Microsoft Surface event 2018: all of the latest news

Last year, Microsoft finally did the thing that everyone was waiting for it to do: it produced a laptop. Not a tablet that can be a laptop if you attach a keyboard, not a 2-in-1 device that you can tear the screen away from the keyboard to use as a tablet, but a straightforward, honest-to-god clamshell laptop. The Surface Laptop was also a very good laptop — Microsoft did almost everything right with it and as a result, it was one of the best laptops of the year.

So, for this year’s Surface Laptop 2, Microsoft changed… basically nothing. The Surface Laptop 2 is very much the same computer as the first Surface Laptop, just with updated internals and a couple of extra color options. The pricing is even the same: the Laptop 2 starts at $999 and can be configured to well over $2,000. Most people will be content with the $1,299 option, which provides a comfortable amount of local storage and unlocks the options for new colors.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro has long been the flagship of the company’s increasingly diverse range of Surface hardware. It’s the tablet that can also be a laptop, and the byproduct of refinement since the original Surface RT that launched six years ago. When you think of Surface, you immediately think of Surface Pro. It’s the most popular Surface device and Apple, Google, HP, Dell, and Lenovo have all copied elements of the Surface Pro.

While Microsoft ditched its numbering scheme for the Surface Pro last year, this time the number is back. The numbers you really need to care about this year are: it’s a Surface Pro 6, there’s 8GB RAM by default inside, it has 8th Gen quad-core Intel processors, and it’s now available in #000000 (black).

Google’s Pixel Slate is the company’s first Chrome OS tablet, offered as an alternative to the more expensive Pixelbook. Like the Surface Pro 6 and iPad Pro, the Pixel Slate has more than enough power to help you do a multitude of things, both work and play. And like its competitors, it doesn’t come with a keyboard included.

For those looking for a versatile tablet with a pixel-dense display, your decision just got a bit tougher. Microsoft’s latest machine is the undisputed champion when it comes to including loads of ports, while the iPad Pro is a powerful tablet that meshes well with your other iOS or macOS devices. The newly announced Pixel Slate also has a few standout features from the rest, including front-facing speakers and a 3:2 aspect ratio display.

The tech industry defines itself by answering the question of what’s next. Over the course of this year, I’ve grown increasingly convinced that the most immediate next wave of technological change won’t be the electric autonomous car or the full-frame mirrorless camera, but something a lot more quotidian. Our headphones are about to change dramatically, and Microsoft just put an accelerant into the furnace of change with its new Surface Headphones.

What I’m talking about isn’t an alteration in physical design, and the Surface headphones certainly don’t look very different from existing over-ear headphone models. Functionally, the Surface cans don’t stand out much, either: they’re wireless via Bluetooth 4.2, offer noise canceling, charge via USB-C (as they should), and last for up to 15 hours. Microsoft puts its Windows logo on them, and it adds the novelty of 13 different levels of noise canceling (adjustable by rotating a ring around the left ear cup), but the Surface headphones are not breaking new ground in technical terms, either. But they do have Cortana.

Microsoft unveiled a bunch of different Surface products this week. There’s a new matte black Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2, an updated Surface Studio 2, and all new Surface Headphones. While most of the hardware was typical Surface, the Headphones were a surprising shift for Microsoft. In an interview with The Verge, Surface chief Panos Panay reveals that Microsoft moving into headphones is all about a new idea of “completing the Surface experience.”

“Now that the company is designing these products as one company, the tech is evolving where we want it to be… there was an opportunity to complete this thing in a way that I’m passionate about and that the team is passionate about,” explains Panay. That “completion” on the headphones side is designed to meet Surface users that engross themselves in music, as many creators do, or even gamers who use headsets for hours. “Just like a Surface, there are a few little elements that we can bring to the table that are transformative for your experience in getting things done,” explains Panay. Those elements include the clever noise canceling dial, integrated Cortana and Skype functions, and the automatic mute features.

One of the more perplexing announcements to come out of Microsoft’s Surface hardware event in New York City yesterday was the port choice across its refreshed Surface laptop line and its new, noise-cancelling and Cortana-equipped Surface Headphones. On the wireless Surface Headphones, which are a forward-looking pair of high-end cans designed to compete with Bose and Sony, you have a USB-C port for charging. You’ll also find USB-C on the Surface Go and on the just-announced Surface Studio 2.

Yet on the Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Pro 6, you’re still stuck with Microsoft’s proprietary Surface Connect charging port and mini DisplayPort.

Microsoft debuted its new line of Surface products at an event in New York today and most are available to pre-order now. The Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, and Surface Studio 2 all have faster processors and other improvements compared to their predecessors — and the portables now come in a sleek matte black finish. Microsoft also debuted an entirely new product today: the $350 noise-canceling Surface Headphones. (Sadly, there’s no black option for those.) Here’s how to pre-order everything.

Microsoft’s newest laptop/tablet hybrid will be available on October 16th but can be pre-ordered now. The Surface Pro 6 will start at $899 for the platinum colored version with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The matte black Surface Pro 6 starts at 256GB for $1,199.

Microsoft is trying to make it simpler and cheaper — up front, at least — for customers to buy into its Surface lineup. It’s launching a new payment option called Surface All Access that, for a monthly fee, will give customers a Surface device and access to Office 365.

But while this sounds like a subscription service, it’s not. In reality, Surface All Access is just a well branded payment plan. So unlike a phone upgrade program, you don’t trade in the Surface devices for better ones later on; you keep paying month to month until you finally pay off the purchase after two years.

At an event in New York, Microsoft today showed off its new line of Surface products, including updates to the existing laptop line and a new product: the Surface Headphones. The laptops also come in an additional new color that should please fans of all things dark mode.

Confirming the leaks just hours before the event, Microsoft kicked off the event with the announcement of the Surface Pro 6, a refresh of the company’s laptop / tablet hybrid that now comes in a new matte black color and an upgraded Intel 8th Generation processor. It weighs in at 1.7 pounds, and boasts up to 13.5 hours of battery life.

Microsoft’s Surface event didn’t come without some surprises: after announcing its latest Surface Pro, Laptop, and Studio devices, the company also revealed the brand-new $350 Surface Headphones. They’re shipping “in time for the holidays” — but only in the United States at launch. Unlike all the black gear that Microsoft showed today, these only come in light gray.

The over-ear, wireless Surface Headphones feature premium sound and adjustable noise cancellation, giving users precise control over how much outside noise is let in as they listen. To change the level of noise cancellation, you turn the dial on the left ear cup. A dial on the right side (seen below) adjusts volume.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system is now running on more than 700 million devices, and the company is marking the occasion by releasing the second major Windows 10 update this year. Windows 10 October 2018 Update will be available to all Windows 10 users today, and to update you’ll simply have to check for the new updates on Windows Update. Otherwise, Microsoft will start pushing this to existing machines next week with its monthly Patch Tuesday.

Windows 10 October 2018 Update includes a number of new features. Perhaps the largest change is a new cloud-powered clipboard that will allow Windows 10 users to copy content across machines, and store a history of copied content in the cloud. It’s particularly useful if you use a desktop PC at home or work, and then a laptop on the go.

Microsoft first unveiled its all-in-one Surface Studio PC almost two years ago at a press event in New York City. Today, Microsoft is returning to New York to unveil the second generation of the Surface Studio. The Surface Studio 2 has the same 28-inch display as the original, but Microsoft has tweaked the display and boosted the internals to make this the “fastest Surface ever.”

The new display is 38 percent brighter than the previous model, and it has 22 percent more contrast. All of this is powered by 13.5 million pixels on the Surface Studio 2 display and support for 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity on the Surface Pen. Microsoft is also supporting tilt functionality on the Surface Pen with the Surface Studio 2.

Microsoft announced a new feature for Windows 10 today that will let Android phone users view and use any app on their device from a Windows desktop. The feature, which Microsoft is referring to as app mirroring and shows up in Windows as an app called Your Phone, seems to be work best with Android for now. Although Microsoft did announce the ability to transfer webpages from an iPhone to a Windows 10 desktop so you can pick up where you left off on mobile.

Regardless, the Your Phone app looks to be a significant step in helping bridge Windows 10 and the mobile ecosystem after the demise of Windows Phone. The news was announced at the company’s Surface hardware event in New York City this afternoon.

Microsoft is updating the Surface Laptop with 8th Gen Intel processors, more RAM, and a matte black finish. The second-generation model, called the Surface Laptop 2, is supposed to be 85 percent faster and includes twice as much RAM in its base configuration. It goes on sale October 16th, and preorders start today.

The big news this year is that the laptop’s base model, at $999, jumps from 4GB to 8GB of RAM, correcting one of the original model’s weak spots. But other than that and the new processors, nothing else appears to be changing — the hardware is identical: there’s a still a 13.5-inch display with a 2256 x 1504 resolution, and Microsoft is still estimating 14.5 hours of battery life for nonstop video playback. Storage still starts at a 128GB SSD and goes up to 1TB, and ports are still limited to a single USB 3.0 and Mini DisplayPort. That means another year without USB-C.