It looks like Microsoft’s premium Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are getting a much-needed upgrade next year. Today, images of the Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Pro 8 have been revealed in a new certification filed by the Redmond-based Microsoft in South Korea.
According to certifications spotted online, Microsoft is working on a Surface Laptop upgrade with model number ‘1950‘ and Surface Pro 8 with model number ‘1960‘.
Both Surface products will use Intel’s latest 11th-generation processors, which comes with Intel Iris Xe graphics.
It’s important to understand that Microsoft will use Intel’s new integrated graphics in the upper tier of the company’s next-gen Surface hardware. Iris Xe will be included in the Core i5 and i7 processors, and Surface devices with Intel Tiger Lake Core i3 processors will stick with Intel UHD Graphics.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft will also offer the Surface Laptop (2021) with AMD options, but Surface Pro 8 will only ship Intel hardware.
To start, Iris Xe is the new integrated graphics included with Intel’s 11th-gen Tiger Lake CPUs and the GPU promises better performance.
While very little is known about the Surface Laptop 4 right now, we already know pretty much everything about the Surface Pro 8, thanks to the leaked eBay listing. According to earlier reports, Surface Pro 8 comes with same 12.3-inch PixelSense display and chunky bezels.
Surface Pro 8 will also retain the standard kickstand design. In fact, the Surface Type Cover keyboard accessory, which is sold separately, will remain unchanged as well.
The upgraded internal hardware will promise a boost in CPU performance and graphical power.
Of course, there won’t be any major difference between the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Pro 7 in terms of both performance and design. However, if you rely on graphically demanding apps, or you’d like to play games on your Surface hardware, the powerful Xe graphics should help.
