Microsoft First Laptop, the Surface Pro 4

Microsoft unveiled its new Windows 10-powered Surface Pro 4. Billed as the tablet designed to replace your laptop (as long as that laptop isn’t a Surface Book), the Surface Pro 4 comes with a larger 12.3-inch display, up from 12 inches, and Intel’s latest 6th-generation Core M and i-series processors.

Despite its increased screen size, Microsoft actually managed to shrink the 1.63-pound Surface Pro 4’s footprint, albeit ever so slightly.

The Surface Pro 4 also gets a new Type Cover keyboard, with improved backlit keys, a more responsive touchpad, and a fingerprint reader.

Like the Surface Book, the Surface Pro 4 can also use Microsoft’s new Surface Pen. The stylus offers 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, which means it can sense when you are writing with a light touch and when you are really pushing down hard.

Comparison:

Getting one up on the Surface Pro 3's 2,160 x 1,440 pixel-resolution display, the Surface Pro 4 features a 2,736 x 1,824 pixel-resolution display, lending a PPI of 267. Its aspect ratio remains 3:2, which provides a little extra vertical space over traditional 16:9 displays.

Microsoft's Surface tablets have always gone hand-in-hand with their accessories, and the Surface Pro 4 is no different. Dissatisfaction with previous Type Covers led to suggestions that Microsoft would create an entirely new Type Cover - perhaps one similar to the one that comes with the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 700. Instead, it refined what was already in place.

Surface Pro 4 specs

Microsoft is offering the Surface Pro 4 in two flavours, depending on the levels of power you're looking for. Five of the six configurations on offer come with Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 processor and can be configured with a lower or higher amount of storage and RAM. Microsoft is offering a Surface Pro 4 with 1TB of SSD storage in addition to the configurations below, but pricing is yet to be revealed.

The configurations and pricing are:

• 128 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ M3 with 4 GB of RAM $899 ERP
• 128 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 with 4 GB of RAM $999 ERP
• 256 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 with 8 GB of RAM $1,299 ERP
• 256 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 with 8 GB of RAM $1,599 ERP
• 256 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 with 16 GB of RAM $1,799 ERP
• 512 GB 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 with 16 GB of RAM $2,199 ERP

Microsoft reckons you'll squeeze nine hours of battery life out of the Surface Pro 4 based on the Core i5, 256GB, 8GB version of the machine.

Microsoft also said that the Surface Pen’s battery will last a whopping 1 year before giving up the ghost. The Surface Pro 4 hits also stores Oct. 26th and starts at $899.