Microsoft’s 2019 Surface event: all of the latest rumors, news, and analysis

For die-hard gadget lovers, Microsoft’s Surface event this week was something of a dream come true. The company resurrected its legendary dual-screen Courier concept as the Surface Neo, then it surprised the world by announcing a dual-screen Android phone. The company finally embraced the USB-C port on its new Surface Pro X, Surface Pro 7, and Surface Laptop 3, and it’s even making them slightly upgradable, too.

But if you came wondering about the future of Windows, you might have left a bit confused.

On a special episode of The Vergecast, chief product officer of Microsoft, Panos Panay, joins Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and senior editor Tom Warren a few hours after Microsoft’s Surface hardware event to talk about the new Surface lineup — including the company’s upcoming dual-screen devices.

Panay also talks about why Microsoft is using Android for its Duo device, the company’s relationship with Google, and the future of the Surface Neo / Duo form factor. Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a ton of new Surface devices, but one thing you might have missed is that a couple of them are upgradable. Most Surface devices haven’t been easy to upgrade or fix, scoring rather poorly on iFixit’s repairability scale. For example, the Surface Pro 6 got a one, and the Surface Laptop 2 got a zero. However, Microsoft is trying to make things better in the repairability department with the new Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop 3 by making their SSDs upgradable and easier to access — but that’s about as far as Microsoft’s effort goes.

On the Surface Pro X, the SSD is hidden behind the kickstand, where there’s a small plate you can pop off using a SIM ejector tool. Under that plate you’ll find an M.2 SSD, which, it seems, you can unscrew and take out yourself. Microsoft tells us it’s an M.2 2230 SSD, which is smaller than most M.2 SSDs, and not super easy to come by — we couldn’t find a single one on Amazon or Newegg, for example.

“The operating system is no longer the most important layer for us,” was the message from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella yesterday.

Microsoft had a big day for Surface, introducing new hardware for the holiday season and teasing dual-screen devices like the Surface Duo and Surface Neo that are coming next year. But it was Nadella’s interview with Wired that really stood out. “What is most important for us is the app model and the experience,” revealed Nadella, further cementing that Windows has slipped down the importance list at Microsoft. “How people are going to write apps for Duo and Neo will have a lot more to do with each other than just writing a Windows app or an Android app, because it’s going to be about the Microsoft Graph.”

If you were in the market for a new Microsoft Surface laptop or tablet, the choices used to be relatively simple — Surface Book for a potent laptop with a detachable screen, Surface Pro for a capable tablet with an optional detachable keyboard, or the Surface Laptop or Surface Go if you don’t need as much power and don’t care as much about tablet or laptop modes.

Microsoft just blew all that up by announcing the Surface Pro X and Surface Pro 7 portable 2-in-1s on the very same day — not to mention the Surface Neo dual-screen tablet and Surface Duo folding phone. Seriously, let’s not mention those last two again ‘cause they aren’t shipping until late 2020, but I figured you’d want to know.

Asked for comment on Microsoft’s upcoming dual-screen, Android-powered Surface Duo smartphone, here’s what we got from a Google spokesperson: “We are excited to welcome Microsoft to the Android ecosystem. We look forward to working together to bring the best of both companies to users.”

Translation: “We won.”

Microsoft unveiled a bunch of new hardware at its event today. The dual-screened Surface Neo and Surface Duo were the biggest surprises, but those won’t be releasing until holiday 2020, which is over a year away. Frankly, there was a lot to keep up with, and you can easily catch up by watching our quick recap of the event above, or check out the major headlines right here.

Most of the other Surface products that Microsoft announced onstage are available for preorder now, and will be shipping either by the end of October or in November. Whether you’re more interested in the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, or the Surface Pro X, we’ve pulled together a few links where you can reserve yours before it releases.

Microsoft has just announced its new Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X devices, and neither will come with an Intel processor. The software giant is diversifying its silicon for Surface this year by partnering closely with AMD and Qualcomm, respectively, to create custom processors for its Surface line.

The Surface Laptop 3 has a custom Ryzen Surface Edition processor on the 15-inch model, while the Surface Pro X goes the ARM-powered route with a new SQ1 processor co-engineered with Qualcomm. It’s a big change for the Surface line, even if Intel will still power the Surface Pro 7 and the smaller 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 models.

Microsoft had one last surprise at its Surface event: a foldable Surface Duo phone that runs Android.

The design of the device resembles Microsoft’s just-announced dual-screen Surface Neo laptop, but on a smaller, pocketable scale. The Surface Duo features two 5.6-inch displays that can rotate 360 degrees, allowing it to be fully unfolded as a miniature 8.3-inch tablet.

Windows is a big, bloated operating system by the modern standards of tablet and phone users. This is known. But every time Microsoft has tried to strip it down to something simple, users have (rightly?) revolted. Now, the company is officially trying again with the just-announced Windows 10X, and it looks like it may have learned from its mistakes.

The most important thing you need to know about Windows 10X is that it may actually run traditional Windows “legacy” desktop software, not just apps from the Windows Store or the apps you could run on the web. Right out of the gate, Microsoft’s seemingly dodging the huge limitation that made Windows RT and Windows 10 S such a confusing mess because it’ll seemingly be compatible with the apps you’ve been using for decades.

Microsoft is making some big Start Menu changes to Windows 10X. The software maker just unveiled Windows 10X, a new variant of Windows 10 that’s designed to run on dual-screen and foldable devices that are coming in the future, including the Surface Neo. There have been a number of tweaks to the operating system to make it more touch-friendly, but the Start Menu is perhaps the most obvious.

Microsoft is scrapping its Live Tiles, the animated and flipping icons from the Windows Phone days, in favor of a more simplified look. The Windows 10X Start Menu includes apps you can pin in place, and a list of recent documents. It looks like more of a task launcher than what exists in Windows 10 today.

More than 10 years after reports that Microsoft was working on a dual-screen device, the company has made it official. At its fall hardware keynote, the company unveiled the Surface Neo. It runs a new version of Windows called Windows 10X, but it won’t be available until “next holiday.” It’s real and it’s happening — unlike the 2008 Courier concept.

It’s definitely still just a prototype of some sort. Onstage, Panos Panay led the unveiling by saying “How do we show you our products before they’re finished?” (He also said he is “super pumped.”) He called it “a new product that I believe is the next category.”

Adobe’s Fresco sketching app will be available on the ARM-powered Microsoft Surface Pro X, the company announced at its Surface hardware event today. Announcing the arrival of Adobe’s app on the ARM-powered Surface Pro X, Adobe’s Scott Belsky said that creativity “must not be constrained to the desktop,” and added that the company is “working hard to bring other key parts of Creative Cloud to the Surface Pro X as soon as possible.”

As part of the announcement we were treated to a demonstration of Adobe Fresco onstage. Fresco is Adobe’s painting and drawing app which was recently released for the iPad. We saw how the Surface Pro X’s new Surface Slim Pen can be used to sketch on the 2-in-1 device, including using oil brushes which blend and smear like real oils. The pen can be flipped around as you would do with a pencil to quickly erase any mistakes, or tilted on its side to achieve a different brush effect.

Microsoft unveiled a new Surface Slim Pen at its annual hardware event today, which slots into the top of the Surface Pro X Type Cover keyboard. The pen charges wirelessly when docked, replacing the AAAA batteries of the older models. Taking the pen out will automatically pop up a context menu that lets you start drawing right away on apps like Whiteboard. The Slim Pen will be sold separately for $144.99, which is higher than the $99.99 price for the previous Surface Pen model.

Microsoft also previewed some new features to inking on the Office suite in Windows 10, adding the ability to make inline edits in Word. The Surface Pen can be used to delete and add text by crossing out lines within documents. You can also use inking to add comments in Office documents, and ink within Excel cells to input data, writing over them to update numbers. Data entry inking in Excel for web and desktop will be available spring 2020 for Office 365 subscribers. Other updates to Office include Ink Replay in Powerpoint, which is rolling out now.

Microsoft has announced the Surface Pro X, a new ARM-based Surface laptop.

The Surface Pro X is the first ARM-based Surface from Microsoft since the Surface 2 launched back in 2013. It’s a very different sort of device, however, as indicated by the branding. Microsoft views this as a full-fledged Surface Pro-class machine, not a cheaper entry-level model like the original Surface RT and Surface 2 were.

Microsoft is introducing a new pair of wireless earbuds to join the company’s noise-canceling headphones. The Surface Earbuds were announced at today’s event in New York City. They’ll be available “later this year” for $249. The Surface Earbuds are tuned for both music and voice performance — Microsoft is pitching them as a must-have Office accessory with dictation and excellent call quality. Each earbud has two microphones built in, which aid in noise reduction when you’re speaking into them.

Microsoft claims the Surface Earbuds have “all-day comfort” — they make contact with your ear in two places — and, with the included carrying case, offer up to 24 hours of battery life. You get eight hours of continuous playback on a charge, and the case contains enough for two full refills. As with many other wireless earbuds, they use tap and swipe gestures to control your music or other audio.

Microsoft has just announced the new Surface Pro 7, and with it comes a long-awaited move to USB-C for the company’s 2-in-1 PC. Otherwise, it retains the same familiar design as before. The internals have been upgraded with Intel’s latest-generation processors, but the Surface Pro still has a 12.3-inch display — and the Surface Type Keyboard and Surface Pen continue to be essential accessories.

The Surface Pro 7 will launch on October 22nd starting at $749. It still comes in either black or silver, but Microsoft is adding new colors of the Surface Type Color.

By balancing price, performance, portability, and design, the 13.5-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop became one of the best notebooks of 2017, and the company barely bothered to tweak that formula for 2018’s Surface Laptop 2. But with the just-announced Surface Laptop 3, Microsoft is actually changing the laptop’s design in a few key ways — including the long-awaited USB-C port so you can finally plug in loads of peripherals, docking stations, and chargers instead of relying on Microsoft’s proprietary connector.

Here are some other highlights from Microsoft’s event today:

Microsoft is back with its annual Surface event to showcase the latest hardware the company has ready for the holiday season. Last year, Microsoft revealed new black finishes for its Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 alongside an updated Surface Studio 2 and new Surface Headphones.

This year, we’re expecting to see a new Surface Pro 7, an AMD-powered Surface Laptop 3 that may come in a new 15-inch model, and an ARM-powered Surface Pro that will have all-day battery life. We may even see a new Surface-branded speaker designed for Microsoft Teams.

Over the past six months, we’ve seen some pretty weird and wonderful Windows laptops. There was Lenovo’s first “foldable PC,” HP’s dual-screen gaming laptop, and even an Asus notebook with two 4K screens. Laptops are definitely getting weird again. As the smartphone industry looks toward dual-screen and foldable phones, laptop makers aren’t far behind, and Microsoft and Intel are pushing them on.

Microsoft is holding a special Surface hardware event in New York City this morning, where the company will unveil its latest lineup of holiday hardware. It’s also expected to tease the future of what type of hardware we’ll see next year and beyond.

Microsoft broke new ground when it introduced its touchscreen Surface tablet / laptop hybrid back in 2012, and it hasn’t stopped since. This year, the company seems to be pulling out all the stops: its event at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York City looks like it will introduce some major innovations.

Why tune in? Because you can probably expect to see new products and interesting device refreshes for the Surface line. These may include a Surface laptop powered by Qualcomm’s new ARM chip and one that offers dual-screen capabilities. There are also rumors about a new speaker and a consumer version of Teams, Microsoft’s answer to Slack.

There have been several recent leaks of new Surface products that may be announced at Microsoft’s big hardware event on October 2nd, including the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and an ARM-powered Surface 2-in-1 laptop. Now, leaker Evan Blass has spilled details about Windows 10X, which is said to be Microsoft’s fork of Windows 10 that’s built for dual-screen devices.

Of course, a dual-screen Surface product (codenamed “Centaurus”) is rumored to make its debut at the big Surface event. Based on Blass’ tweet, it will run on Windows 10X, which has been previously referred to as Windows Lite.

DOf everything Microsoft is rumored to be announcing this week, the ARM-based Surface is far and away the most important thing to my mind. This is not what I would have told you a month or two ago, honestly. It’s surprising because there are really important storylines for everything Microsoft is set to announce. Let’s just strafe a few of them before digging into ARM.

Take the Surface Pro, for example. Microsoft hasn’t changed the overall design in years, so it feels overdue for a bezel-killing update. At the very least, Microsoft will hopefully bow to the inevitable and include a proper USB-C port on it.

Microsoft’s new Surface lineup appears to have leaked almost in its entirety, thanks to product images obtained by journalist and leaker Evan Blass. Blass posted a series of images to his Twitter account this evening featuring what he says are the upcoming Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3 (13-inch and 15-inch), and an ARM-powered Surface 2-in-1 device.

The images look authentic, and Blass has a storied track record of getting his hands on pre-release images of countless devices over the years. Blass also ended his series of tweets with yet another product announcement, “Not pictured here: dual-screen Surface,” although that seems to indicate Blass may have an image to share later.

Microsoft is holding a big Surface hardware event in New York City on Wednesday, October 2nd. The company has been teasing this event continually on Twitter, and is even inviting Surface fans to attend. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be in attendance, alongside Surface chief Panos Panay. It seems like we’re on the cusp of a significant event, perhaps as big or bigger than the Surface 2015 event when the Surface Book, Microsoft Band 2, Surface Pro 4, and three Lumia phones were introduced.

Rumors suggest we’ll see some refreshes of popular devices like the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, alongside a new mysterious ARM-powered Surface. The most significant part of the day could be Microsoft ushering in its dual-screen plans for Surface and beyond, and a new Windows variant to make those plans a reality. Let’s explore what we’re likely, and unlikely, to see on Wednesday.