It’s been over a year and a half since Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 9, and recently the company launched the Surface Pro 10 for Business, but there’s no consumer version of the tablet yet. However, it is coming soon, and it will be very exciting. Why? Because we’re expecting some big changes in the Surface Pro 10 compared to the previous models, including the Surface Pro 10 for Business. Here’s everything we know and expect from Microsoft’s next top-of-the-line tablet.
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Surface Pro 10: Release date
While the Surface Pro 10 for Business was introduced in March, we’re expecting Microsoft to introduce the true Surface Pro 10 at an event on May 20th. It won’t just be a Microsoft event, though, as other devices with Arm processors are expected to be announced on the same day.
The Surface Pro 10 should be available alongside most of these laptops at some point in June. We’ll likely hear about specific dates at the May event.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X series
There’s no power greater than X, after all
The biggest news we’re expecting from the Surface Pro 10 is that it will be one of the very first Windows PCs to feature the Qualcomm Snadragon X series of processors, including both the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus. These are extremely exciting processors from Qualcomm, featuring brand-new Qualcomm Oryon cores, which are designed from the ground-up to run on Windows PCs. Performance on these processors is unlike anything we’ve seen on Arm PCs in the past, and Microsoft is so confident in them that we’re reportedly getting only an Arm versions of the Surface Pro 10, and no Intel models.
With Arm processors, you can expect excellent efficiency, with Qualcomm promising similar levels of performance to Intel or AMD’s high-end processors while using a lot less power. You also get instant wake from sleep with minimal power consumption in sleep mode, similar to a smartphone. This has been a problem with Windows laptops for a long time, and Arm processors could fix it.
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If you’re worried about compatibility, Microsoft has also improved the emulation quality on Arm, and more developers than ever are developing apps to run natively on Arm, including every major web browser and even DaVinci Resolve. This won’t be like Arm laptops of the past.
Finally, an OLED display
It’s about time
The Surface Pro 10 for Business already made a very welcome change to the display by adding an anti-reflective coating that makes outdoor visibility much better. But the consumer version of the Surface Pro 10 will reportedly be even better by finally making the transition to an OLED display. Most premium laptops in the past few years have offered an OLED option, so it’s good to finally see Microsoft make that transition.
What does OLED mean? Well, in a typical LCD display, the pixels and the backlight are different layers, and the backlight typically illuminates the entire screen at once. Even if the screen is showing black, the backlight is on, so the black can appear brighter than intended, and that applies to dark colors in general. With OLED, each pixel is its own source of light, and so the intensity of the light can be adjusted on the fly for what each pixel is showing, so black pixels can be turned off entirely. This means you have a virtually infinite contrast ratio and more vivid, punchy colors compared to LCD. The higher contrast not only looks great, but it may also improve visibility under bright lighting.
A new webcam
Just like the business model
The Surface Pro 10 for consumers should also include some improvements we saw in the business model. This includes a new webcam, which now supports 1440p video instead of just 1080p. Plus, the new webcam has a wider field of view, at 114 degrees. Plus, with the power of AI, you get features like portrait blur, eye contact, and noise reduction. The rear camera likely won’t change much from previous models, though.
There’s also an NFC reader in the business model, though it’s unlikely this will make it to the consumer version, since it’s not really a useful feature for general use.
Windows 11 version 24H2
It’s all about AI
Hardware aside, the Surface Pro 10 will also pack some news in terms of Windows itself, which ties into the Snapdragon X processors above. The Surface pro 10 will be among the first devices to ship with Windows 11 version 24H2, at least in some capacity, because this new version of Windows is adding some major optimizations for Arm devices. All the PCs shipping with Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors will have Windows 11 version 24H2 out of the box.
Windows 11 version 24H2 will have a lot of new features and changes, but there’s a big focus on AI. One of the headlining features hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s been heavily reported on. It’s called AI Explorer, and it basically creates a timeline of everything you do on your PC, leveraging AI to remember what you were looking at. You can then ask it to surface things like “show me that document about computers”, and it will bring up every instance of a document with the word “computers” in it.
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There’s a lot more smaller stuff, with some new capabilities for Copilot, improvements to File Explorer (including the ability to create more archive file types), and sudo for Windows, a new way to elevate commands in the Windows Terminal.
Some features may not be available at launch, though, because the update won’t actually be finalized in time. The remaining features will be added via an update towards September, which is when other computer will get Windows 11 version 24H2 as well.
It’s one of the most exciting Surface devices yet
These are just the high-level details we know of, but there might be a bit more to it when it actually gets announced. Regardless, what we do know already makes this one of the most exciting devices in Surface history. Arm processors could change the paradigm for computers (in fact, they’ve already done that on Macs), and an OLED display is another huge addition that’s a bit overdue. The announcement isn’t too far off, so we only have to wait a few weeks to know the full details.