Microsoft unveils the Surface Book

Microsoft claims the Surface Book is the fastest 13-inch tablet ever made, double the speed of Apple’s MacBook Pro.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 has a bigger display – 12.3 inches – but is the same size as the Surface Pro 3. Along with a 12-hour battery life, the laptop is powered by an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor. If the Surface Pro 4 is more similar to a tablet, the Surface Book is more closely related to a full-fledged laptop.

The 950 and 950XL handsets function a 20-megapixel rear digital camera, have as much as 32GB of storage, 4K video and use liquid cooling know-how. Also, it comes with built-in stereo speakers with Dolby audio technology and sports stereo microphones.

Also available from October, Surface Pro 4 will set you back $899.

“The latest Surface Pro is both thinner and lighter than the previous model, coming in at 11.50″ x 7.93″ x 0.33″ and 766~786 grams.

The Surface Pro 4 comes with an all-new Surface Pen as well, which has an eraser on the end of it. The new pen, which attaches magnetically to the side of the Surface, has an impressive 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. While it’s always been more of a hardware company than it gets credit for, thanks to the Xbox, the venerable keyboard and mouse lines, the Zune, the Surface, and so on, it’s never directly pursued a PC-based strategy like this before.

Microsoft said the device’s display features the best touchscreen available, stating that the Pro 4 is in a class of its own and can not be compared to other tablets.

With a starting price of $1,499, the lightweight, 13.5-inch device – Microsoft’s first-ever in-house laptop – boasts a full-sized backlit keyboard, 16GB GDDR5 RAM, a 12-hour battery life and a sixth-generation Intel Core processor. The computer will go on sale October 26.

In the event, Microsoft also announced the Lumia 950, the smartphone that will be the first to have Windows 10 mobile.

Myerson said a version of the device for developers would be available in the first three months of 2016 for US$3000.

Furthermore, this new laptop can easily work with Surface Dock that’s also been presented during the Microsoft Device event yesterday.

The new devices show Microsoft has narrowed the gap tech-wise with competitors, placing it more firmly in the consumer conversation, Daniel Ives, a financial analyst at FBR & Co., said in a note Tuesday. There’s also a fingerprint reader. It is a 12.3-inch display with 5 million pixel which is a 2736 x 1824 resolution screen.