- [Michael] To tell you about what happened today
in New York City,
I need to take you back
to what happened last December in Hawaii.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit brought beautiful scenery,
excellent company, and most importantly,
the debut of a chip that promised to revolutionize laptops
by doubling their battery life, keeping them connected 24/7,
and making them thinner and lighter than ever.
Right from the jump, I said this would be a perfect fit
for Microsoft's Surface laptops.
And today, the company finally made it so.
Oh, and there's a phone too.
Looking back to my very brief look at the phone
and its convertible counterpart later.
First, let's look at the updates
across the whole surface line.
That's easy to do when it comes to the Surface Pro 7
and Surface Laptop 3.
As those suffixes imply, these are just refinements
of existing platforms.
To the point where at a briefing discussing the laptop,
Microsoft spent nearly half the time
talking about how finely machined the lid has to be
to let you open it easily.
I'll admit to a fit and finish fetish,
but even I have to say that the bigger improvements here
are more practical ones that you can across today's lineup.
Like the Surface laptop finally getting a USB-C port
to go with the USB-A and the surface connector.
And the fact that that surface connector
now supports quick charging.
From dead to 80% in an hour.
That's cool, and again, it's across the lineup.
You also get a bigger screen option if you want it.
Up to 15 inches.
And in an interesting shift,
you can choose between Intel or AMD for your processor.
Now, there's other stuff, like new microphones
and the expected silicon bumps,
but for my money, today's PCs don't get any more exciting
than that always on, always connected Surface, the Pro X.
Thinner and lighter than any Surface ever,
and with more display area, too.
This machine is crazy, just on its face.
When you pull down the magnetic type cover,
a new mini Surface pen that recharges in its own bay
with a flat construction that feels
like a carpenter's pencil.
It's comfy, and I already love writing with it
more than the existing Surface pen.
Then take a gander at the exploded view here.
I love how Microsoft always does these
at their press events.
You see this chip?
To simplify things way too much,
Qualcomm a while back decided to take a phone processor
and build it for a laptop.
Then it refined it over two generations
into that 8cx that was announced
alongside fancy drinks in Hawaii.
And then Microsoft worked with Qualcomm
to make a special version just for the Surface.
The upshot?
An always connected 4G modem, better battery life,
and performance equivalent to or better
than a mid range Surface from last year.
But keep in mind that all we've seen today are promises,
and even some of those have compromises.
Like the estimated usage time on this machine, 13 hours.
Yeah, it sounds long at first,
but those estimates are always wildly optimistic.
Also, it falls short of the usual estimates of 20 hours
for AC PCs.
And third, the conventional Surface devices announced today,
their estimated run times fall between 10 and 11 hours.
Microsoft said it was okay with making that sacrifice,
in order to make the Pro X lighter and thinner,
and give it a bigger display.
And we'll see if I agree once I get it in for review.
One thing I can tell you now,
I wish Microsoft would have given this
a more exciting paint job.
The black aluminum picks up smudges immediately.
I'm still stoked,
I just want this to look as exciting as it really is.
Moving on to something that needs no help standing out,
Surface Earbuds are a thing now.
And they look like you're hiding Othello pieces
in your ear to play a magic trick or something.
There's a reason for the large area,
it's a capacitive plate calibrated
for swipe and tap gestures.
In my few minutes testing them out,
I did find that large area easier to manipulate
than the tiny touch pads on, say, Samsung's Galaxy buds.
Now, the Microsoft Office integration sounds ridiculous
and features like advancing power point slides with a swipe
are ridiculous.
But it also means they're not just Bluetooth Earbuds,
but language translators, and closed captioning devices.
Still, I'm not entirely sold.
They're pricey, and the fact that they intentionally
don't isolate noise makes them great for joggers maybe,
but not for subway rides or flights.
I don't know.
Drop a comment below, let me know what you think.
The biggest game changer of today
is something I was kept six feet away from.
The Surface Neo and Surface Duo
are as confusingly named as the Chevy Volt and Chevy Bolt,
but they represent the arrival of two products
Microsoft fans have drooled over for years.
The courier convertible and the Surface phone.
The convertible is the Neo,
which will run the new Windows 10X on dual 9 inch screens,
joined by a 360 degree hinge.
The phone is the Duo, which uses the same form factor,
but scales back to five and a half inch screens.
And instead of Windows, it runs Android.
Now, cool your jets, folks.
These won't be out until holiday season 2020.
The Neo being held for then, I understand.
The Windows 10X is a totally different platform,
and it's gonna need some time in the oven.
But Duo runs Android.
Contrary to what we heard Microsoft say today,
we have seen devices like this before.
A lot of the same ideas from that Axon M,
and more recently the LG G8X,
are in evidence on the surface Duo.
Now, the Duo certainly has more beautiful hardware
than both of those.
But by a year from now?
Those embezzles won't be aging well.
And in what I expect to be a broadening field
of foldables by then, I don't think the center
line is seen well either.
Nevertheless, I'm stoked to sample the first Surface
that fits in a pocket.
So sound of social if you want me
to review that one.
I mean, I'm going to, but let me know I have your support.
In the mean time, check out a dual screen laptop
you can buy today in my Asus Zenbook Pro Duo review
that just went up.
And for a much deeper dive on this surface stuff,
be sure to check out Daniel Rubino's Hands On
at Windows Central.
This video was produced after a press event
hosted by Microsoft in New York City,
and recorded in a hotel room.
That's why it sounds a little weird.
Obviously I didn't get any special treatment,
and as always, Microsoft was afforded no copy approval,
and no compensation was exchanged for this coverage.
A full disclosure in the past Qualcomm
has sponsored Mr Mobile videos,
but there is currently no advertising agreement in place,
and Qualcomm did not review or approve this copy
prior to publication.
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Until next time, thanks for watching.
And stay mobile, my friends.