Microsoft refreshes Surface Laptop and Surface Pro with updated specs and black variants

At its “A moment of your time” event in New York City today, Microsoft refreshed the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro with updated specs and a black color option. The price tags have changed slightly: the Surface Laptop 2 starts at $999 (same as the Surface Laptop) while the Surface Pro 6 starts at $899 (up $100 from its predecessor). Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Pro 6 are available for preorder today and ship on October 16.
Both devices come with 8th-generation Intel Core processors (upgradeable all the way up to quad-core) and start at 128GB of SSD storage (upgradable to 1TB). The Surface Laptop 2 starts at 8GB of RAM (upgradeable to 16GB) while the Surface Pro 6 still comes with 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of RAM.
Panos Panay, head of engineering for all of Microsoft’s devices, said the Surface Laptop 2 is 85 percent faster than the original Surface Laptop. He also mentioned that the screen features more than 3.4 million pixels, a 1,500:1 contrast ratio, and happens to be the “thinnest ever LCD” for a touchscreen panel.

Panay said the Surface Pro 6 is 67 percent more powerful than its predecessor (which oddly enough was just called Surface Pro). Surface Pro 6 still gets 13.5 hours of battery life, weighs 1.7 pounds, and has a 267ppi screen with “the highest contrast ratio” Microsoft has ever delivered.

Unlike with last year’s Surface Book 2 and this year’s Surface Go, the company is not adding a USB-C port to the Surface Laptop Surface Pro. This is an odd choice given Surface fans have asked for USB-C ports and Microsoft has been slowly delivering.

Back to Black

That said, this year’s Surface Laptop and Surface Pro do come with an obvious change: a black color option. That tidbit leaked over the weekend via a Microsoft New Zealand event invite titled “Microsoft Surface Back to Black” — a reference is to the fact that the original Surface, Surface Pro, and Surface Pro 2 had a semi-glossy black finish that Microsoft calls “dark titanium.” Infamous Microsoft leaker Walking Cat confirmed the black look with an image earlier today.
The black option is just that: An option. You can still buy the new Surfaces in other colors.
When the Surface Laptop launched, it arrived in Cobalt Blue, Burgundy, Graphite Gold, and Platinum. The Surface Laptop 2 is still available in those, minus Graphite Gold and plus Black.
The Surface Pro 6 is going back to its roots with the black option but it will still be available in silver, or as Microsoft calls it, Platinum.
Source: VentureBeat
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