Microsoft Surface Pro 6 launched in matte-black with a major bump in internals

Microsoft was expected to show us a 2018 upgrade of the Surface Pro and so it did. The tablet/laptop hybrid, which has been refreshed annually for a few years now still looks familiar but houses a number of key additions this year. Perhaps the most notable change on the outside here is the new coat of paint that the Surface Pro 6 comes in. Microsoft did mention that the Surface lineup was going “back to black” this year and we can finally seem to understand what they meant by that. In fact, apart from the new colour variant, the new Surface is almost identical to its predecessor. Even weight-wise, it’s the same 1.7 pounds. [caption id=“attachment_5305501” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] The matte black Microsoft Surface Pro 6. Image: Microsoft[/caption] This is also the first time since the launch of the original Surface Pro and the Surface Pro 2 that Microsoft has decided to launch a black-colour variant of the laptop. If you are a fan of having more colours then you can still go ahead and swap out the keyboard, which is still available in four colours — cobalt blue, burgundy, black, and platinum. The changes here though, are mostly on the inside and there are quite a few. Microsoft’s Surface chief, Panos Panay, says that the product has a 99 percent consumer satisfaction rate by its count, which is to justify sticking with the same design as last years. However, the company has overhauled the inside of the Surface Pro 6 completely so it has improved cooling.

The new Surface Pro 6 now supports quad-core processors (Intel’s 8th generation processors) and Microsoft claims it will be up to 67 percent faster than the previous model. Microsoft also notes that the Pro 6 will have a 267 ppi screen with a contrast ratio which is the highest on any Surface Pro launched till date. The laptop/hybrid is also claimed to pack an impressive 13.5-hour battery life, something that the revamped internal design could have helped with achieving. The older m3 model with 4 GB RAM has been dropped for an 8 GB Core i5 with a 128 GB SSD now as the base configuration. The internals here can be bumped to a 16 GB Core i7 with a 1 TB SSD. The Surface Pro 6 also features an 8 MP rear-facing camera and a 5 MP front-facing camera with Windows Hello support. The Surface Pro 6 will start at $899 for the base variant and will be available for sale in the US starting 16 October. Still, no word on an India release just yet.