anyone who appreciates E-Ink displays or just wants a super portable tablet experience adjustable to nearly any given sitting or laying position.

It is a little unfortunate that the device is still using Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 instead of newer Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, respectively, but this is probably a cost-cutting measure that helps keep it affordable. We'd also like to have more RAM, a newer Android release, and an estimate of decent battery life. However, the real selling point here is the form factor, not the internals.

At the time of writing, there aren't many OKPads left at the Super-Early Bird price of $199. The next tier up is still reasonable at $249 though, if you accept the inherent risks of crowdfunding campaigns.

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 7 are shipping, and the folks at iFixit have already started examining the repairability of the devices. Surprisingly, the team has almost nothing but praise for how Microsoft enables technicians to service the latest Surface tablet and laptop.

Releasing its typical walkthrough of disassembling both devices on YouTube, Shahram Mokhtari from the iFixit crew goes through the process of removing just about every component to demonstrate how easily someone could repair their new Surface device at home. In the end, iFixit gives both the Surface Pro 11 and the Surface Laptop 7 a repairability rating of 8 out of 10, almost the highest possible score.

Once you get into the case of either device, you can see several labels and QR codes with wrench symbols above them. Microsoft calls them “Wayfinder Markings,” and they detail how many and what kind of screws are used to secure components, making it easy to know exactly which Torx driver bit to reach for. Not only that, but the QR codes take you straight to Microsoft’s download page for the official service guides. 

Yes, Microsoft has already published the service guides for both the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7. As Mokhtari demonstrates, common tasks like removing the battery and SSD are relatively simple tasks on both tablet and laptop.

In the case of the laptop, battery removal can be accomplished without removing anything else from the computer other than the bottom feet and back cover. Previous Surface Laptop models buried the battery, making it necessary to remove several components just to replace the only consumable part inside the case.

The video proceeds to remove every component from the laptop, down to and including the motherboard. While replacing the SSD is easy, Mokhtari points out that the memory is soldered to the motherboard and is, therefore, not easily user-replaceable.

The Surface Pro 11 is also easy to work on. Mokhtari shows that the SSD can be replaced without disassembling the tablet. Tearing down the tablet for battery replacement or other repairs is slightly more involved than working on the laptop. The adhesive securing the screen could cause some frustration for a PC DIY enthusiast replacing the battery. That said, iFixit says the display removal is easy compared to other tablets.

Microsoft has taken great pains to make the tablet and laptop easier to repair. In the video, Mokhtari notes that when it comes to serviceability and modularity, “the Surface laptop line of devices started as some of the worst devices we’ve ever seen.” This new generation of devices shows that Microsoft is embracing the consumers’ right to repair by not only providing helpful labels and information inside the case but by publishing the service guides for them on launch day.

Apple's newest iPad Pro 13 may be cutting consumers short, with 12GB onboard RAM being artificially limited to 8GB. MacRumors forum user layerstack posted their detective work, seeking to independently verify the listed RAM capacities of Apple's newest iPad Pro lineup.

Apple's newest M4 iPad Pro 13 releases with two models, a 256GB/512GB storage model with a 9-core CPU and 8GB of RAM or a 1TB/2TB storage variant with the flagship 10-core CPU and 16GB of RAM. With teardown videos and blogs finally releasing, revealing the iPad's shiny new M4 silicon, internet sleuths are investigating every revealed inch of these machines. 

The condensed FBGA codes for Micron's RAM modules are clearly seen on some teardowns, revealing the exact chips Apple used for their iPads. The 16GB iPad, sure enough, contains 16GB of Micron LPDDR5 RAM. But the 8GB model has two 48Gbit modules onboard. 48 gigabits converts to 6 gigabytes, meaning the lower-grade iPad Pro model has 12GB of RAM available from its RAM module. But in use, the iPad Pro has only its advertised 8GB RAM accessible. 

Why Apple would artificially limit its RAM modules is unknown. Theories floated on comment sections across the web suggest a few possible solutions — some more charitable than others. Perhaps no 4GB chips exist with enough dies to supply the bandwidth Apple demands, the chips are binned for performance, or none of the major RAM manufacturers offer 4GB chips as standard for LPDDR5 memory and Apple couldn't afford to commission custom chips for a poorer-selling product. Maybe the part number is wrong after all, and Apple is using new custom RAM that coincidentally has the exact same part number as Micron's 6GB chip.

The most flaunted reason from web users is that Apple is artificially limiting the performance of these modules for product segmenting, keeping a traditional 8GB or 16GB RAM dichotomy between its iPads. This seems like a likely answer, which would mean that Apple has four unused gigs of RAM just sitting on its logic boards doing nothing. Apple's goal may be to avoid the unfamiliar "12GB RAM" spec which may alienate some consumers; Cupertino is likely looking to avoid any possible drop in sales after a bad year for iPad in 2023. 

Our thorough summary of Apple's new M4 iPad Pros and their teardowns can be found here. The newest iPad Pros are mostly remarkable due to the brand-new M4 chip, Apple's fresh silicon being introduced on an iPad for the first time. In its current form, its only major improvement over the M3 is its NPU for AI workloads, but a bit of liquid nitrogen can take it far beyond its rated performance.

Apple hasn't always been the friendliest company in terms of third-party and self-repair options. However, the YouTube channel Phone Repair Guru recently did a teardown of the M4 iPad Pro, Cupertino's latest tablet. The disassembly process seemed a bit straightforward this time, with the creator commenting, "This is so much easier than how it used to be."

Suhaib El-Komy, who owns the Phone Repair Guru YouTube channel, is a Canada-based YouTube creator who focuses on creating videos that show him repairing smartphones, tablets, and other electronics. In the teardown video, we see El-Komy open the 13-inch iPad Pro M4 to reveal its internals and see how Apple managed to cram so much technology in such a thin package.

The 13-inch iPad Pro was launched on May 7, 2024, at Apple's 'Let Loose' event. During the launch, the company boasted that the new 13-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip is its thinnest device ever. The iPad Pro is just 5.1 mm, or about three pennies thick, making it the thinnest Apple product.

It brings to mind the iPhone 6 Plus, launched in 2014, which suffered from the 'Bendgate' controversy — where the phone would unintentionally bend when placed in tight places like the back pocket of a pair of jeans. The issue blew to the point that Apple boycotted a German tech publication because it posted a video showing the host intentionally bending a 6 Plus with his bare hands.

Apple's new tablet included an internal shield that protected the central motherboard and added strength to the iPad, preventing a future 'Bendgate' problem. This addition made it pretty difficult to bend the 13-inch tablet when held in landscape. Even JerryRigEverything found it impressive, as he failed to fold the tablet vertically with his bare hands even after applying significant pressure (though he did damage the tablet's seal around the screen). However, the tablet quickly gave up when he folded it horizontally, as the USB-C port became the weak point that broke the device.

Aside from providing strength, the shield also helped dissipate heat from the powerful M4 chip and the tablet's other components. Another exciting feature of the new tablet is how it uses the Apple logo on the backside of the iPad as a heat sink. That's because the logo has copper, allowing it to efficiently extract heat from the SoC and radiate it into the air.

Apple has made self-repair much more accessible these past few years, and this new iPad seems to show its commitment to that. El-Komy says, "Thiteardownwn has been enjoyable so far, and the removable pull tabs on the battery are icing on the cake. Assuming everything on here isn't serialized to oblivion, this device is pretty repairable."

However, the tablet's advantage in terms of ease of repair could be negated if the company serializes everything, making it difficult to conduct repairs without using expensive Apple parts. While we understand that the company needs to do this for crucial elements like the motherboard, we hope that the process of moving parts from one device to another will become much easier.

The 13-inch iPad Pro M4 is a good change, especially for consumers fighting for their right to repair their devices. With this tablet, Apple seems to be taking a step in the right direction — let us hope that other companies follow suit, allowing for cheaper repairs and helping us reduce our e-waste output.

The Minisforum V3 tablet is the latest Ryzen 7 Hawk Point-powered PC to join the market. This time, it breaks from Minisforum's usual Mini PC flair in favor of the 3-in-1 tablet form factor popularized by Microsoft Surface and Lenovo Yoga tablet PCs. The Minisforum V3 has a 14-inch screen that can operate in a standard handheld tablet mode, a solo kickstand, and an included magnetic attachable keyboard for more laptop-typical use.

Most of the Minisforum V3's specs are somewhat standard for Ryzen 7 8840U devices, but there are some highlights here. 

The 8-core,16-thread Ryzen 7 8840U has been paired with a 2560 x 1600 16:10 IPS screen that runs at 165 Hz and has a reported 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. Combined with the unique form factor, this should make this device particularly compelling for professionals on the go, especially after some manual calibration is done for color accuracy and not just gamut coverage. The screen is rated for 500 nits, which is a bit brighter than some other laptops.

According to Minisforum, the cooling system should enable the Ryzen 7 8840U and its onboard Radeon 780M iGPU (RDNA3 with 12 Compute Units; AMD's current best iGPU) to run at a stable 28 watts at all times. 

This means that this laptop's performance should be on par with the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme when plugged into a wall — or likely better, considering the Minisforum V3's default configuration includes 32 GB of DDR5-6400 MT/s RAM. 

Besides core performance aspects, the rest of the device is most likely what you'd expect. The AI bandwagon is in full force, so there is touted "Ryzen AI" support and a dedicated Copilot key. Your enthusiasm about these particular features may vary, but they are present if your workflow has any use for them.

In any case, the Minisforum V3 does look like a nice Windows 3-in-1 tablet, with decent internal specs and features like quad speakers, display-in support for other devices, and full DCI-P3 coverage being a particular highlight. The official listing starts at $1,199 on Minisforum's site and includes 32 GB of DRR5-6400 MT/s RAM alongside a 1 TB NVMe Gen 4 drive.

This tablet is recommended firmly for people who can leverage its form factor and high color gamut coverage. The lack of a dedicated GPU in this price range hurts the pure-gaming value argument too much for anyone else. Performance-per-dollar-minded consumers should likely consult our list of the Best Gaming Laptops or the Premium Laptop roundup for other high-end tastes.

Dorland, a ruggedized device specialist from China, has launched the Intrinsically Safe Tablet PC Ex Screen K10. The new tablet is claimed to be “explosion proof,” and capable of withstanding “extreme temperatures and pressure.” Another interesting feature of this tablet is that Dorland has decided to adopt the Kirin StarKylin Operating System 1.0 (StarKylin OS 1.0).

How rugged is it?

We would hate to be skeptical about Dorland’s ruggedness claims. However, according to the press release and promotional material, this device has obtained certification to ISEO ATEX Ex ib IIC T4 Gb and ATEX Ex ib IIIC T130°C Db. This reference PDF will help you decode these certifications, but the T130°C mentioned refers to the maximum temperature the exposed surfaces of the device will be able to endure. In this case, that temperature is 130 degrees Celsius (266 degrees Fahrenheit).

The ruggedness and durability claims don’t stop there. Dorland also claims that the Ex Screen K10 satisfies MIL-STD-810H certification requirements. These US military test standards assess a product's resistance to ingress, extremes of temperature, shocks, vibration, and many more. Dorland has specifically highlighted two rugged aspects of its Ex Screen K10, though. It claims the tablet is impact resistant and can withstand drops from 1.22m (4ft), as well as saying it is crushproof, and can withstand being run over by a 1.5-ton vehicle.

As far as ruggedness goes, the Ex Screen K10 also sports a familiar IP rating. It is IP65, meaning it is thoroughly dust-tight (6), but it shouldn’t be subjected to direct liquid jets or be submerged at all (5).

Normal tablet tech specs

While the durability of the Dorland Intrinsically Safe Tablet PC Ex Screen K10 is admittedly impressive, we have seen much better key component choices delivered by well-known brands. Starting from the outside, the Ex Screen K10 uses a 10.1-inch IPS screen with 1280 x 800 pixels, but no screen brightness or color specs are shared.

Under the hood, there is a pretty old Rockchip RK3568 SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A55-based CPU and Mali G52 2EE graphics. Dorland seems pretty proud that this is a “domestic” processor though. The 4GB of RAM seems rather stingy in 2024. Built-in storage is either 64 or 128GB, depending on how much you want to pay, but the device is compatible with the best microSD cards, up to 512GB.

Other features include a 5MP front camera, an 8MP rear camera, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, GPS, Glonass & Baidu support, USB 3.0 Type-C with HDMI, and a 10,000mAh battery. As a bonus, the battery is also claimed to be “explosion proof.”

We don’t know much about the OS. Some say that the StarKylin OS 1.0 is a smart device-friendly version of Kylin yet it is still based on Linux. Meanwhile, Dorland described the OS on this tablet as an alternative to “Android 12.”

Customers are expected to be mainly from power, petroleum, chemical, and other heavy industries, as well as companies who have operations in places classified as Zone 1 and Zone 2 hazardous areas.

We don’t have product pricing or availability information. Dorland hasn’t uploaded an official product page at the time of writing.

Compact PC manufacturer Minisforum has expanded the company's product portfolio to tablets. The brand has unveiled the Minisforum V3, an upcoming 2-in-1 Windows tablet powered by one of AMD's Ryzen 8000 (Hawk Point) processors.

AMD hasn't shown any roadmaps with Hawk Point on it. The current rumor on the street is that Hawk Point is a 4nm mobile APU with Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3.5 graphics. If you're unfamiliar with AMD's existing Ryzen offerings, AMD utilizes a similar recipe for its current Ryzen 7040 (Phoenix) processors. This suggests that Hawk Point could be a simple refresh of Phoenix but with improved graphics. Phoenix leverages RDNA 3 cores, while Hawk Point reportedly has RDNA 3.5 cores. Therefore, Hawk Point's core specifications should be similar to Phoenix's. We expect a monolithic design that maxes out at eight Zen 4 cores and up to 12 RDNA 3.5 cores.

The Minisforum V3 press release lends some credence to the Hawk Point rumors. According to the vendor, Hawk Point is a 22W to 28W chip that belongs in AMD's U-series category. Although Minisforum was careful not to leak any details, the Minisforum V3 potentially uses a Ryzen 8040U series, which would be the successor to the Ryzen 7040U series. Phoenix's Ryzen AI engine will transition to Hawk Point, allowing the Minisforum V3 to exploit the AI features baked into the Windows operating system.

Minisforum V3 Specifications

Minisforum revealed the preliminary specifications and renders for the Minisforum V3, which should only be used for reference — the final specifications and design could vary a bit. Although the manufacturer didn't specify the quantity, the Minisforum V3's Ryzen 8000 APU will be accompanied by LPDDR5-6400 memory. Minisforum didn't specify the storage capabilities of the tablet.

The Minisforum V3 is a 14-inch touchscreen with a QHD+ resolution, meaning 2,960 x 1,440 pixels. It flaunts a high refresh rate of 165 Hz for a buttery smooth viewing and gaming experience. Minisforum armed the tablet with four low and two high speakers for a captivating audio experience. 

There are two high-resolution cameras onboard. A two-megapixel camera serves as the webcam with Windows Hello support, while the five-megapixel snapper is at the rear. The power button also functions as a fingerprint reader.

The Minisforum supports a detachable keyboard and MPP2.0 Stylus pen with 4,096 pressure levels.

The device's lengthy list of ports includes two USB 4 ports, one 3.5mm audio jack, a super-fast SD UHS-II card reader, and one USB Type-C port with DP-in support only. Wireless connectivity comes in the shape of Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Minisforum plans to equip the tablet with a battery capacity of 50Wh or higher, so the device should be able to get you through the day, depending on how power-efficient Hawk Point is.

Minisforum didn't reveal the pricing or availability for the Minisforum V3. Since the vendor is highlighting the usage of AMD's Ryzen 8000 Hawk Point chip, it's reasonable to expect the Minisforum V3 will launch around the same time as the Ryzen mobile APUs.

Apple fans tend to invest in the Apple ecosystem, and when you have a few Apple gadgets, you’ll find that they can work together in various ways. If you happen to have both an iPad and a Mac, you can extend your Mac desktop to the iPad and use it like an attached monitor.

This is useful to turn your Macbook into a mobile multitasking marvel, or to get around the external display limit on modern Apple Silicon Macs. Some iPads also have professional-grade color-accurate screens, making them useful for various creative jobs.

If you’re looking for a more traditional portable monitor solution, head over to our portable monitor review roundup.

What You’ll Need

In order to get your iPad and Mac to play well together, you’ll have to do a little prep work and gather a few items:

• Both devices must be signed in to the same Apple ID.
• Your Mac must run macOS Catalina or later.
• You’d need a fairly modern Mac: a 2016 or later MacBook or MacBook Pro, a 2018 or later MacBook Air, a 2017 or later iMac, an iMac Pro, a 2018 or later Mac Mini, a 2019 or later Mac Pro, or a Mac studio.
• On the iPad side, you’ll need iPadOS 13 or later running on any iPad Pro, 6th generation or later iPad, 5th generation or later iPad Mini, or 3rd Generation or later iPad Air.
• Both devices must be within 10m/33ft of each other, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Handoff activated (these are on by default).
• Internet connection sharing must not be active on either device.
• If you want to use a USB connection instead of a wireless one, you’ll need an appropriate USB cable to connect both devices.

Tip: If you’re using a USB cable to connect your iPad and MacBook, you’ll experience faster battery drain on the MacBook, since it will start charging the iPad. So we recommend connecting the MacBook to a power source such as a wall adapter or a power bank. Otherwise, you should consider sticking to the wireless mode instead.

Universal Control vs. SideCar

Before we get into the specific steps to extend your Mac desktop to your iPad, it’s important that you know the difference between SideCar and Universal Control.

SideCar is the feature we’re specifically dealing with here, where your iPad acts as an extended display for your Mac. As far as we can tell, in the latest version of MacOS as of this writing, the feature isn’t referred to as SideCar anywhere during the process of activating it, but that’s what it was called when first introduced. It’s still referred to as “SideCar” in Apple’s documentation.

A more recent feature is known as Universal Control. Here, your iPad and Mac have a different relationship. You can freely move your mouse and keyboard control between the two devices, and easily copy files or copy and paste content as if they were one computer, but the iPad is running its own software, separate from the Mac. So you can’t, for example, drag an app window from your Mac to your iPad using Universal Control.

Universal Control is on by default, so if you have a Mac and an iPad logged into the same Apple ID close to each other, you might find that you accidentally move your mouse pointer through the edge of your Mac’s screen onto the iPad.

Now that you know the difference, let’s look at how to activate SideCar.

How To Extend Your Mac Display To Your iPad

With your iPad open and unlocked, follow these steps:

1. Open Apple Menu > System Settings > Displays. You can also search for “System Settings” using the Command + Space shortcut.

2. Click the “+’ button.

3. Select “iPad” under “Mirror or extend to.”

Your iPad screen should now change to an extended Mac desktop version. If the iPad isn’t on the right side of the monitor, do the following:

1. Click Arrange.

2. Drag the image of the iPad to the correct side of your screen. This can also be above or below it, depending on your preferences and how you physically arrange the devices.

You can also activate SideCar by using the quick menu:

1. Click the Quick Menu icon. It’s the small icon in the menu bar left of the Siri icon and clock.

2. Click on Screen Mirroring.

3. Under “iPad,” select under “use as separate display”

That’s all there is to it. To disable this mode, simply repeat the above steps and select iPad again to stop SideCar.

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 looks familiar in a lot of ways. It comes in 13.5-inch and 15-inch sizes, has Alcantara and metal options, a 3:2 display and a classic, clean design. What it doesn't have, however, are AMD Ryzen CPU options. The Surface Laptop 5 is all Intel, all the time.

This is also the first time the Surface Laptop (outside the Surface Laptop Studio) is getting Thunderbolt 4. Every single Surface Laptop this year, both business and consumer, are Intel Evo certified.

Microsoft started offering AMD Ryzen processors on the Surface Laptop 3 in 2019, and did so again on the Surface Laptop 4 in 2021, though they were typically on older silicon. Last year's Surface Laptop 4 used Ryzen 4000 chips and still managed to make our list of the best ultrabooks, for awhile.

"With every product and with the goal of delighting customers, we select the right components for the form, scenarios, and customer we envision," A Microsoft spokesperson told Tom's Hardware in a statement. "It is a deliberate process whereby we work closely with our partners to tune and perfect the overall experience. For this product, we are excited about the 12th Gen processors from Intel. Built on the Intel Evo platform, this chipset will help Surface Laptop 5 to achieve the perfect balance of style and power. This balance has consistently led to Surface Laptop being our most loved Surface device."

The 12th Gen Intel chips should still be a nice upgrade for the Surface Laptop lineup, which are a step up in performance over both those AMD chips and also the 11th Gen Intel CPUs. Both the 13.5 and 15-inch Laptop 5 variants use the Core i7-1255U, while the smaller laptop also can use a Core i5-1235U. Commercial versions ship with a Core i5-1245U or Core i7-1265U.

The Laptop will continue to come in platinum and matte black at both the 13.5 and 15 inch sizes, while the smaller model will also get sage and sandstone color optoins. Only the 13.5-inch platinum version will come with an Alcantara wrist rest.

Both laptops will have 3:2 displays with Dolby Vision IQ (on the speaker side, you get Dolby Atmos). Notably, neither of them are getting the bump to 120 Hz that we've seen on the Surface Pro or Surface Laptop Studio, which would have been a nice touch, even if you are less likely to use a stylus with a clamshell notebook. The Surface Laptop is also still on a 720p webcam, unlike the Surface Pro and Laptop Studio.

Storage on the Surface Laptop 5 starts at 256GB and goes up to 1TB. Microsoft suggests the SSDs are removable, though for previous Surface Laptops, that has meant removing the feet and taking off the keyboard. That's likely why the company recommends only having authorized technicians take care of replacements.

Neither model has a ton of ports, but they're a decent mix. You get a single USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4, a USB Type-A 3.1 port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and, of course, the proprietary Surface Connect port.

We'll have to test Microsoft's performance and battery claims ourselves, but otherwise, it seems like not too much changed here. I suppose I can live with that, especially if Microsoft kept its keyboards to the same quality as previous versions.

The new Surface Laptop 5 lineup will launch on Oct. 25, starting at $999 for the 13.5-inch model with a Core i5, 8GB of RAM and 256B of storage and $1,299.99 for the 15-incher with an i7 and 8GB of RAM.

Today, Asus has announced a new 2-in-1 tablet known as the ExpertBook B3 Detachable designed for professionals. It's a unique device that features a Snapdragon processor paired with Microsoft's Windows 11 Pro operating system.

The tablet specs include a Snapdragon 7c Gen2 eight-core processor along with 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a storage capacity of just 128GB of eMMC memory. This tablet is one of the first Windows 11 based machines to come with an ARM processor, which should boost battery life significantly compared to more power-hungry x86 solutions.

As the name implies, this tablet is aimed more towards professionals who need a small tablet for jotting down notes, looking at Excel sheets, or other similar light-use tasks. Given the device's specs, don't expect to do any professional video editing or heavy Photoshop work without encountering massive slowdowns.

To turn the tablet into a true 2-in-1 device, Asus paired the B3 with its ExpertBoard keyboard that magnetically connects to the tablet and functions very similarly to Microsoft's own touch covers for its Surface tablets.

However, the keyboard itself can't do all the heavy lifting. As a result, Asus also pairs the B3 with its homemade ExpertStand, allowing you to prop the tablet when needed to work as a laptop or propping up the tablet vertically for other uses.

We don't have the B3's entire spec sheet, so some details, like display specifications, are unclear. But Asus does mention the screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which should provide some extra screen real estate over traditional 16:9 displays. The resolution remains unknown, but we're assuming it'll be around the 1080P ballpark.

The only I/O on the device appears to be a single USB-Type C connection and a single headphone/mic jack on the right side. To the left, you get your power button plus volume buttons.

For notetaking, the B3 includes a stylus with a built-in charging holder inside the table. The charging rate of the pen is impressive, with Asus promising up to 45 minutes of use if you leave the pen to charge inside the tablet for just 15 seconds.

Asus has also specced out the ExpertBook B3 to the MIL-STD 810H U.S. Military standard, so you can expect the B3 to be very durable and reliable. Some of the qualifications include 15,000 insertion and removal cycles for the USB type C port, and the ability to withstand eighteen 40G shocks while the device is powered on.

Asus' 2022 gaming lineup is comprehensive, covering almost its entire existing product stack with updates to the latest from Intel, AMD and Nvidia. But perhaps the most interesting among them is a gaming tablet, the Asus ROG Flow Z13. That comes amid other updates, including a 16-inch ROG Zephyrus Duo and revamps of the TUF line of budget notebooks.

The ROG Flow Z13 is a 13.4-inch tablet that kind of resembles a Surface device for gamers. In fact, it even looks like a slightly more reasonable version of the ROG Mothership from 2019, which also had a detachable keyboard (but was huge and far more powerful for its time).

Asus is using 12th Gen Intel processors in the ROG Flow Z13, ranging from a Core i5 up to an Intel Core i9-12900H with either an RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti on board. But like last year's ROG Flow X13, it can use the XG Mobile dock with up to an RTX 3080 laptop GPU over a proprietary connection for faster gaming. This new graphics dock is slightly bigger and heavier than the original. 

The tablet itself weighs about 2.42 pounds and is just 12 mm thick. It can be separated from the keyboard cover, which has RGB lighting because how else would you know it's for gaming? Asus claims the cover offers 1.7 millimeters of travel.

Unlike Microsoft, which uses a 3:2 aspect ratio in it's (decidedly non-gaming) tablets, Asus is using 16:10. There will be a 120 Hz pane option, which Asus is saying is "FHD," but is likely higher than the standard 1920 x 1080 due to the extra height. The same goes for the "4K" panel, which will run at 60 Hz. Additionally, there are both front- and rear-facing cameras on this device.

Asus is cooling the tablet with the help of a vapor chamber over both the processor and graphics, as well as liquid metal on the CPU. With the kickstand opened for more airflow, Asus claims that the Flow Z13 can run under 32 decibels, even under intense workloads.

There's a door behind the kickstand for an m.2 2230 SSD, which is similar to what Microsoft has done on the Surface Pro. 

If you're looking for something bigger and more powerful, Asus has kicked the ROG Zephyrus Duo up to 16-inches. The dual-screen laptop will use processors up to AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, including a MUX switch to ensure you get the performance you expect on the main display. The GPU will offer up to 150W of TGP, with dynamic boost.

That main screen is now 16-inches, and Asus is debuting what it calls "Nebula HDR," with Mini LEDs in 512 zones and 1,200 nits of peak brightness. That's on a QHD display at 165 Hz, though again, the resolution should be slightly higher than 2560 x 1440 due to the 16:10 aspect ratio. The half-height secondary panel goes up to 3820 x 1100 and measures 14.09 inches diagonally.

The new design minimizes the gap between the two displays, making the transition between the two panels appear more seamless, and Asus is promising better viewing angles on that ScreenPad Plus–which is good given that was an issue with previous iterations of the Zephyrus Duo.

The cooling system has been upgraded again, too. The ScreenPad Plus actually slides backwards now, to show off a part of the motherboard (with, of course, RGB lighting for good measure). It has fans that are 0.7 mm higher, which the company claims offers 11% more airflow than the previous Zephyrus Duo, and the CPU is being cooled with Conductonaut Extreme thermal compound, which Asus says drops temperatures up to 14 degrees Celsius lower than typical thermal grease.

Other features include an IR camera to log in with Windows Hello, a six-speaker audio system (four speakers and two tweeters) and up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM.

For traditionalists, the AMD ROG Zephyrus G14 is getting a refresh with a 16:10 display and, thank heavens, a webcam (and an IR webcam, for Windows Hello). We’re eager to see if the new model will also earn a spot on our best gaming laptops list.

The G14 is still an all-AMD machine with up to AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and Radeon RX 6800S GPU (Asus is claiming up to 105W of GPU power with AMD's SmartShift technology). Both the CPU and GPU will be cooled with liquid metal and a vapor chamber.

But the G14 has been redesigned on the outside, too: The display has 50% slimmer bezels on the sides and bottom, and the touchpad is twice as big as the previous model.

And yes, the Anime Matrix display on the lid is back, now with smaller perforations, more holes, higher brightness and better contrast. Asus is also adding minigames that you play on the lid using a mouse, though I would imagine the games you play on the real screen will be far more interesting.

The G15 is seeing less of a shift. It's getting a bump to the Ryzen 9 6900HS and RTX 3080 Ti, and it too will now have a webcam. But it's maintaining a 16:19 display.

Other laptops being updated to the latest silicon include the Asus ROG Strix G15 and G17, the Strix Scar 15 and 17, Asus TUF Dash 15 and the TUF Gaming A15, A17, F15 and F17.

Pricing and availability were not immediately made available.

If you thought the Surface Pro was getting stale, it's time to check it out again. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 sports a full redesign, making it the biggest change to the device since the Surface Pro 3 put the lineup on the map.

The Surface Pro 8 is far and away a more beautiful device than its predecessors. The 13-inch screen has thinner bezels than ever before, and the chassis is no longer magnesium, but rather a sleek anodized aluminum that comes in either platinum or graphite colors. Frankly, it looks like the ARM-based Surface Pro X, just with ventilation. It's thinner than before, with rounded corners, and it just looks so much nicer than the previous chunky versions. The Pro 8 measures 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches and weighs 1.96 pounds. 

There's still a kickstand, this one going to 165-degrees, and you still attach the keyboard magnetically. Yes, it's still sold separately -- some things don't change. But in almost all senses, the Surface Pro 8 has caught up the Surface Pro X in design. The big difference is that the Pro X, which runs on an ARM-based processor, is fanless.

Microsoft brings big changes internally, too. A representative told me that while the previous Surface Pro was developed with a 15-watt thermal envelope, this Surface Pro 8 moves that up to 23W. So sustained performance should get a solid boost.

Like the new Surface Pro Studio, the Surface Pro 8's display goes up to 120 Hz (though it's set to 60 Hz by default) for a smoother experience. The 13-inch panel has a resolution of 2880 x 1920 and a 3:2 aspect ratio. Microsoft's screen uses a custom G6 chip, which works with the company's $129.99 Surface Slim Pen 2, to provide haptic feedback using a motor in the stylus. Microsoft claims that the new display is 12.5% brighter, 11% larger and has a 10.8% higher resolution. 

The consumer version of the Pro 8 uses 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 or i7-1185G7 processors, while the commercial version offers up three options: the dual-core i3-1115G4, or quad-core Core i5-1145G7 or Core i7-1185G7. The business model will also have LTE options on the Core i5 and Core i7 versions. Microsoft is promising up to 50% higher sustained CPU performance and 74% faster graphics.

The removable SSD ranges from 128 GB to 1TB, though Microsoft continues to caveat that users aren't supposed to replace these themselves, but instead take them to Microsoft-authorized repair technicians. 128GB and 256GB drives will be in both Wi-Fi and LTE models, while 512GB and 1TB drives are restricted to the Wi-Fi version.

This is also the first Surface Pro that supports Thunderbolt 4. There are two USB 4.0 Type-C ports on the left side, with Thunderbolt 4, while the right side has proprietary Surface Connect for charging and docking, as well as a headphone jack. This version of the Pro has ditched USB Type-A entirely, unless you get an external dock. 

Microsoft's new type covers for the Surface Pro 8 are different in that they can house and charge the Surface Slim Pen, like the Surface Pro X's covers do. In fact, the covers are interchangeable between the two devices.

Microsoft will sell consumer models of the Surface Pro 8 with Windows 11 Home. Commercial customers will be able to pick between Windows 11 Pro and Windows 10 Pro.

Microsoft's other announcements today include the Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Go 3, Surface Duo 2 and a Wi-Fi version of the Surface Pro X.

The Surface Pro 8 will start at $1,099.99 and is available for pre-order today. We hope to be able to get a more extended look soon and get a chance to benchmark and test the machine. But what do we know from our limited time with the device so far? It sure is pretty.

Microsoft is taking a second swing at its dual-screen smartphone with the Surface Duo 2. The newAndroid device is meant to provide a massive update in performance, functionality and camera quality over the original Duo, which launched just over a year ago.

The new Surface Duo bumps up to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, 8GB of RAM and a new triple-camera system, making up for two of the original's biggest weaknesses.

The two new displays are also larger, with smaller bezels. Together, they're 8.3 inches diagonally, up from 8.1 inches on the original, and they're both 5.8-inches individually (up from 5.6-inches). Interestingly, both are listed at slightly lower resolutions than the predecessor. That being said, they have the same pixels-per-inch at 401 PPI.

Microsoft claims other updates to the screens, however, that may make up for that, including 800 nits max brightness and a 90 Hz adaptive refresh rate, as well as support for HDR. . The displays are covered in Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.

Additionally, the screens are slightly more curved toward the hinge than the original. That makes them slightly visible when the device is closed, letting you know if you missed a call or a text as soon as you take it out of your pocket (though you can still peek by slightly opening the screens, as well). This is a neat trick that Microsoft calls the Glance Bar, but considering the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a full outer display and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a small screen on the exterior that shows slightly more information, this just doesn't seem as helpful.

The new camera system includes a 12MP wide camera, a 12MP telephoto camera and a 16MP ultra-wide lens. That's far more impressive, at least on paper, than the single 11MP camera on the original Duo.

Microsoft will offer the Duo in two colors: glacier and a new obsidian black, the latter of which looked nice but got covered in fingerprints in my limited time with it. The phone feels far more substantial than the original, perhaps due to the extra weight. At 284 grams, it’s 0.07 pounds (34 grams) heavier than the original. I don't think it's heavy -- it just feels like a premium device.

It will come with Android 11, the latest release of Google's operating system. Microsoft is promising three years of updates and security fixes.

At 5.5 mm thick when it's open, Microsoft says this is the thinnest 5G phone, though it's 11 mm thick when it's closed. And now the cameras jut out, though that's not as big a deal as I expected. They're at a small angle, and yes, there’s a gap when you have the covers back to back. The lenses have a small rubber gasket protecting from damage, and it still felt decent, albeit a bit awkward, in the hand without them flush. 

There are also some serious quality of life improvements, including NFC for payments, Wi-Fi 6, better audio, and the fingerprint reader has moved onto the power button. There's also dual batteries adding up to 4,449 mAH and 23W fast charging.

Microsoft is also pushing this as, effectively, a gaming phone. The boost to 90 Hz displays makes games, whether local mobile games like Asphalt 9, which uses both screens at synced frame rates, or when using xCloud to stream console-grade games to a single display. The company is pushing 5G as a great way to stream movies and games to the Duo 2, though I could see that leading to some serious data overage charges. Microsoft is also listing the device as unlocked for all carriers.

There's also a new case you can use to magnetically attach the Surface Slim Pen or Slim Pen 2. The case also transfers power from the phone to the stylus, keeping it powered (There is no wireless charging for the phone, however.)

Otherwise, you'll still get a ton of Office 365 apps preinstalled, making it an ideal environment for Microsoft power users on the go.

We only had a short amount of time with the Duo 2, but it feels more premium than ever — far more like a premium device than the original did. The question, now, will be how it performs in the long term, and if more apps support a two-screen phone to make it a more useful device. The Surface Duo 2 is available for pre-order today, starting at $1,499.99, and will shop on October 21.

Microsoft's other announcements today include the Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Pro 8, Surface Go 3 and a Wi-Fi only version of the Surface Pro X.

PINE Microsystems, producer of Raspberry Pi alternative single board computers, has announced the PineNote, an e-ink tablet powered by the same SoC as found in the Quartz64 single-board computer. The first batch of units comes with a caveat, don't expect to write your dissertation or read too many e-books, unless you have the coding skills to make it happen.

For those unfamiliar with the Quartz64, it was released in June 2021, and packs a Rockchip RK3566 Quad-Core ARM Cortex A55 64-Bit Processor with a MALI G-52 GPU. Key features include a PCIe x4 open ended slot (on the model A, which also has the e-ink interface) or M.2 (for the model B) using one Gen 2 lane electrically, and up to 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

The CPU in the PineNote is clocked at 1.8 GHz, and uses the full complement of eMMC, plus 4GB of RAM. Wireless connectivity is taken care of by Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5, and the 10.3in e-ink screen has a resolution of 1404x1872 pixels, for a density of 227ppi. The screen can be rotated thanks to a built in rotation sensor. The screen may only be able to display 16 levels of grayscale, but is a full multi-touch panel with a pen digitizer, and the front light has 36 levels of intensity. There are stereo speakers and four microphones built in, but no webcam. Charging the onboard 4000mAH LiPo battery is via USB-C.

At just over 7mm (0.27in) thick, it’s thinner than a Kindle Oasis 3, and should be available later this year for $399 - though there are some pretty sensible warnings on the web page about the state of its software when you first get it: “...you must expect to write software for it, not to write notes on it. The software shipping from the factory for the first batch will not be suitable for taking notes, reading e-books, or writing your dissertation. It may not even boot to a graphical environment”. So be warned.

A debate over whether this is a tablet that doubles as an external display or an external display that happens to run Android will no doubt rage following Lenovo’s announcement of the Yoga Tab 13. It’s an Android tablet with a micro HDMI input, which sees the tablet pulling a double duty as an external screen. 

With a 10,000mAh battery inside, Lenovo's Yoga Pad 13 should run all day as an external monitor, accompanying laptops on trips out of the office to really nail that dual-screen productivity feeling wherever you are without having to buy the best computer monitor. The 13 inch display has a resolution of 2160 x 1350 and a brightness of 400nits, a refresh rate of 60Hz and 100% sRGB Dolby Vision support. It’s also a 10-point touchscreen, though possibly only in tablet mode. There’s a kickstand at the back to enable it to stand upright, an 8MP front-facing camera, and four speakers supporting Dolby Atmos.

Should you wish to use it as a tablet, you’ll find Android 11 running Google’s Entertainment Space launcher, on a Snapdragon 870 (the same chip found in the Samsung Galaxy S8) and 8GB of LPDDR5. Graphics come via the Qualcomm Adreno 650 GPU, and storage tops out at 256GB. Connectivity comes via Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, and there's a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port for charging and compatible devices.

The screen/tablet comes as part of a tablet refresh from Lenovo, which also announced the Yoga Tab 11 (sadly without the HDMI port), the Lenovo Tab P11 Plus (which comes with a keyboard and stylus) and some entry-level tabs: the M7 and M8. The Lenovo Yoga Tab 13 starts at $680 and should be available in July.

When Apple introduced its all-new iMac 24-inch all-in-one desktop and iPad Pro tablet based on its M1 system-on-chip earlier this month, it said that the new products would be available in the second half of May, but never revealed when exactly they were set to hit the shelves. On Thursday Apple finally unwrapped details about availability of its new devices. 

Apple and its partners will start to take pre-orders on the latest 24-inch iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K starting April 30, 2021. Meanwhile, the new AIO desktop, professional tablet, and set-top-box will be available starting May 21, 2020, reports MacRumors citing UK retailer John Lewis. Since the date comes from an unofficial source, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, Jon Prosser, a tech analyst and a leaker, also states that the 21st of May as the launch date for Apple's latest products. 

Apple's new M1-based iMac comes in seven colors and is equipped with a 23.5-inch display featuring a 4480 × 2520 resolution and a 500 nits brightness, a major upgrade for entry-level AIOs that previously featured a 21-inch LCD panel. The system can be equipped with up to 16GB of LPDDR4 memory and up to 2TB of solid-state storage. Pricing starts at $1,299. 

Apple's upcoming iPad Pro also represent a huge advancement when compared to predecessors as they are powered by PC-class M1 SoC and can be equipped with up to 16GB of memory. Meanwhile, the new iPad Pro 12.9-inch is the world's first tablet to use a Mini LED display. The new iPad Pros start at $799 for 11-inch SKU and $1,099 for a 12.9-incher.

The iPad Pro now uses M1, Apple's homegrown processor that is also in the 21-inch iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini. That's a lot of power, but don't expect the iPad to merge with the Mac line anytime soon.

In an interview with The Independent, Apple hardware lead John Ternus and marketing chief Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak were steadfast that the two platforms are separate.

"There’s two conflicting stories people like to tell about the iPad and Mac," Joswiak told The Independent.  "On the one hand, people say that they are in conflict with each other. That somebody has to decide whether they want a Mac, or they want an iPad. Or people say that we’re merging them into one: that there’s really this grand conspiracy we have, to eliminate the two categories and make them one. And the reality is neither is true. We’re quite proud of the fact that we work really, really hard to create the best products in their respective category."

Indeed, the iPad Pro is far and away better than any other Android tablet. Between the M1 and, if you splurge on a keyboard cover, the iPad Pro can easily handle many workflows with aplomb.

“We don’t think about well, we’re going to limit what this device can do because we don’t want to step on the toes of this [other] one or anything like that,” Ternus said. “We’re pushing to make the best Mac we can make; we’re pushing to make the best iPad we can make. And people choose." He pointed out that some people have both, and that their workflow spans both devices.

But it also highlights what some consider the Mac's biggest weakness: its lack of a touchscreen. Apple has long suggested that the Mac and macOS weren't designed for touch, while critics have bragged about the flexibility some Windows PCs have gained from touch screen options. The iPad, however, is getting its most advanced touchscreen ever, with mini-LED technology with extreme dynamic range borrowed from the desktop Pro Display XDR.

The Mac, as of macOS Big Sur, can run some iOS and iPad OS apps. This doesn't yet go the opposite way, and Apple can't show the same pro apps running on both the iPad and the iMac in stage demos.

Yesterday, The Verge's Monica Chin wrote an op-ed entitled "Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards," suggesting perhaps the ultimate convergence. If you're not going to put touch on the Mac, let users run their Mac apps on the iPad. After all, they share the same processor.

But with rumors of iPadOS 15 getting a significant change, perhaps one differing it more from iOS on the iPhone, it doesn't seem like the Mac and the iPad will become one anytime soon. Or perhaps ever.

"[W]e’re just going to keep making them [the iMac and iPad Pro] better. And we’re not going to get all caught up in, you know, theories around merging or anything like that," Ternus said.

Microsoft today announced the next iteration of its Surface laptop, the Surface Laptop 4. It will start at $999 when it goes on sale on April 15. Perhaps its biggest selling point is choice, with options for both 11th Gen Intel Core processors or an 8-core AMD Ryzen (again called the Microsoft Surface Edition).

Both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop 4 will offer Intel and AMD options. This is a change from the Surface Laptop 3, which offered Intel in the 13.5-incher and AMD in the 15-incher (with the exception of business models). 

The design of the Surface Laptop 4 is largely unchanged, with a 3:2 touchscreen display with 201 pixels per inch, options for Alcantara fabric or a metal deck. There is, however, one new color, ice blue, which debuted on the Surface Laptop Go last year. 

Many of the biggest changes can't be seen. For the first time, Microsoft is offering a 32GB RAM option on the Surface Laptop (with an Intel Core i7 at 1TB of RAM on both sizes). The company is claiming up to 19 hours of battery life on the smaller device with an AMD Ryzen 5 or 17 hours with a Core i7. On the bigger size, it's suggesting up to 17.5 hours with an AMD Ryzen 7 and 16.5 hours with Intel Core i7. Microsoft is also claiming a 70% performance increase, though it doesn't say with which processor.

The new AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition chips are based on Ryzen 4000 and Zen 2, rather than Ryzen 5000 and Zen 3, which is just rolling onto the market. We understand Microsoft's chips are somewhat customized, including frequencies similar to the newer chips. But these new processors should, in theory, lead to increased stability and battery life.

While Microsoft is being more flexible on allowing both Intel and AMD options on both size machines, you won't find them with identical specs when it comes to RAM and storage. The 13.5-inch laptop will offer Ryzen 5 with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the Intel 11th Gen Core process range will include a Core i5/8GB RAM/512GB SSD option to start, as well as both Core i5 and Core i7 models with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage and a maxxed out version with a Core i7, 32GB of RAM and 1TB storage drive. The Ryzzen versions only come in platinum, while all but the top-end Intel model also include ice blue, sandstone and black. 

On the 15-inch model, you can get a Ryzen 7 with 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, or an R7 with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. For intel, You can choose between an Intel Core i7  with either 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage or 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage. These only come in platinum and black.

Commercial models will add more configurations for businesses, including a 13.5-inch model with 512GB of storage and a Ryzen processor. Overall, there are a lot of configurations, so hopefully people are able to find what they want. But there are definitely more options on the Intel side of the Surface fence.

The port situation is largely the same as last year, including USB Type-A, USB Type-C, a headphone jack and the Surface Connect port. Microsoft still isn't going with Thunderbolt, and will be using USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 on both the Intel and AMD models. The replaceable SSD is back, though Microsoft continues to state that it isn't user serviceable, and that it should only be removed by authorized technicians.

It's been a long wait for the Surface Laptop 4. The Surface Laptop 3 was introduced at an event in October 2019 and went on sale that November. Last year, Microsoft revealed the cheaper, smaller Surface Laptop Go but didn't update the flagship clamshell. We'll go hands on with the Surface Laptop 4, so let's hope the wait was worth it.

Microsoft is also revealing a slew of accessories designed for virtual work. They include the $299.99 Surface Headphones 2+ for Business, which is certified for Microsoft Teams with a dongle, shipping this month; Microsoft Modern USB and wireless headsets ($49.99 and $99.99, respectively, releasing in June); the Microsoft Modern USB-C Speaker ($99.99, releasing in June); and the Microsoft Modern webcam, a $69.99 camera with 1080p video, HDR and a 78-degree field of view that will go on sale in June. 

The creator of the Aya Neo Ryzen powered gaming tablet has decided to finally launch the Aya Neo worldwide. Next month, the Aya Neo will go on an Indiegogo campaign where you can purchase the tablet for $699. The campaign will last just 30 days.

The Aya Neo is a one-of-a-kind gaming tablet packed with full-blown mobile PC components in a form factor, similar to the Nintendo Switch. Specs-wise, the Aya Neo features a Zen 2 based hexa-core Ryzen 5 4500U (with its integrated Vega IGP), 16GB of LPDDR4X 4266Mhz RAM, an NVME SSD, an 800P display, and a 47WH battery.

While those specs don't scream fast in a traditional gaming laptop, it's not that bad for a tablet. In fact, the Aya Neo can pull off a stable 30 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 (at low settings) at its native resolution. With how small the Aya Neo is, that is quite an impressive feat. So if you're looking for a tablet to play your PC games on, the Aya Neo is probably your best option right now.  

Microsoft has unveiled the Surface Pro 7 Plus, an upgraded version of the Surface Pro 7 intended for business customers (and perhaps education). The tablet has been upgraded to 11th Gen Intel Core processors, has a larger battery and, perhaps most surprisingly, a removable SSD. The design is otherwise largely the same on the outside.

It will start at $899 with an Intel Core i3-1115G4 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD for $899.99. If you want LTE, the entry option is with a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. Bumping up to a Core i5, 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD brings you to $1,649.99, while the top-end version with a Core i7-1165G7, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is $2.799.99. Of course, the Type Cover is sold separately no matter which option you pick. It will begin shipping by the end of the week.

The SSD, however, is removable, like it is on the Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop 3, which should be a boon for IT departments looking to replace drives for repairs or simply to add more storage for users that need it (the Surface 7 Pro Plus is using an m.2 2230 SSD, which is slowly becoming more popular).

But much of it is the same, including the 12.3-inch, 2736 x 1824 display (and the thick bezels around it) as well as the port selection. On the Wi-Fi model, there is still a microSD card beneath the kickstand, though on LTE versions that is replaced with a nano SIM slot.

One difference is in weight, however, as Microsoft claims it's 23% lighter than the previous generation of machines.

The battery appears to be larger, with Microsoft rating it at 15 hours on Wi-Fi or 13.5 hours on LTE, up from 10.5 hours on Wi-Fi on the regular Surface Pro 7.

It's unclear if the Surface 7 Pro Plus will become available for non-business or education users, as LTE and 11th Gen will likely tempt some people

This is a announcement from Microsoft, which doesn't announce its own hardware around the CES 2021 timeframe. Additionally, Microsoft announced that its 85-inch Surface Hub 2S will begin shipping out in select markets later this month.

Driven by the needs of working from home and remote education, shipments of personal computers and tablets surged significantly this year. This month sales of PCs promise to increase well beyond expectations as demand for systems for home working and learning will be amplified by the holiday spending. Analysts from IDC expect demand for PCs to remain high next year, which might mean that shortages of certain components may persist. 

IDC projects that sales of desktops and laptops will increase 18.2% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2020, whereas shipments of mobile devices will surge 26.4% YoY in Q4 2020. In general, sales of PCs this year will increase 11.2% compared to 2019 mainly because of work from home and remote education needs. In fact, shipments of all devices that could be used for work, learning, and/or entertainment are up this year. 

"The momentum in the PC market has been impressive to say the least," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Consumers seem to be buying all ranges of notebook PCs from low-end entry level systems to high-end gaming machines. It is important to note that all of this is happening at a time when other device categories like smartphones, PC monitors, TVs, and gaming consoles are also growing. A clear shift in consumer spend has happened." 

It is no secret that it is hard to get AMD's newest CPUs and GPUs, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards as well as the latest game consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Meanwhile, it is unreasonable for semiconductor and electronics manufacturers to expand their manufacturing capacities significantly just to meet existing demand as soon as possible and then depreciate additional production tools for years. As a result, there are huge backlogs both in consumer and education segments will go into 2021. 

"Earlier this year it seemed like this would be a six-month bump to the industry, but as we look at the supply chain pipeline into 2021, it's clear that the surge has more legs," said Reith. "The education backlog remains extensive and many school districts around the world are doing everything they can to secure inventory." 

Demand for desktops and notebooks will remain high next year as well. In fact, IDC predicts that shipments of PCs will rise 1.4% in 2021. 

"Not only do we expect more PCs to ship this year and next, but the fundamental shift in everyone's workflow is also expected to have a lasting impact on the PC market in 2022 and beyond," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Longer term forecasts for PC shipments and average selling prices have increased as households inch towards one PC per person while buying PCs further up the stack." 

One thing that is noteworthy about increasing shipments of PCs is that sales of notebooks are growing, whereas sales of desktops are declining even when the whole market is up. IDC projects that 291.3 million of computers will be shipped this year, of which 215.8 million will be laptops and 75.5 million will be desktops.  

But after WFH, distance learning, and home entertainment needs will be satisfied, sales of PCs will drop in 2022, based on IDC's projections. However, starting from 2023 they will return to slow growth. 

Black Friday is almost here, and there are plenty of deals to pick through already on some of our favorite hardware. We know it's not always easy to tell which discounts and offers are genuine, so we're sharing the best deals on tech we can find to make the shopping process a little easier.

Today we're sharing a deal we found on the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 tablet. We've got more deals on laptops and tablets you can explore, as well as a list of best laptops for 2020 if you want to see what specs are leading the market.

This tablet features a 12.3-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 2736 x 1824. It's designed for portability and has a battery with an expected life of 10.5 hours, according to the specs.

This tablet comes with a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor. It has 16GB of memory and an internal SSD with 256 GB of storage space. 

Visit the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 product page on Amazon for more spec details, reviews and checkout options.      

As we get closer to Black Friday, vendors are ramping up their offers and deals to provide discounts on some of our favorite hardware. We're working around the clock to bring you the best deals on tech, including the best laptops.

Today we're showcasing a $400 discount on the Microsoft Surface Pro X. We reviewed the Surface Pro X 128GB model in the past, but this offer is for the 256GB edition, which is going for just $899 at Amazon.

The Surface Pro X has a 13-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 2592 x 1458. It features a Microsoft SQ1 processor and an SQ1 Adreno 685 integrated graphics processor.

This edition includes 8GB of RAM and a maximum internal storage capacity of 256GB. This surface is easy to take on the go as it not only comes with built-in Wi-Fi support but can also use 4G LTE.

This offer is for the tablet only, so you won't get any keyboard or pen accessories. Visit the Surface Pro X product page on Amazon for more details and checkout options.

If you’re like me, you’ve been working (or learning) at home since March. And for many, that has meant that a computer like one of the best ultrabooks has become an increasingly important tool. In that regard, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go ($549.99 to start; $899.99 as tested) is here at a good time. People need affordable devices, and being the lightest Surface Laptop ever doesn’t hurt. 

Microsoft made some sacrifice to get to that $549.99 price. It cut biometrics (there is a fingerprint reader on more expensive configurations) and the machine’s partially plastic with a lower resolution screen. There’s also a last gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU across the lineup. But with premium construction, it could still win some people over in the budget department.

However, the Surface  Laptop Go also scales up to $899.99, and when you get there, some of those cuts seriously stop making sense. 

Design of the Surface Laptop Go 

I was enamored with the Surface Laptop Go from the first glance. It truly is a smaller Surface Laptop, and that’s fine with me. Our review unit came in “ice blue,” a grayish blue that provides just a hint of whimsy. The lid is made of aluminum and entirely plain except for curved edges and a reflective Microsoft logo.

There are a few small changes once you unfold the machine. The 12.45-inch display has curved edges, just like bezels, which is new for the Surface lineup. Those edges are thin, except on the bottom.

You won’t find a Windows Hello IR camera for facial recognition log-ins alongside the regular webcam here. Instead, you can login with your fingerprint via a sensor inside the power button. A ring around the power button lights up when the computer is locked to indicate where to place your finger once you’ve set up Windows Hello.

Unlike the lid, the keyboard deck is also made of aluminum, but the bottom of the laptop is made of plastic. It has a mylar touchpad, rather than glass, and the keyboard isn’t backlit. These aren’t necessarily deal killers, just the types of sacrifices you make to get to a $549 starting price.

The left side of the laptop is where you’ll find most of the ports: USB Type-A and USB Type-C, as well as a 3.5 mm headphone jack. On the right there is only the proprietary Surface Connect port, which you use with the charger. I would’ve much preferred to see Microsoft put another USB Type-C port here for charging, but the company shows no signs of getting rid of it.

At just 2.5 pounds and 11 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches, the Surface Laptop Go is plenty portable, whether you’re carrying it from room to room or actually taking it to work or school in person. Of course, it’s not as light as the Surface Go 2, a tablet (1.2 pounds, 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches),  but the MacBook Air (2.8 pounds, 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches) and Acer Swift 3 (2.7 pounds, 12.7 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches) are both larger and slightly heavier with 14-inch and 13-inch screens, respectively. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go Specifications 

Productivity Performance 

The Surface Laptop Go is powered by an Intel Core i5-1035G1, no matter which configuration you choose. Our review unit paired that with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

For our productivity tests, we’re comparing it to Microsoft’s other latest Go product, the Surface Laptop Go 2, released earlier this year with an older Intel Core m3-8100Y, the Acer Swift 3 with AMD’s Ryzen 7 4700U, and the Apple MacBook Air, with another 10th Gen Intel processor, the Core i5-1030NG7.

On Geekbench 5.0, the Surface Laptop Go notched a multi-core score of 3,117. The fact that it beat the Surface Go 2 (1,563), with its older processor meant for fanless designs wasn’t surprising. The Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 did better (4,862), but the MacBook Air fared worse (2,738).

Microsoft’s petite laptop transferred 5GB of files at a rate of 278.4 MBps. That’s faster than the Surface Go 2 (181.8 MBps) but far slower than both the Swift (462.7 MBps) and MacBook Air (508.9 MBps).

It took 25 minutes and 55 seconds for the Surface Laptop Go to transcode a 4K resolution video to 1080p resolution with Handbrake. That’s a bit faster than the MacBook Air (27:10) and far faster than the Surface Go 2 (48:14).

As a stress test, we run Cinebench R20 30 times on a loop and check for heat and stability. The Surface Laptop Go had an expected drop after its first run of 1,005.2, down into the 700’s. By run 4, the CPU had stabilized in the mid 800s.

During the Cinebench test, the CPU hit an average clock speed of just under 1.5 GHz and an average temperature of 66.7 degrees Celsius (152.1 degrees Fahrenheit).

While the Intel Core i5-1035G1 is built on Intel’s 10th Gen “Ice Lake” architecture, it doesn’t get the graphics benefits that the higher-end chips offer. Instead, it uses Intel UHD graphics. The Surface Laptop Go 2 earned a score of 1,229 on 3DMark Fire Strike. While that beat the Surface Go 2, the Acer Swift 3, with AMD’s most recent Radeon graphics, was far better (2,848).

Display on the Surface Laptop Go 

The 12.45-inch display is likely to be the most controversial aspect of the device. It’s a touchscreen in the 3:2 aspect ratio, just like all of the other Surfaces before it. But this screen has a resolution of 1536 x 1024. On this small diagonal, that’s 148 pixels per inch (PPI).

It’s definitely usable. When I watched the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, it got bright enough, and while colors weren’t amazing, the heroine’s red and blue outfit still stood out among the white walls enduring a battle against the Cheetah. The 3:2 aspect ratio is good for seeing more of your work, thanks to the extra height. But when you get close at this low resolution? Yeah, you can make out some pixels. 

While something sub-1080p is, (unfortunately), still considered acceptable on budget machines, this system goes up to $900. And that display doesn’t change. If Surface is supposed to be leading on Windows, I wish Microsoft would have gone with a 1080p equivalent to show other companies what can and should be done.

The Surface Laptop Go’s screen covers 76.8% of the sRGB color gamut, in line with the Surface Go 2 (76.1%). close to the MacBook Air (80%) and way better than the Acer Swift 3 (44.2%).

Microsoft’s panel measured an average of 319.4 nits of max brightness. That’s better than the Swift 3 (251 nits) but below the MacBook Air (386 nits) and Surface Go 2 (408 nits).

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Surface Laptop Go 

One continuous strength on the Surface Laptop line (and its sibling, the Surface Book), has been its keyboards. That is still the case on the Surface Laptop Go. It’s big omission is that the keyboard isn’t backlit.

It feels a tad less clicky than the keys on its more expensive cousins, but ultimately there is still a tactile feel, even if it’s slightly more bouncy. I hit 110 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test with my usual error rate. 

The 3.9 x 2.6-inch touchpad is a decent size considering how small the laptop is. It’s mylar, not glass, but still feels smooth to the touch, just with slightly more friction. Of course, it has Windows Precision drivers, and I didn’t have any issues with navigation or gestures.

Audio on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

When I listened to The Ataris’ “The Boys of Summer,” the music was plenty loud but kind of flat. The vocals and guitars were clear enough, but the drumline wasn’t particularly powerful, and I could barely make out the bass at all. That type of performance is pretty average for a budget machine, but this configuration is out of budget territory.

For uses that don’t have that level of audio detail, like video conferencing, the Surface Laptop Go is fine, though that’s where I’m most likely to use headphones anyway.

Upgradeability of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

Unlike Microsoft’s more recent efforts in the Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X, the Surface Laptop Go isn’t user upgradeable. There are no exposed screws on the bottom of the chassis. Be sure to get a configuration that will last you in the long term (see the Configurations section below).

Battery Life on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

The Surface Laptop Go may be incredibly portable, but you’ll need to top it off if you’re using it for long periods of time. On our battery test, which continuously browses the web, streams video and runs OpenGL tests all over Wi-Fi with the screen at 150 nits brightness, it ran for just 7 hours and 42 minutes. Good thing the charger is small, too.

The Surface Go 2 lasted the longest out of the comparison group, at 11:38, while the AMD Ryzen-based Acer Swift 3 ran for 11:09. The Apple MacBook Air also offered more endurance at 9:31. 

Heat on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

We took skin temperatures while running our Cinebench R20 loop (see th ePerformance section above) to test the laptop under a heavy load. The laptop fans definitely whirred throughout (with a bit of an occasional whistle), but the laptop wasn’t untouchably hot.

The center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, measured 43.8 degrees Celsius (110.8 Fahrenheit). This wasn’t exactly comfortable but not usable either. The touchpad was cooler, hitting 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The hottest spot was on the bottom of the laptop, by the hinge. It reached 49.5 degrees Celsius (121.1 degrees Fahrenheit). Could I stand this heat on my lap? Yes. Would I prefer it on a desk? Also yes.

Webcam on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

Microsoft put a 720p resolution webcam in the bezel above the Surface Laptop Go’s display. Like the majority of laptop webcams out there, it’s not very special. In a still from my desk, there was some graininess. The colors were accurate – my bright red shirt was just the right shade – and there was more detail than in some other webcams, but it’s nothing amazing.

But it's more disappointing to see this on the Surface Laptop Go than on other laptops because with the Surface Go 2, released earlier this year, Microsoft used a 5 megapixel front-facing camera that was capable of video chatting at 1080p. Right now, where so many people are working or studying from home, I wish that carried over to the Surface Laptop Go. 

Software and Warranty on the Surface Laptop Go 

Perhaps one of the best, albeit lesser hyped, parts of the Surface line is just how little included software there is. 

The big app that comes with it is Microsoft’s Surface software, a place to check your Surface serial number, drivers and warranty coverage and connect accessories. There are also trails of the Office 365 suite.

Otherwise, the bloat only consists of what you would get on any Windows 10 machine, including Hulu, Spotify, Facebook Messenger and Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure.

The laptop comes in Windows 10 Home in S Mode, which Microsoft claims is more secure and keeps the laptop fast. This, however, limits you to software from the Microsoft Store. If you’re only using a web browser and software in that store, you may be OK. But to test it, we needed to make the free change to regular Windows 10 Home, which lets you install anything you want. 

Microsoft sells the Surface Laptop Go with a 1-year warranty. 

Configurations of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 

We tested the top-end, $899.99 configuration of the Surface Laptop Go, with an Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. This version also includes Microsoft’s One Touch fingerprint reader in the power button.

You can get our model with 16GB of RAM, but you have to buy it through Microsoft’s business program. That costs $1,199.99.

The base model is $549.99, and while it has the same processor, it offers just 4GB of RAM and 64GB of slower eMMC storage. This version also doesn’t include the fingerprint reader. It’s hard to recommend this model unless you prefer the Surface aesthetic above all else.

In the middle, there’s a $699.99 option with the same chip and 8GB of RAM but just 128GB of SSD storage. This configuration also has a fingerprint reader.
 

Bottom Line 

The Surface Laptop Go fills a huge need in Microsoft’s hardware lineup, providing a somewhat affordable entry into the company’s ecosystem and showcase for Windows 10. Right now, as so many people work and learn from home, the standard laptop form factor is more useful than ever, so that fills a need.

Microsoft’s $549.99 starting point may attract many who want something that looks and feels premium. Some cuts, like the backlit keyboard and IR camera and use of a partially plastic chassis, aren’t big deals. But a sub-1080p display (or in this 3:2 case sub-1920 x 1280), feels cheap, especially for Surface, especially in 2020.

The Core i5 Ice Lake chip in there, while not the latest, will give people with largely browser-based workloads enough headroom. But 4GB of RAM doesn’t really cut it beyond a few browser tabs, and just 64GB of eMMC storage isn’t an enticing proposition, which could effectively force a jump up to the mid-range $699.99 configuration with 8GB of memory and a real SSD, albeit it a 128GB one.

Which brings me to hesitations I had about my $899.99 review unit. It has the sacrifices expected of a $549.99 laptop, especially when it comes to display resolution and storage space.

Perhaps the best comparison is the Acer Swift 3. It’s $649, which is $100 more than the Surface Laptop Go, and I understand that’s a lot. But you also get a 1080p screen (albeit a lackluster one), a much more powerful AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, far more battery life and a larger 512GB SSD. 

Part of what you’re paying for with the Surface Laptop Go is the premium name and feel. How much is that worth to you? If you opt for the low-end specs, it’s questionable. At the high end, it isn’t really worth it, as you’re getting into entry-level Surface Laptop 3 territory.

One other suggestion: the Surface Go 2. If you need small, that tablet starts at $549.99 with less power and the same lackluster RAM and storage, though it has dropped in price so that you can get it, as of this writing, with an M3, 8GB of RAM and 128GB for the same cost on Amazon. You’ll have to pay more for the keyboard, of course, but you’ll also get a 1920 x 1280 display, 1080p webcam and facial recognition.

The Surface Laptop Go is built with purpose, but at this price it has a ton of competition from the greater Windows 10 ecosystem, not to mention premium Chromebooks. The 3:2 screen here is rare, and so is the premium construction. Some will rightfully want this. But as you get higher up the configuration stack, you can find better deals. While I was generally happy while using the Surface Laptop Go, if I were to actually buy a new laptop, I know I could get more. 

A portable Raspberry Pi setup is the dream for many Raspberry Pi fans. There have been a few attempts in the past, some homebrew methods such as Motorola Atrix lapdock hacks, and others which are commercial products such as the pi-top laptop and the Elecrow CrowPi2 learning notebook kit. RasPad 3 from Sunfounder is the company’s third attempt at a portable “tablet” Pi. Priced from $150, not including a Raspberry Pi 4 we have a potentially powerful portable platform for learners.

A small-ish case, onboard battery, speakers and a large touchscreen would seem to be the ideal but just how convenient is it and can it replace bulky Raspberry Pi setups? The answer really depends on your expectations.  

Specifications and Design of the RasPad 3 

RasPad 3 comes in two pieces of injection moulded plastic which friction fit together and are secured using five machine screws. The main part of the case houses the 10.1 inch 1280 x 800 pixels touchscreen and electronics. The second part is merely a plastic shell that encloses the electronics and provides a mounting point for a small fan position over the center of the Raspberry Pi in fact it is rather close to the included heatsink on the Raspberry Pi, so take care when assembling. The design of RasPad 3 is more of a wedge than a tablet, which is 1.8 inches (47mm) at the thickest point and 0.6 inches (15mm) at its thinnest. This is a tablet in name only, in form factor this is far too bulky to be something that slips into a bag. Rather it is a wedge form factor necessary for the electronics. Inside we see two boards, a custom board that provides connectivity for the Raspberry Pi and the outside world. And another board used for battery management and On Screen Display (OSD) controls. 

Internally the Raspberry Pi 4 connects to the custom board using a series of connectors. A short Ethernet and USB 3 cable provides wired networking and three USB 3.0 ports. On our supplied review unit, the Ethernet port was non-functional and had an added quirk where inserting an Ethernet cable would turn off WiFi on the Raspberry Pi. 

The dual micro HDMI ports are connected to the board, one of which is routed to the touchscreen and the other to a full size HDMI port which enables dual screen support but will disable the touchscreen on the main unit. The board also provides power to the Raspberry Pi 4 via a USB C cable. The power offered can be sourced from the internal 18650 Lithium-polymer batteries or via the included 15V DC charger. 

On the board, just next to the batteries is a two pin JST connector that connects to the onboard fan, a fan that you will soon disconnect as it is far too loud, approximately 49db which is the same volume as a conversation but it does provide adequate cooling when used with the heatsinks. During a Stressberry test with the heatsinks and fan connected we saw an idle temperature of 37 Celsius and a max temperature of 52 Celsius and the case temperature was 25.7 Celsius. Repeating the same test with the fan turned off we saw an idle temperature of 42 Celsius and a max temperature of 70 Celsius and with a case temperature of 29 Celsius. For general use the heatsinks provide plenty of cooling, but if you wish to overclock or push the Raspberry Pi to its limits then active cooling via the fan will be needed.

On the other side of the case is a smaller board which is a breakout for a micro SD card reader, buttons for volume and brightness control, along with a power button. A series of LEDs provide visual indication of battery charge, but they are on the opposite side of the case from the power socket, a small issue but an annoyance. 

Assembling RasPad 3 is straightforward and the included instruction manual details the steps necessary. The kit also comes with heatsinks for the CPU and USB controller, and a small Accel SHIM which is an I2C device responsible for detecting the orientation of RasPad 3. Support for this sensor is built into the RasPad OS and the screen will automatically rotate once we are at the desktop.

A top tip is to always check for a micro SD card in the external card slot. Removing the case with a card in the slot will damage the slot.

Using RasPad 3

RasPad 3 is designed to be used as a tablet and the wedge design lends itself to a slanted angle which means it can be used on a table. Placed down with a shallow slant, RasPad 3 is comfortable for short term use. If it’s placed upright, the viewing angle improves, but using the touchscreen is difficult as the unit is unbalanced. However, this upright mode is great for use with a wireless keyboard and mouse. 

Using RasPad 3 flat on a table, we inserted a micro SD card with RasPad OS installed and powered up. RasPad OS is based upon Raspberry Pi OS 32 bit but it has a custom skin which is a little more finger friendly. After following the first boot steps, we are presented with the desktop, which is bright and colorful. Applications are available via a menu along the left side of the screen which groups them into categories. A typical desktop is underneath this menu and while it may be very yellow, it still functions just like Raspberry Pi OS.

RasPad 3 is designed to be a tablet and it  comes with two on-screen keyboards. One of these keyboards is only available via Sunfounder’s own apps such as Exblock Studio. It looks like a typical tablet / smartphone keyboard and it works rather well, despite taking up half of the screen. 

The second keyboard is available for other applications, such as Thonny, Terminal etc. It is hard to use given the small key size and we encountered many errors. It also covers most of the screen so a wireless keyboard and mouse would be a much more productive choice of input.

The internal speaker is decent, nothing an audiophile would praise but it provided sufficient volume and clarity for playback of music and videos.

GPIO Access on the RasPad 3

GPIO access is possible but there is only a small slot on the thick end of the case where we can feed wires through. The best option here is to use a GPIO breakout board such as Pimoroni’s HAT Hacker HAT or a Pi T-Cobbler Plus from Adafruit. These breakouts enable us to use the GPIO pins with a breadboard and without them we cannot easily use the GPIO. Not all breakout cables are created equally and in our tests we used a long IDE style cable to break out the GPIO, but this proved too thick for the case to safely close. It could be forced down and held in place by screwing the case closed, but do check your cable before forcing the case closed.There is a slot cut on the rear of the case which can be used with a sufficiently long flat flex cable but it does leave the camera unsecured to the case which is not great. 

Battery Life of RasPad 3

Powering the RasPad 3 is the 3000mAh battery which is claimed to have five hours of charge. In our tests, watching a YouTube video at half brightness and volume with the fan constantly on, we saw 2 hours 40 minutes which was far below the advertised duration. When the battery gets low, we see an onscreen prompt, coming from the OSD of the screen rather than the Pi, but if we carry on the unit will abruptly power off, no safe shutdown.Charging the internal battery talks just over three hours with the included 15V 2A power supply.

The power button on the side of the case turns on the device and we can safely shutdown the device using the power menu in the OS, but be aware that this does not turn the unit off completely. The fan and screen will still be active, requiring a long press of the power button to cut the power.

Use Cases for RasPad 3

If you just want a learning device that’s compact and portable, the RasPad 3 is a workable choice. We have a small all-in-one form factor that enables on-the-go learning. As it runs a modified version of Raspberry Pi OS, we have great compatibility with projects and applications created to use that OS. Children, students and makers will get a lot of mileage from this device as it removes the need for much of the clutter that comes with a typical Pi setup. However, the difficulty of accessing the GPIO pins is a big drawback, should you want to experiment with lights, sensors, motors or HATs, all things that make the Raspberry Pi special.

If you are thinking about using the RasPad 3 as a laptop / tablet replacement then this is where common sense must take priority. As a tablet / laptop replacement the RasPad 3 is a poor choice. With an initial cost of $150, and then we need to add the cost of a Raspberry Pi 4 which is $35 for a 2 GB model or $55 for the 4GB or $75 for the 8 GB and then add the cost of a wireless keyboard and mouse, roughly $40. We are looking at $215 as a basic price for the kit. 

Bottom Line 

The RasPad 3 had an opportunity to blow us all away. Instead we get something that is interesting in concept but underwhelming in execution. Don’t think that we dislike RasPad 3; it is a nice piece of kit but the flaws are there for all to see. If you already have a Raspberry Pi 4, then $150 is a decent price for the portability provided by the form factor. If you are starting from scratch, then the CrowPi2 for $260 comes in a laptop form factor, a 1080P screen and a complete electronics lab hidden under the keyboard. 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 is in a weird situation. It’s a powerful, portable laptop that goes up to AMD Ryzen 7 4800U. In our testing, it proved to be a powerful, efficient monster of a processor. If you want this laptop, you want this CPU.

Except you can’t in the United States. Here, it is marketed under a different name, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7. And in the U.S., as of this writing, that comes in one configuration with a Ryzen 7 4700U, paired with 8GB of RAM for $899.99. The 4700U has a total of 8 cores with 8 threads and a maximum rated boost clock of 4.1 GHz while the 4800U uses multi-threading to give you 16 threads (double the amount) while it boosts up to 4.2 GHz.

We got a Yoga in an IdeaPad’s clothing. The box said IdeaPad. The sticker on the laptop said IdeaPad. Even the system name in Windows is IdeaPad. It has a 1-year American warranty in Lenovo Vantage. But Lenovo told me that the model I had won’t be available here.

In fact, it was hard to find it anywhere in the world. After searching much of western Europe, we finally found a listing for it on Lenovo’s website in Amsterdam for €999.00 (roughly $1,181.97)

As a (largely) North American-based website, we generally test configurations that you can get in North America. But that wasn’t going to stop us from testing the Ryzen 7 4800U, in what happens to be one of the best ultrabooks that we’ve seen this year. 

Design 

It used to be that you couldn’t find a Ryzen processor in a nice-looking system, but that’s clearly no longer the case. The Yoga Slim 7 feels like a premium machine. In that way, it’s the type of laptop that Intel should be very afraid of.

While it’s called IdeaPad in North America, it has the Yoga logo on the lid, as well as Lenovo’s own. Yoga is Lenovo’s most premium consumer brand. And it shows; our iron gray model was made entirely out of metal and feels truly solid.

The 14-inch display has a very thin bezel around it, especially on the sides. Lenovo couldn’t even fit it’s own name on the bottom, where most manufacturers leave their marks. Instead, there’s another Lenovo logo on the metal wrist rest. The chiclet keyboard is backlit and has speakers on either side. 

The bezel above the webcam juts out ever so slightly (with a Yoga 7 Series stamp, again with the mixed nomenclature), which makes room for infrared cameras. This also makes it easy to open the laptop with just one hand.

Port selection is also good for a laptop. There are two USB Type-C ports on the left side (you’ll use one for charging), as well as an HDMI output and a headphone jack. The right side of the machine plays host to a microSD card reader, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and the power button.

It’s weird to see the power button on the side. This is a clamshell device, so it would make sense to put that on or near the keyboard. This is great for business users who may want to dock their laptops, but if they’re buying Lenovo, they’ll likely go for a ThinkPad anyway.  

At 12.6 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches, the Yoga Slim 7 feels nice and compact. It weighs in at 3.8 pounds. It’s not as small as the 2.8-pound Dell XPS 13 9300 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches). The HP Spectre x360 (13-inch) is 2.7 pounds and 12.1 x 7.7 x 0.7 inches, and Lenovo’s own ThinkPad X1 Carbon is 2.4 pounds and 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Specifications 

Productivity Performance 

The AMD Ryzen 7 4800U is really goddamn fast. The 8 core/16 thread processor slaughtered Intel’s U-series rivals in some of our benchmarks.

On Geekbench 5.0, the Slim 7 earned a multi-core score of 6,669, handing the 4-core, 8-thread Intel machine’s butts to them. The XPS 13 (Ice Lake, Core i7-1065G7) scored 4,848, the Spectre x360 (Ice Lake, Core i7-1065G7) scored 4,074 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Comet Lake, Core i7-10610U) notched a score of 3,913.

The Yoga Slim 7 transferred 4.97GB of files at a rate of 937.7 MBps, blazing past most of the competition, except for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (997.9 MBps).

Perhaps the most dramatic difference was in Handbrake. The Slim 7 transcoded a video from 4K to 1080p in 8 minutes and 55 seconds. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon took 18:28, the XPS 13 ran for 15:40, and the Spectre lagged at 21:13.

We also ran our usual Cinebench R20 stress test for ultrabooks, looping the program 20 times. The scores were largely stable, in the 2800’s, with one dip into the high 2700’s early on. The average score was 2820.5.

The CPU ran at an average speed of 2.5 GHz. While it did often spike to AMD’s promised 4.2 GHz, it didn’t stay there for long periods of time. The average CPU temperature was 72.8 degrees Celsius (163 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Ryzen 7 4800U also showed off its graphics muscle in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, running the benchmark at 35 fps, which is playable. That’s far and away better than the XPS 13 (19 fps) or ThinkPad X12 Carbon (8 fps). 

Display 

There aren’t a lot of Ryzen machines with great displays, and the one on the Yoga Slim 7 is only good. It’s a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS panel with decent colors, but my first instinct was to try to make it brighter. Sure, the trailer for The Batman is already a bit dark, but it made some items, like a bright green envelope holding a note to Batman, not stand out as much as it does on other screens. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it could be better.

Lenovo’s panel covers 80.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, 1% behind the XPS 13 but above both the Spectre and the ThinkPad.

On our lightmeter, the Slim 7 measured an average of 353 nits of brightness, which is less than the XPS 13’s 417 nits (on its 1920 x 1200 variant), 369 nits on the Spectre and 364 nits on the X1 Carbon.

Keyboard and Touchpad 

Lenovo’s keyboard is a bit shallow, but still feels clicky and tactile. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I hit 108 words per minute with a 2% error rate.

Some of the keys have non-traditional function options, including opening Lenovo Vantage, showing all of your desktops, and activating the Snipping Tool.

The 4.1 x 2.5-inch touchpad feels just a tad small (I wish it were wider), but the important thing is that it’s responsive with Windows precision drivers. I never had any issues with gestures or navigation.

Audio 

Most thin laptops don’t produce the richest sound, and this Slim 7 isn’t an exception here. Don’t get me wrong - it’s totally serviceable. When I experienced middle school flashbacks listening to Good Charlotte’s “The Anthem.” I found that the sound was even and clear. It just lacked detail, and the drums didn’t stand out among the guitars.

I got some help from the Dolby Atmos Speaker System software, though. It has a handful of preset equalizers (or you can set you brown), but I found the “Detailed” setting added back the drums and even gave a bit more edge to the guitars. The bass, like most laptops, was lacking. 

Upgradeability 

There are seven screws on the bottom of the Yoga Slim 7. You’ll need a Torx T5 screwdriver to remove them. The three along the hinge came out easily, but the four closer to the palmrest were in tight and required a bit of patience.

Once those are out, you’ll need a tool to pry carefully along the edges to get the bottom of the chassis off.

When you get inside, you’ll see that the battery and SSD are immediately accessible. The RAM, however, is soldered to the board. The SSD is wrapped in foil, but you can still remove it by simply removing the screw. If you replace the drive, you can slide the little foil jacket back on. 

Battery Life 

AMD’s efficiency shows here. On our battery test, which has laptops browse the web, run OpenGL tests and stream video over Wi-Fi, all at 150 nits, the Slim 7 ran for 17 hours and 21 minutes on a charge. Wow.

That surpasses some of the longest-lasting Intel laptops we’ve seen of late, including the Dell XPS 13 (12:39 FHD, 8:14 4K), ThinkPad X1 Carbon (10:45 FHD, 7:23 4K) and HP Spectre x360 (13:19).

Heat 

We took skin temperature measurements  while running our Cinebench R20 stress test.

Between the G and H keys, the Slim 7 measured 42.3 degrees Celsius (108.1 degrees Fahrenheit), but was cooler on the touchpad, at 31.4 degrees Celsius (88.5 degrees Fahrenheit).

The hottest point on the bottom of the laptop hit 50.2 degrees Celsius (122.4 Fahrenheit), which is definitely on the toastier side.

Webcam 

The 720p webcam on the Yoga Slim 7 is of poor quality. In images, I appeared grainy and out of focus, as did the backgrounds behind me. I highly recommend using one of the best webcams with this device.

It did, however, work great in conjunction with its IR sensors to log me in with facial recognition via Windows Hello, which was always fast and accurate. 

Software and Warranty 

Lenovo ships the Slim 7 largely free of bloat. In fact, there’s just one piece of software you’ll want to delete right away: a trial of McAfee LiveSafe.

Other than that Lenovo Vantage is the other big piece of software, and that’s a place to check your warranty status, run hardware scans and get support. Glance for Mirametrix is there for people who want to use the IR cameras to move windows from the laptop screen to another monitor.

Otherwise, you can expect the same bloatware you find built into almost every Windows 10 installation, including Facebook Messenger, Hulu, and Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure.

Lenovo sells the IdeaPad Slim 7 with a one-year warranty in the U.S.

Configurations 

We reviewed the IdeaPad Slim 7 (known as the Yoga Slim 7 outside of the United States) with an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U CPU with integrated Radeon graphics, 16GB of RAM,  and a 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD. This version won’t be sold in the United States, but will be available internationally. We found it listed on Lenovo’s website in the Netherlands for €999 (other sites had pages up for it, but not prices).

It showed up in a weird - way: in US packaging, with US (IdeaPad) branding, and a US keyboard layout. Lenovo Vantage also recognized it and gave it a US warranty. In a way, what we reviewed is unique.

What is being sold, however, is an $899.99 version with a Ryzen 7 4700U, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. We would expect similar or better battery life from this model, along with the same screen and build quality. 

Bottom Line 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7, IdeaPad Slim 7, whatever you want to call it, is the type of ultrabook that Intel should be wary about. Luckily for it, the best version of it is very hard to find.

The Ryzen 4800U has proven to be one hell of a processor. While on price, this laptop is more of an ultraportable, it brings CPU performance you could expect in some mid-range gaming laptops. And in that ultrabook space, both Intel’s Ice Lake and Comet Lake laptops didn’t meet Ryzen.

It’s not perfect. The computer can get toasty, and the screen isn’t quite as good as those on its Intel counterparts. But beyond the performance, the battery life is truly incredible and the design

The problem is that this laptop, in the configuration we got it in, is effectively not for sale (lesser versions are). I’ve seen threads on Reddit and elsewhere with people hunting for this version. And if you’re in the market for something like this and find it, I would recommend from my testing that you snag it.

But this version is also the definitive version of a premium Ryzen 4000-series laptop. The AMD Ryzen 4800U is incredible, and 16GB of RAM is simply recommended these days. Hopefully this top-of-the-line configuration of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 becomes more available soon.  

Microsoft has finally pulled the wraps off of the Surface Duo, its Android-based foldable (that it won't call a phone). It will start at $1,399 for a 128GB model when it launches on September 10. Microsoft made the announcement in a blog post this morning.

That price puts it among the most expensive phones on the market (it's $1,499 for the 256GB model). Some of that is due to the Surface name, as well as the fact that you're getting two screens that total 8.1-inches when the device is open. But with a last-gen Snapdragon 855 processor, it's a bit behind on compute.

The Surface Duo's two 5.6-inch displays are both 1800 x 1350 resolution AMOLED screens that Microsoft has dubbed "PixelSense Fusion." They should work with any Surface Pen (not included).

The not-a-phone is also coming with an 11MP camera, 6GB of RAM and a 3,577 mAh battery.

At 4.8mm (0.2 inch) when opened, Microsoft is calling this the thinnest Surface Device ever.

Microsoft's Surface Duo will support LTE on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in the United States, but availability and carriers have not yet been announced worldwide. The Duo will be available for pre-order at  Microsoft's online store, AT&T and Best Buy.

This is also the first piece of Surface hardware to run something other than Windows. It's full-on Android, including Google Search, Google Calendar and the Play Store. But Microsoft has also included a bunch of its own software, including Office apps, OneDrive, Edge, Teams and LinkedIn. That's where we're most interested: to see how this portable device fits into our daily lives and integrates with our workflow when we get back to our computers.

The Surface Duo is Microsoft's first foldable. It was announced alongside the Surface Neo, a Windows foldable at an event in October, but the Neo has seemingly been shelved while the company continues to work on Windows 10X.

For a long time, a project called Andromeda, thought to be a Windows-based, pocketable foldable, was rumored, seemingly taking up the mantle of the canceled Courier.

We may soon see Microsoft Surface devices with AMD Ryzen 4000 CPU options. That's based on a listing in the 3DMark 11 database spotted by hardware leaker @_rogame that shows a Surface sporting an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U APU and a AMD Radeon RX 5300M mobile graphics card. 

The listing didn't reveal if the unit tested was a Surface Laptop, Surface Book or Surface Tablet. Regardless, the device tested seemingly packs decent firepower.

The Ryzen 5 4500U (codename Renoir) is based on AMD's latest Zen 2 microarchitecture and manufactured on TSMC's 7nm FinFET process. The hexa-core processor has a 2.3 GHz base clock and a boost clock that climbs to 4 GHz. The Ryzen 5 4500U runs within the 15W envelope, so it'll be a good fit for Microsoft's slim devices.

The Ryzen 5 4500U has its own integrated graphics with six Vega Compute Units (CUs) that tick up to 1,500 MHz. However, it would appear that Microsoft might kick the graphics aspect of the Surface device up a notch by pairing it with a discrete graphics card from the AMD camp as well.

The 3DMark 11 submission doesn't specify the exact model of the device's graphics card but points to 3GB of onboard memory. AMD currently has four Navi-based mobile graphics cards, and of those four, only the Radeon RX 5300M comes with 3GB of (GDDR6) memory.

The Radeon RX 5300M is built around the Navi 14 silicon that also benefits from TSMC's 7nm node. The graphics card features 22 CUs, equivalent to 1,408 Stream Processors (SPs), and operates with a 1,181 MHz game clock and 1,445 MHz boost clock. The memory is clocked at 14 Gbps across a 96-bit memory interface, which works out to a memory bandwidth of 168 GBps.

It's refreshing to see manufacturers going all in with AMD. Nowadays, you can find a lot of laptops that either use an AMD processor or graphics card, but rarely do you see one that employs both (the MSI Alpha 15 is one example). There are still a lot of options in AMD's arsenal, such as the Ryzen 7 4800U, Ryzen 7 4700U for CPUs and RX 5500M or RX 5600M for graphics. It'll be interesting to see what combination Microsoft might come up with in future Surface products.

Apple has updated its iPad Pro line with its new iPad Pro, which comes with a host of new upgrades including the 8-core A12Z Bionic processor and trackpad support in iPadOS. 

The new iPad Pro is coming in 11-inch and 12.9-inch version, with the basic version packing 128 GB of flash storage. For those craving more, capacities will range all the way up to 1 TB, which is huge for a tablet. Naturally, the usual WiFi-only variants will exist alongside the WiFi + cellular data models.

Under the hood, the iPad Pro comes with the new A12Z Bionic chip, which Apple claims makes it faster than most Windows laptops. This new silicon comes with eight CPU cores, along with a Neural Engine. Apple claims to be powerful enough to handle 4K video editing and designing 3D models.

One of the biggest changes coming along with the new iPadOS 13.4 is the addition of trackpad support, which is what enables the new keyboard. The new Magic Keyboard has a trackpad built-in, and will 'float' the iPad Pro above it, presumably to keep it in balance, as a common problem with tablet keyboards is their tendency to fall backwards.

Other new features include a wide-angle camera, "studio-quality mics", along with a LiDAR scanner for improved photography. The new Pro Display comes with wide DCI-P3 color support and a 120 Hz refresh rate.

Apple is claiming that battery life is set to last up to 10 hours.

Pricing starts at $799 for the 11-inch 128 GB WiFi-Only iPad Pro, with the 12.9-inch version costing $999, with both available for order immediately. The Magic Keyboard accessory will set you back a further $299 for the 11-inch tablet and $349 for the 12.9-inch version and will be available in May.

Update February 7, 2020: 

Wacom published a blog post in response to the "many questions regarding data collection" prompted by Robert Heaton's report (detailed in our original coverage below). The blog says that Wacom's users have to opt in to sharing the data, which is collected via the Wacom Experience Program that Heaton described. Wacom also said that users can opt out of sharing this data at any time by turning off the Wacom Experience Program inside the Privacy Settings panel in the Wacom Desktop Center app.

Wacom explained that it "collects data through its software driver ... for quality insurance and development purposes only." That data is collected "from time to time" via Google Analytics, which is said to anonymize the information before providing it to Wacom. That way it can view aggregate data without compromising individual users (at least in theory).

"Our development and customer care teams could review across all aggregated users of a product, for instance, the most common function settings for pen buttons (e.g. 'right click' or 'undo') or the most frequently viewed tabs or selected links in the Wacom apps," Melissa Ashcraft, Wacom's director of marketing communications, wrote. "We have no access to personal data. We cannot relate to any specific users as the data are anonymized and aggregated. We do not know who users are as individuals and cannot see what users are creating or doing in third-party software applications."

Original article, February 6, 2020: 

Wacom tablet owners might be sharing more information with the company than expected. A software engineer named Robert Heaton reported Wednesday that Wacom's driver sent details about every app he opened to Google Analytics.

The driver seemingly recorded when the app was opened too, and the report included a string of characters that could serve as a unique identifier for Heaton's laptop. That's a lot of information for a drawing tablet driver to collect about a customer's system.

Heaton said he needed to use Wireshark, a popular app among the security-conscious that monitors network traffic, as well as a cybersecurity utility called Burp Suite to piece together the information Wacom's driver gathered to share with Google Analytics.

Wacom likely uses this data to troubleshoot any problems with using its tablets in specific apps. If the company sees that a lot of Wacom tablet owners experience problems after using Adobe Illustrator, for example, it can investigate the issue.

Failing to disclose this information could be a problem, though, and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence even if everything's on the up-and-up. Even the most innocent actions look sketchy when done in secret.

We've reached out to Wacom for a comment on Heaton's findings and will update this post if the company responds.

Microsoft is going through a reorganization that will heavily impact the company's Experiences and Devices unit, according to a ZDNet report today. It will lead to both the hardware and Windows client teams reporting to chief product officer Panos Panay.

The Windows Experience and hardware teams will be combined into one team called "Devices + Windows" and reporting to Panay (all under the umbrella of executive vice president Rajesh Jha). ZDNet's sources claim that this will begin on February 25.

Joe Belfiore, the corporate vice president under Jha, is also reportedly moving to join Ales Holecek to lead Microsoft Office under the Office Experience Group.

Panay is behind the team bringing new form factors to Microsoft's Surface PC lineup, including the Surface Duo and Surface Neo with dual screens, the latter of which will launch with Windows 10X.

Belfiore has spent the majority of his career at Microsoft on Windows, so this is a major shift for him. He won't begin his role until the fall. 

In an email obtained by ZDNet, Panay wrote that "Designing hardware and software together will enable us to do a better job on our long term Windows bets (dual screen, silicon diversity, connectivity, app platform, etc.), and having a single point of Windows Client Experience leadership driving consistent priorities and resourcing across all of Windows client will help all of us accelerate innovation and improve execution."

It's unclear how Microsoft's partners will feel about Windows and Surface being joined at the hip. Microsoft already competes with them by making its own hardware, and now the operating system and the Surfaces will be developed by the same people.

Microsoft's Surface devices, including the Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro X, Surface Go and a suite of peripherals, are showcases for Windows 10 on a premium device. They often command a premium price tag, but you may see some deals among the best Cyber Monday tech deals and throughout the rest of the year. 

Since Microsoft just launched the Surface Laptop 3, Pro 7 and Pro X, there could be some sweet deals on previous-gen models. Additionally, now is the time of year you often see them bundled with accessories included. We have already seen the Surface Laptop 3 on sale from both Microsoft and Amazon, while the Surface Pro 7 has gone as low as $599 with a free Type Cover keyboard. 

Microsoft may be looking to unload the Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Pro 6, so keep an eye out for discounts there. Additionally, the Surface Book 2 and Surface Go didn't receive updates this year, so they're likely to go on sale and could be a good choice if you don't need the latest hardware.

Here's a list of some Surface products that we think may go on sale this holiday season. We also have some live pricing that can let you now if the current price for that laptop, tablet or peripheral is a good deal. 

Laptops

2-in-1s / Tablets

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 represents a lot of firsts. The laptop ($1,699.00 as tested; $1,199.00 to start) is the first Surface with an AMD Ryzen processor, the first 15-inch in the Surface Laptop line and the first Surface Laptop to ditch Alcantara fabric. It’s also the first that’s not glued together.

And while it may just look like a bigger Surface Laptop (compared to the 13-inch models that have been around a few years now), there are lots of other changes, including the Wi-Fi chip and the introduction of USB Type-C. But there’s also some hurdles here in terms of battery life, port selection and performance.

(If you prefer a 2-in-1, we also reviewed the Microsoft Surface Pro X with an ARM chip, the Microsoft SQ1.)

Design

At first glance, the 15-inch variant of the Surface Laptop 3 looks like the company just took the 13-inch version and stretched it. But I’ve grown to appreciate the design in different ways.

On top, yes, it looks identical. The lid is a big, black, aluminum rectangle with the Microsoft logo in the center. (You can also opt to get the 15-inch version in platinum).

When you lift the lid, the 15-inch display is surrounded by a fair bit of bezel, but not so much to be abhorrent. The display is tall (see the Display section, below) with a 3:2 aspect ratio, making the laptop deeper front to back than some others.

The deck is also plain black aluminum. Microsoft has removed the Alcantara fabric from previous 13.5-inch models of the Surface Laptop 3 on this one, making for a very spartan appearance. It’s both here and on the lid where one thing becomes obvious: The Surface Laptop 3 is a fingerprint magnet. You may not have to worry about keeping the Alcantara clean, but you’ll definitely want to wipe the deck and the lid on occasion to keep the laptop looking clean.

Perhaps the best thing about the Surface being so similar to its 13-inch siblings is that it has maintained its slenderness. The laptop is 3.4 pounds and 13.4 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches (339.5 x 244 x 14.7 mm). It’s really easy to throw in a backpack and forget about, which is very rare for a 15-inch notebook.

The Dell XPS 15 is heavier at 4.5 pounds and slightly larger overall at 14 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches. The 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon is lighter at 2.4 pounds and measures 12.7 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches.

One big letdown with the design are the ports -- or lack thereof. On the left side there’s a USB Type-C port -- finally, though it’s not Thunderbolt 3. That’s joined by a USB Type-A port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right side, the sole port is the proprietary Surface Connect port, which you use for charging and connecting to Microsoft’s own dock, should you choose to buy it. The good news is, if you do want to charge over USB Type-C, that will work too, provided you bring your own compatible charger.

But there’s plenty of extra room on the edges of the chassis, and it’s a shame there aren’t more ports here. At least one more USB-C or USB-A port on the right edge would have been much appreciated. 

Specifications

Productivity Performance 

The 15-inch Surface Laptop is a bit of a watershed moment for AMD. It’s a big-name, high-end productivity laptop boasting one of its Ryzen flagship processors. Specifically, our review unit has a “Microsoft Surface Edition” AMD Ryzen 5 3580U, paired with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD.

On Geekbench 4.3, the Surface Laptop earned a score of 11,612, which is below the premium laptop average of 15,650. It’s also lower than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s Core i5 (15,649) and unsurprisingly, the XPS 15’s Core i9-9900K. That latter notebook is here to compare more for size, not specs.

It took the Surface Laptop 3 a full 18 seconds to transfer 4.97GB of files, a rate of 282.7 MBps. That’s slower than the average (504.6 MBps), as well as both the XPS 15 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

On our Handbrake video editing test, it took the Surface 20 minutes and 33 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That’s ahead of the average (22:36) but behind a last-gen Intel Core i5, which completed the task in 16:52.

To stress test the Ryzen 5 3580U, we ran Cinebench R20 on a loop 20 times. During the test, the CPU ran at an average clock speed of 2.5 GHz and an average temperature of 61.5 degrees Celsius (142.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The highest score in R20 was on the first run (1480.4). This dropped slightly around run 3 and then to its lowest range at run 9, ending at its lowest score on the final run (1157.2).

Graphics Performance 

AMD processors are known for their superior integrated graphics. In this case, the integrated Radeon Vega 9 GPU showed a bit of an edge in low-level gaming.

On the Dirt 3 benchmark, the Surface Laptop 3 hit an average of 56 frames per second. While that’s lower than the premium laptop average of 61 fps, it’s important to remember that that includes some laptops with discrete GPUs. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon ran at 31 fps on a Intel Core i5 with Intel UHD 620 graphics. The XPS 15 we tested was one of those laptops that beat the Vega 9, but it has a discrete Nvidia GTX 1650.

When I played Overwatch (high settings, 1980 x 1200), the game ran between 40 and 50 fps, depending on the heat of the battle. It’s not one of the best gaming laptops, but you can squeeze by with it.

Display

In my opinion, all laptop displays that aren’t primarily for gaming should have a 3:2 aspect ratio. So the Surface Laptop 3 wins points in this reviewer’s book just for that. 3:2 displays are taller than 16:9 screens, so you can see more work vertically when you’re writing, browsing the web, working in spreadsheets or anything else you can think of. Perhaps the only downside is that when watching most videos, there are some black bars above and below them.

When I watched a 1920x1080 trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey’s blue lightsaber reflected against her face and C-3PO’s golden body glowed against an orange and brown background. This panel isn’t the most vivid screen around, but it’s more than serviceable.

Microsoft’s display covers 101% of the sRGB gamut, a bit less than the premium laptop average of 130%. Lenovo’s FHD display measured 109% and the 4K version measured 144%. The Dell’s OLED, again, not the cleanest of comparisons, measured 239%.

The display is plenty bright at 380 nits, far ahead of the 347-nit premium laptop average. That’s brighter than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s FHD display but not it’s 4K option. The XPS 15’s OLED panel, which isn’t as fair of a comparison, is far brighter.

Even though the screen isn’t as lively as some competitors, the aspect ratio makes the display more appealing.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Surface Laptop 3 is sure to be polarizing. It’s fairly flat, but still offers some bounce. The keycaps are comfortable and easy for my fingers to conform to, though I would have liked more of a click. Some colleagues found the keys to be too shallow. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I reached 111 words per minute with a 2 percent error rate, both of which are in my average range.  

Unsurprisingly, the company that makes Windows 10 added its own precision drivers to its touchpad. Every gesture, from two-finger scrolling to four-finger tapping performed as expected. And at 4.5 x 3 inches, the touchpad is spacious to the point of feeling luxurious.

Audio

Microsoft’s speakers, tuned with Dolby Audio, are serviceable. While most 15-inch laptops have a bit of extra room for some oomph, The Surface is loud enough to fill a room, but you won’t get any more detail than your average ultraportable. Case in point: I listened to Green Day’s American Idiot, and the guitars, vocals and drums were clear. It was almost impossible, though, to make out the bass.

Connectivity

We often gloss over Wi-Fi, but there are some changes here year-over-year. Namely, most previous Surface devices have used Marvell-based Wi-Fi, which many power users aren’t fans of. Our review unit has a Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A.

The 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi (aka Wi-Fi 5), which will be fine for most people. But the Intel-powered 13-inch version supports the next gen 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard, making it more future proof.

Upgradeability

The Surface Pro 3 is technically upgradeable. Specifically, Microsoft made the Surface Laptop 3 easier to open up to replace the SSD. Surface head Panos Panay even made a point of showing it off at the device’s unveiling.

But the company also suggests that it’s not user upgradeable. Specifically, it wants users to leave an upgrade to Microsoft certified technicians. If you damage something, you’re very likely voiding your warranty here.

If you were to get in, by removing the feet from the laptop and removing screws below it, you would find a 2230 m.2 SSD, a shorter drive than you see in most laptops. It’s hard to come by drives of this size in retail channels right now, but that should fill out as more and more devices use these shorter storage devices.

Battery Life

Unfortunately for Microsoft, the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3’s battery life is a bit below average. It endured for an even 8 hours on our battery test, which continuously browses the web, runs OpenGL tests and streams video over Wi-Fi, all at 150 nits. That’s 15 minutes less than the premium laptop average, and a few minutes behind the Dell XPS 15, but that laptop had an OLED display. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon ran for 9:30 with a 1080p display (though a far worse 5:33 at 4K).

Heat

While running our Cinebench R15 loop, we took heat measurements for skin temperatures. The bottom of the laptop, at its hottest, reached 43.5 degrees Celsius (110.3 degrees Fahrenheit). The touchpad was cool at 28.8 degrees Celsius (83.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The center of the keyboard measured 37.8 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit).

Webcam

The 720p webcam on the Surface Laptop 3 has an eye for detail. In a shot I took at my desk, it displayed all of the colors in my green, blue gray and yellow shirt correctly, and caught the wrinkles by my eye when I smiled and the hairs on my head. 

The Surface Laptop 3 also has infrared to support login for facial recognition via Windows Hello.

Software and Warranty

Microsoft sells the Surface Laptop 3 with a pristine start menu. The only added software is the Surface app, which is a hub for adjusting settings on the Surface Pen, which Bluetooth devices are connected and getting support and warranty information. The company sells the Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch) with a one-year warranty.

Configurations

Our review unit is in a black chassis with an AMD Ryzen 5 3580U, 16GB of DDR-2400 RAM and a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD and costs $1,699.00.

The base model costs $1,199.00 with the same processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. That configuration is only available in platinum. Bumping up to 256GB brings you to $1,499.00. Those are heavy upcharges for just a bump up in SSD storage. Keep in mind that the retail price difference between a 128GB and 256GB SSD these days is often $15-$25. Granted, Microsoft may have to pay more given that they’re using a short drive with limited suppliers, but there’s no way the company isn’t walking away with the vast majority of the $300 price difference as pure profit.

The top-end 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 is $2,099.00 with an AMD Ryzen 7 3780U, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Bottom Line

The Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch) is an attractive 15-inch notebook that’s thin and light enough to take anywhere. For some, getting a display of that size in something so thin and light will be perfect, and those users really don’t need to consider anything else.

If you’re looking for a laptop with more power, that’s where the Dell XPS 15 comes in. It’s just a little bulkier, but you can purchase it with discrete graphics in the form of an Nvidia GTX 1650, a 4K display and twice as much storage as our Surface Laptop 3 for just $50 more as of this writing (or $200 less with an FHD display).

But if you’re someone consuming media more than making it, who simply wants a large display (or you prefer the 3:2 aspect ratio) and the ability to take your laptop anywhere, the Surface Laptop 3 is well worth considering.

It’s a new era for the Microsoft Surface Pro. For the first time since the 2012-era Microsoft Surface RT, the company is back with an ARM design and LTE support. The Surface Pro X ($999.00 to start; $1,268.99 as tested) is a far cry from that memory, with full Windows 10 and a gorgeous slim design that's bringing a bit of the future to the Surface Pro. It’s also extremely easy to replace the SSD, which is great. But one (big) problem remains: app compatibility.

Design

The Surface Pro X is the most beautiful tablet I’ve ever held. Sure, it apes Apple’s iPads in some ways with its sleek rounded corners and thin bezels. But the matte-black anodized aluminum is sleek, the 3:2 aspect ratio is great for work and for holding the device, and the kickstand hinge, if you like a detachable 2-in-1 design, is flexible and offers just the right amount of resistance.

This is the design of Microsoft’s hardware future, and it makes the Intel's Ice Lake powered Surface Pro 7 look like a device from the past. This is the design I’d want to be seen out and about with.

But the aluminum on the Surface Pro X is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, so be sure to keep a cloth handy. On the back, besides a black-on-black Microsoft logo with a mirror sheen, there is no decoration at all.

We tested  the tablet with Microsoft’s Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard with Slim Pen ($269.99 for the bundle of the two). The new pen is flat, and is more like a carpenter pencil than a pen (more on the functionality in the Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus section below). And the keyboard, which is black with luxurious Alcantara fabric, has a spot for it. A little indentation on the top (which is hidden if you like your keyboard at an angle) serves as a wireless charging cradle for the stylus.

And this thing is super slim. It’s 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches (287 mm x 208 mm x 7.3 mm) and it weighs just 1.7 pounds (it gets heavier at 2.4 pounds with the keyboard). The Surface Pro 7, which is hundreths of an inch thinner, does feel noticeably thicker with the old design. The Surface Pro X  is of a similar size to the Samsung Galaxy Book 2, which is 1.8 pounds and 1.3 x 7.9 x 0.3 inches. 

If there’s one letdown in the design, it's the lack of ports. Because it’s a tablet, I don’t mind the fact that there are few connections, but the selection is odd. There are two USB Type-C ports on the left side, which is a huge improvement over prior Surface tablets that didn’t have this connector. I don’t mind the lack of a Type-A port. But the only port on the right side is Microsoft’s proprietary Surface Connect port for charging and using the company’s proprietary docking station. I would have preferred another Type-C port there.

Perhaps the biggest omission is the lack of a headphone jack. Admittedly, many users may have gotten used to this as smartphones continue to ditch that port and move to Bluetooth headphones or USB Type-C dongles. Since this is a tablet I suspect that many will forgive it for lacking the port, but as a full Windows PC, it’s sorely missed.

A volume rocker lives on the left side of the machine, and the power button sits on the right.

Specifications

Windows 10 on ARM

For enthusiasts and many business users, considering the Surface Pro X will start and end with one question: Can it run the programs that I need?

The answer will depend on two factors: which programs you use, and how long you’re willing to wait.

The Microsoft SQ1 is an ARM processor, a custom chip based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx. To run on this CPU right now, programs either need to be native ARM64 or ARM 32. Alternatively, it can emulate 32-bit x86 programs, but with a significant performance cost. If a developer offers an x86-32 version of your program, you’re in luck. But if only a 64-bit app is available, it won’t work.

Additionally, many third-party antivirus solutions won’t work (though Windows Security will), and many games have issues if they use certain versions of OpenGL (newer than OpenGL 1.1) or have anti-cheat drivers that don’t work with ARM.

That being said, there is development for Windows on ARM, but it’s slow going. Adobe, for example, has announced a version of its Fresco drawing and sketching app for Windows on ARM devices, but we don’t know exactly when it’s coming. Regular Dropbox doesn’t work, so if you use that for storage, you need to use the neutered “Dropbox for S mode,” which doesn’t store files on your device.

While Microsoft recently removed a number of apps from its store that don’t run on the system, a bunch of games - notably those on the company’s own Game Pass service, still remain.

Some popular programs do have native versions, like the popular media player VLC, Netflix, Twitter, Skype, and Windows Terminal. You’ll want those versions from the Microsoft Store. A new version of Edge is coming, and that will support ARM as well, but it’s a shock that Microsoft didn’t ship it alongside this flagship device. Mozilla has native ARM compatibility for Firefox in beta. Of those native apps that I tried, they were all swift. But you’ll have to see if your apps are supported or decide if there are alternatives you’re willing to use.

The emulation has improved year-over-year. In Google Chrome, for instance, I was able to run multiple tabs without much of an issue, except that it took a few seconds to switch between tabs. That happened much less in the beta version of Firefox.

Productivity Performance

The limitations of Windows 10 on ARM meant that several of our benchmarks didn’t work, but we ran what we could. We tested the base configuration of the Surface Pro X, with Microsoft’s SQ1 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. In general, the tablet worked OK with simple tasks like browsing the web and streaming video, but I did see some stuttering and occasional lockup even with light use. There were also some bugs. Occasionally, when using it on my desk, the “Autorotate on” notification would pop up in the top-right corner, despite me not attempting to rotate the device.

On Geekbench 4.1, the Surface Pro X earned a score of 6,863. That’s progress over the Snapdragon 850 in the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 (3,575), but far lower than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 with Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake chip. It should be noted here that this benchmark, like many others, is measuring performance over x86 emulation. But because so many apps rely on emulation, that’s not an entirely unfair comparison.

It took the Surface Pro X 32 seconds to copy 4.97GB of files, or 159 MBps. That’s faster than the Galaxy Book 2, but slower than the XPS 13 2-in-1.All the competing system were below the category average of 528.1 MBps.

Connectivity

Besides Wi-Fi, the Surface Pro X also supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X24 LTE Modem. The integration between Qualcomm’s ARM designs and its modem tech is one of the biggest advantages of using the SQ1 processor in the first place.

And considering how slim and light the Surface Pro X is, it makes sense for you to use it on the go. The tablet has a spot for SIM cards underneath the kickstand, which may be the best way for most to use it, at least in the United States. The Surface Pro X also works with eSIM, though U.S. carriers aren’t great at supporting it.

Display

I love the 13-inch, 2880 x 1920  display on the Surface Pro X. It may not outbenchmark its competitors on all tests, but it wins me over in two ways.

One: It has a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s ideal for work. I can see more of what I’m working on when I have a taller screen. Sure, there are black bars when watching video, but that doesn’t bother me too much.

Two: The thick borders from the regular Surface tablets have been greatly reduced here, which makes using the computer more immersive.

When I watched a trailer for Star Wars: The The Rise of Skywalker at 1080p, some greenery Rey runs through in the jungle didn’t pop as much against the brown soil as it did on other screens. But a yellow, powdery explosion in the desert stood out against the bright blue sky.

Microsoft’s panel covers 103 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is lower than average (125 percent) and behind both of its competitors.

The screen is super bright, with an average rating of 448 nits. That’s higher than the premium laptop average (361 nits) and the Galaxy Book 2, though the XPS 13 2-in-1 reached an incredible 517 nits.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus

The keyboard and Surface Slim Pen are sold separately. You can buy the Type Cover and Slim Pen separately, but we tested with the Signature Keyboard and Slim Pen bundle.

As with previous Surface devices, the keyboard connects magnetically to the bottom of the Surface. In the case of the Signature keyboard, there is an indentation above the keys to place the Slim Pen. The stylus is held in magnetically and charges wirelessly. (If you choose to buy the stylus separately, it comes with a USB Type-C charging cradle instead.)

The keys don’t have a lot of travel, but are comfortable enough, particularly for a type cover. There’s still a bit of bounce if you keep the keyboard at an angle, but it’s more solid when flat on a desk. I typed at a rate of 97 words per minute, which is lower than usual for me, but with a slight 2% error rate.

I really like the flat stylus, which surprised me at first. It has all of the best features of the original Surface Pen, including the ability to use the back as an eraser, pressure sensitivity, and, in certain apps, shading. And this version is rechargeable, which I feel is a huge upgrade over having to look for uncommon AAAA batteries.

Audio

Considering that this is a tablet, the front-firing speakers on the Surface Pro X do a solid job. When I listened to Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy,” the guitars, vocals and drums were all crystal clear. But as with many laptops, the bass was lacking — in fact, in this case it was almost non-existent. There’s no preloaded audio software to help you make adjustments.

Upgradeability

This is the most easy-to-open Surface device ever. On the back of the tablet, beneath the kickstand, is a small door. That’s where the SSD and the SIM card slot are.

All you need to do to open the door is use a SIM card removal tool (or a bent paper clip) and it pops right off. There’s a single Torx screw holding the SSD down.

The Surface Pro X uses a 2230 M.2 SSD, which is shorter than most M.2 SSDs on the market right now. But that form is starting to become more popular, so there should be more options available soon.

Battery Life

You can definitely get a day’s use out of the Surface Pro X. On our battery test, which constantly browses the web, streams video and runs webGL animations over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, it endured for 9 hours and 30 minutes. That’s well over the premium laptop average of 8:20.

We also ran the test over LTE (we tested on Verizon’s LTE network), and it lasted for a similar amount of time: 9:21.

The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, a much larger device, lasted for 10:57. The Snapdragon 850-based Galaxy Book 2 also lasted longer, at 10:41.

Heat

To test skin temperatures on the tablet, we ran a YouTube video for 15 minutes and took heat measurements on the back. The hottest point measured 42.8 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s not too hot to use as a tablet, but it would be better if it were slightly cooler when holding it. This isn’t a problem when using it with a keyboard on a desk. 

Cameras

The Surface Pro X has two cameras: a webcam and a rear-shooting camera.

The 5MP front camera is the better of the two, with a resolution of 2592 x 1458, it takes sharp, color accurate photos. At my desk, in a challenging office environment, it accurately captured the blue, white and orange in my plaid shirt and caught details down to the thread. It also picked up the different colors in my beard.

The 10MP, 4064 x 2286 rear camera was a little less impressive. I took some pictures of a plant in my office and it caught the different shades of green. But the whole image was a bit cloudy, as if there was a film over it.

Software and Warranty

The only notable extra piece of preloaded software on the Surface Pro X is the Surface app, which lets you adjust pen pressure, check the battery level for Microsoft Bluetooth accessories and get quick links to support and warranty coverage.

Of course, Windows 10 still has a share of bloatware and links to Microsoft Store apps, including Netflix, Spotify, Candy Crush Friends, Farm Heroes Saga, Hulu and Disney Magic Kingdoms.

Microsoft sells the Surface Pro X with a one-year hardware warranty.

Configurations

We reviewed the base model of the Surface Pro X, which is $999 with a Microsoft SQ1 CPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. But we also used the Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard with Slim Pen bundle, which costs $269.99. That brought the total to $1,268.99.

If we just wanted a keyboard, that would be $139.99 (or a total of $1,138.99), though that doesn’t have a wireless charging cradle for a pen and isn’t made of Alcantara. If you just want the slim pen, it’s sold separately for $144.99, so the total would be $1,1,43.99 with the base model with a USB Type-C cradle to charge the pen.

If you want both the Slim Pen and a keyboard, the bundle is the best bet, as it’s cheaper than buying the two separately and allows for wireless charging. Either way, note that you can’t get a full experience for the price it says you’re paying without accessories, unless you only want to use it as a tablet.

There are a few other configurations. For $1,299.00, a $300 markup, you can get the 8GB configuration with 256GB of storage. At $1,499 you get 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. For $1,799, you get get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (another $300 bump). Every configuration has the same display and Microsoft SQ1 processor. Whichever you get, calculate the price accordingly by adding the peripherals you plan on using.

Bottom Line

Using the Microsoft Surface Pro X is euphoric at first, but followed by a splash of cold water. You’re greeted with a bright, beautiful display on a lovely chassis, and, finally, USB Type-C. It has an ARM CPU, LTE support and runs full-on Windows 10.

But the app compatibility problem quickly becomes obvious. For casual users, this may never be a massive problem. But this isn’t just any Surface. It’s a Surface Pro, and it’s one that is priced like premium laptops and tablets that don’t have these issues. And using a half-assed version of Dropbox or a sluggish emulation of Chrome browser sure is an issue.

Support is on the way for more apps, but they’re not here yet, and it’s not clear how long users will be waiting, or if the developer community will pick it up in force. I can get over the lack of a headphone jack, but the Windows ecosystem of programs is wide, and the offerings for professionals and creators, who this is marketed to, aren’t all ready. 

If you’re looking for a beautiful tablet, the pique of Microsoft’s hardware design, and you don’t want an iPad, this is for you. It works great as a solid portable computer, especially for browser and Office-based activities, with few hiccups, if you’re willing to go the extra mile and get the peripherals. For those, I could recommend it if money is no object. Otherwise, Intel or AMD alternatives, like the Surface Pro 7 with Intel’s Ice Lake processors, are better bets. The Surface Pro 7 is $899 ($100 less) when configured as closely as possible to the Pro X, before keyboard and stylus.

Microsoft and Qualcomm need more developer support, period. When that day comes, the Pro X could be special. But we're far from that point, and given the history of Windows on ARM, it's unclear if we'll get there during this latest round of devices, or if we still have years to wait before native app support is no longer spotty.

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When Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop 3, it made a claim that it was easy to upgrade. At its unveiling, Surface head Panos Panay made it look as easy as pulling the deck and keyboard off the laptop. It ends up, thanks to a teardown from iFixit, that it's not quite that easy, but it's close.

The repair site gave the Surface Laptop 3 a repairability score of 5 out of 10, a massive jump from the first two Surface Laptops, which each received 0 points.

The basics are that you remove four Torx Plus screws located under the laptop's feet and then you can pry off the top cover, which is held to the rest of the chassis with magnets and a flex cable.

Unsurprisingly, the RAM is soldered down, but as Microsoft has previously explained, the SSD is replaceable. It's a 2230 M.2 NVMe drive, which is shorter than most M.2 SSDs currently on the market. But it's held down with a single Torx screw, so that's easy enough to swap.

But Microsoft has warned that the SSD is not user replaceable, and that only a "skilled technician" should swap out an SSD. That suggests that you may void your warranty by opening up the machine. But if you're handy and have the tools, it looks like adding a larger SSD wouldn't be too difficult.

For more, including detailed photos of the motherboard and information on removing more parts like the display, check out iFixit's full teardown.

Microsoft has finally patched an issue that some Surface Book 2 users have been facing over the last few months in which the processor would throttle at 0.4 GHz.

The company has released firmware updates for that issue, as well as a problem in which the GPU disappeared from the device manager.

The full changelog is available here, and you can download the firmware here. The firmware updates are for Surface Book 2 with Windows 10 1803.

An additional firmware update has been released to improve battery stability.

In theory, the GPU issue being solved should allow Surface Book 2 owners to finally upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10, version 1903, though we'll see what happens once a critical mass of Surface Book 2 owners get the new firmware.

As soon as we learned from The Verge last week that at least one of Microsoft’s new Surface devices sports a super-tiny 2230 SSD (that’s just 30mm or 1.2 inches long), we suspected that the drive in question came from Toshiba. Why? Because Toshiba (which is currently rebranding as Kioxia), is the only company we knew of that currently makes drives that small.

In fact, we recently reviewed the company’s BG4 M.2 SSD, a 2230 M.2 SSD that fits Microsoft’s description exactly, and was designed to be an OEM solution for devices like the Surface. The 1TB unit we tested had strong performance for its size, offering up to 4 times the speed of a SATA drive, but high-end M.2 NVMe drives like the Samsung 970 PRO had transfer rates that were up to 1,000 MBps quicker.

Now, after checking out display units of some of Microsoft’s latest devices at a local Best Buy, we can confirm that the 13-inch version of the Surface Laptop 3 indeed uses the Toshiba BG4 drive (specifically KGB40ZNS128G in the unit we looked at), but not exclusively.

Interestingly, the AMD-powered 15-inch model of the Surface Laptop that we saw at the same Best Buy uses an SK Hynix drive (HFM256GDGTNG-97A0A), which doesn’t appear to have been officially announced. But based on a similar model that shows up on Ebay, the SK Hynix drive in the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 is also an NVMe 2230 drive.

Furthering the complications, we checked out a few more new Surface models at a nearby Microsoft store. And a 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 that I looked at did not have a Toshiba drive in it, but the same SK Hynix SSD model as the 15-inch Surface Laptop we spotted at Best Buy.

To round out the new Surface devices that you can currently find in a store, we also checked out what SSD’s inside the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X at a Microsoft Store. The Pro 7 also sports a version of Toshiba/Kioxia’s BG4 SSD (KBG40ZPZ256G), but the previous-generation Surface Pro 6 had a soldered-down SSD, so it’s unlikely you’ll be upgrading the Surface Pro 7’s storage.

The Surface Pro X we saw in the Microsoft store had a drive with the model name HFB1M8MO331C0MR, which doesn’t show up in search results at all. It’s not even clear who the manufacturer is. But given that device isn’t slated to launch until next month, and Microsoft had the tablet encased in a big hunk of plastic so that all you could see was the screen, there’s a good chance it wasn’t a final unit, and may contain a different drive than what we saw in the store.

What does all this tell us? Well, it seems that you can expect either a Toshiba or an SK Hynix drive on most of the new single-display Surface devices (save for the Pro X, which is still up in the air). But it’s unclear whether Microsoft is sourcing multiple drives for the same laptops (we saw both a Toshiba and an SK Hynix drive in different models of the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 in different stores), or if the display units we saw weren’t representative of the final shipping products.

Whether the drives are made by SK Hynix or or Toshiba, it doesn’t look like end users will be able to find replacement models on the aftermarket any time soon. That matters because Microsoft is charging a ridiculous $300 to move up from a 128GB to a 256GB model so, if you can do your own upgrade, there’s plenty of incentive to do so. Of course, Microsoft doesn't advise doing so and recommends using its technicians. And trying could void your warranty.

Perhaps, after launch, another vendor will step in to fill this void in the market and sell M.2 2230 SSDs. Given that Microsoft’s Surface devices are some of the highest-profile products in the PC industry, we wouldn’t be surprised to see multiple tiny 2230 M.2 drives pop up in the coming months.

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop 3 in two flavors here at an event in New York: a 13.5-inch Intel Ice Lake model and a 15-inch version with custom AMD silicon. The former will start at $999 and the latter at $1,199 when they release on October 22.

The 15-inch is new to the family, as previously the Surface Laptop only came in a 13.5-inch size. This model on display at Microsoft's press event had an AMD Ryzen 5 3850U with Vega 9 graphics, though there's also a Ryzen 7 3780U.

The new display will please holdouts who went for the heftier Surface Book but didn't require a graphics card. It's still quite light, but the display feels much larger, especially with the 3:2 ratio. 

Perhaps my favorite part of both devices is the keyboard, with 1.3mm of travel. In my short time with both models, I found the keys clicky and extremely satisfying to type on. The touchpad is now 20% larger, and it feels more in line with what you see on other high-end notebooks.

The 15-inch version ditches Alcantara for a new all aluminum design, as do professional versions of the 13-inch model. I was always fond of how Alcantara looks, but this feels much better and you don't have to worry about staining it.

Oh, and both models finally have USB Type-C. Neither have Thunderbolt 3, including the Intel model, which is slightly disappointing.

The colors, including cobalt and the new sandstone design, look beautiful as ever, though I suspect many will still get the Surface Laptop 3 in an ever popular black.

We hope to review these when they release later this month.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Specs