Microsoft has just announced its latest addition to the Surface Pro family; the Surface Pro 7+. The name would suggest that this new Surface is more of a minor upgrade to the Surface Pro 7 than a full-fledged successor, but there’s more to it than that.
Microsoft is positioning this device exclusively at commercial and education customers, so it won’t be available to the general consumer audience. As for what’s new, well, its mostly internal as the device looks almost identical to the Pro 7 externally. Read on for more details.
Processor, Graphics, & RAM
The Pro 7+ features Intel’s latest 11th-gen Core processors with Xe graphics. These processors come with a new architecture and a new graphics core, promising significant improvements over its predecessor.
This will also be the first Surface Pro model to offer up to 32GB of RAM. Something that will be greatly beneficial to users who rely on memory-intensive applications.
Cooling
Microsoft is touting a new thermal design that uses a combination of graphite heat-spreaders and copper pipes to distribute heat within the device. The company claims that this, along with larger vents should keep the Pro 7+ cool and quiet. In turn, this should allow for higher-clock speeds maintained for longer periods of time.
Removable Storage
Following in the steps of the Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop 3 before it, the Pro 7+ features removable storage. Under the kickstand is a removable door providing quick and easy access to the NVMe drive within.
Cellular Connectivity
Microsoft has also added a 4G LTE modem to the Pro 7+, which will be useful for business and education users. 4G LTE can be utilized by either using an eSIM or a physical NanoSIM.
Increased Battery Capacity
Also new is an increased battery capacity. Microsoft achieved this by incorporating the same thin display technology found on the Surface Pro X, using the space savings to physically increase the size of the battery. The new battery is a 50.4 watt-hour unit, up from 43.2 watt-hours on the regular Surface Pro 7.
Thoughts
I find a few things interesting about this announcement. The first is that this is the first time Microsoft has used the + moniker on a Surface product to indicate an incremental update. Could this be a trend that Microsoft will continue with the Surface Pro line, with incremental refreshes to the product line in between more significant updates? Time will tell.
The second thing I find interesting is the fact that Microsoft is not targeting regular consumers with the Surface Pro 7+. This device will exclusively be available to business and education customers, even though it’s been upgraded with a new generation of processors (which typically would be enough to warrant a full model number jump). Something tells me that we could be in for a major update with the Surface Pro 8, whenever it arrives.
What are you thoughts on the Surface Pro 7+? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
You can learn more about the Surface Pro 7+ here.
The Surface Guide 