Microsoft refreshes its smaller Surface Pro and Laptop with Qualcomm’s X2 Plus

Microsoft is updating two of its smaller Surface devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus chips. The Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch keep the same design and hardware features as last year’s versions, but get faster chips and higher prices. Both go on sale October 13th. The 12-inch Surface Pro starts at $1,149.99, and the 13-inch Surface Laptop starts at $1,199.99.

Those prices are well above what the devices cost last year, when the Surface Pro 12-inch started at $799.99 and the Surface Laptop 13-inch started at $899.99. Part of the increase comes from the removal of the base 8GB memory option. Both devices now launch with at least 16GB of RAM and can be configured with up to 24GB.

Microsoft says the six-core Snapdragon X2 Plus chips provide up to 18 percent more efficient battery performance, more than 60 percent faster graphics performance, and up to 95 percent faster local AI inferencing on the built-in NPU. In practice, Microsoft says the Surface Pro 12-inch Second Edition gains an extra hour of web browsing, for up to 13 hours total, while the Surface Laptop 13-inch Second Edition gains two extra hours, for up to 18 hours total.

The displays carry over largely unchanged. The Surface Pro 12-inch has a 2196 x 1464 LCD panel at 220 PPI with a refresh rate up to 90Hz. The Surface Laptop 13-inch has a 1920 x 1280 display at 178 PPI that runs at 60Hz. Both screens move from 400 nits of brightness to 500 nits.

Port selection is also the same as before. Both devices include two USB-C 3.2 ports, and the Surface Laptop 13-inch adds a USB-A 3.2 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Both support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Neither smaller model gets a haptic trackpad, even though Windows 11 now offers haptic feedback and the Surface Laptop Ultra ships with it.

Microsoft is bringing back the black color option for both devices, alongside platinum silver and violet. Both will also be sold to commercial customers, and the Surface Pro 12-inch will be available in an optional 5G configuration. Microsoft is separately launching a second edition of its Surface Mouse with integrated haptics.

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