At its annual hardware event today, Microsoft unveiled a new family of Surface devices ahead of Windows 11’s launch on October 5th. Refreshes of the Surface Pro and Surface Go aren’t surprising, and the company did show off the latest in both of those series. But the Surface Laptop Studio is the most intriguing. It’s meant to replace the Surface Book, which was a detachable 2-in-1 laptop. The Laptop Studio, meanwhile, is more like Microsoft’s Surface Studio all-in-one desktop, in that it features a pull-forward screen that can lay flat on top of a table or be propped up at a slant. It also has a 120Hz display, as does the new Surface Pro 8, which got a sleek redesign.

I was able to check out the Laptop Studio, Surface Pro X and a slew of new Surface devices at a recent (COVID-safe) demo event in New York and I have to say, these Windows 11 PCs are looking very promising.

Surface Laptop Studio hands-on

Let’s start with the Laptop Studio, which a Microsoft rep told me at the event will replace the Surface Book line. Like I mentioned, its new easel-style design is similar not only to its namesake Surface Studio, but also to notebooks from Acer and HP. I was very impressed with how thin the Laptop Studio’s 14.4-inch screen is, and it popped out of its frame without much force. The hinge connecting the display to the keyboard is sturdy, and kept the screen up at a variety of angles in laptop mode.

When I flipped the screen to face outwards, though, I had trouble trying to push the lid away from me to get it to stand at a gentler angle as the panel popped out of the frame. But in every other configuration, such as a conventional laptop mode or laid down flat like a tablet (which Microsoft calls Studio mode), the Surface Laptop Studio behaved as expected.

When the screen is pulled forward and propped up in front of the keyboard in what the company calls Stage mode, it’s great for digital artists. It’s easier to draw on, and you can use the new Slim Pen 2 to create your masterpieces. The new stylus offers haptic feedback with an onboard motor and also mimics the resistance you’d get with pen on paper. I did feel a sort of drag across the Laptop Studio’s screen when I started doodling on it with the Slim Pen 2. It felt odd at first, as I’m accustomed to other styli like Samsung’s S Pen. But I got used to it quite quickly, and kind of liked feeling the mild vibrations that served as an indicator that something had been enabled.

The Laptop Studio has a magnetic strip under the keyboard that lets the Slim Pen 2 attach easily and remain flush with the rest of the machine. The magnets were strong enough that I only had to roughly place the stylus along the edge and it flipped into place. I don’t feel like I’d need to worry about losing the accessory with this setup, which is nice.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Microsoft also offers a 120Hz screen on the Laptop Studio, and a company representative told me at the demo that the touch sampling rate is 100Hz. This should make for a smooth drawing experience, but also make scrolling and animations look super buttery. There’s no adaptive refresh rate available in the system — you’ll just get the option to choose between 120Hz or 60Hz in settings.

For all the detailed specs on the Laptop Studio, like its new Full HD webcam, its screen resolution, dimensions, processor and memory configuration options, I encourage you to check out our news post. For this hands-on article, I’d like to focus on my initial impressions of the devices I got to try out. On that note, the last thing I’ll say about my experience with the Laptop Studio is that its keyboard and trackpad were spacious, and though its buttons were cushy and responsive, I prefer the keys on the Surface Laptop 4. For things like battery life, performance and other real-world observations, though, we’ll need to wait till we can test out a review unit.

Surface Pro 8 hands-on

Another device that got a visual overhaul this year is the Surface Pro 8. It’s not the only new Surface Pro unveiled today — there’s also the Surface Pro 7 Plus, which received a typical minor processor upgrade and looks very similar to older Microsoft tablets. The Pro 8, meanwhile, looks a lot like the ARM-based Pro X. But it uses 11th-gen Intel Core i5 or i7 chips and is therefore noticeably heavier. It also has a different ventilation design around its sides compared to the X, which was sealed.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Still, the Pro 8 is impressively thin, with a 0.37-inch profile, and its built-in kickstand is even sharper. Its 13-inch screen is surrounded by an attractively thin bezel as opposed to the approximately inch-wide border around the Pro 7 Plus. The Pro 8 also features the same 120Hz refresh rate as the Laptop Studio, running at a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution.

Out of the box, though, the Pro 8 runs at 60Hz, and you can go into settings to bump this up to the higher rate. Meanwhile, the Laptop Studio refreshes at 120Hz by default. This difference is because the Pro 8 is designed to be a more portable device, and Microsoft expects people to want more battery life on the go. If your priority is smooth scrolling and inking (Slim Pen 2 is also supported here), then by all means go faster. But if you’re trying to squeeze every last minute out of the Pro 8, you might prefer to stick to the lower rate.

When you’re out of juice, you can charge the Pro 8 back up with Microsoft’s own connector or through one of the pair of USB-C ports. These support USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4, and can stream out up to two 4K displays at once. We weren’t able to test this during the limited time at our preview, and I can only really tell you that in general the Surface Pro 8 felt very much like a heavier Pro X. They use the same Signature Type Cover with the same comfortable keys and responsive trackpad, as well as onboard slot that holds and charges the Slim Pen 2.

Of all the other Surfaces Microsoft announced today — the Go 3, the new Pro X, the Pro 7 Plus and the Duo 2, only the last one is different in a significant way. The rest of the systems basically got incremental updates while maintaining a similar look to their predecessors. 

Surface Adaptive Kit

I did want to call out the new Surface Adaptive Kit, though. It’s a set of labels and stickers that are designed to make Surfaces easier for people with different needs to use. There are translucent keycap labels to make buttons identifiable by touch, bump labels that add visual and tactile cues to keys or ports, as well as colorful indicators with matching cable wraps to make it more obvious which wires go into which sockets. 

The colors I saw at the demo area were neon peach hued and I’m not sure if they’ll be appreciated by people with certain visual impairments (a pattern might be better for those who can’t distinguish between colors). But at least the keycap labels I saw came in different shapes and overall I appreciate the effort here.

Microsoft led the way for accessibility tech in gaming with the Xbox Adaptive Controller years ago and though the Surface Adaptive Kit seems like a small product, it shows that the company is thinking in meaningful ways how to cater to people with different needs.

Though most of the new Surfaces that were unveiled today feel like incremental updates, the Laptop Studio, Duo 2 and Pro 8 at least bring a low-key level of excitement. Plus, these machines (Duo 2 aside) will all run Windows 11, which is already bringing new life to a stagnating PC industry. As always, we’ll need to test all these devices out for ourselves to see if they’re worth spending your money on, but you can already pre-order all of them today.

As we continue to wait for Microsoft to release the Surface Neo, the company is already unveiling the second generation of its dual-screen Android phone. The Surface Duo 2 is a $1,500 device that’s slightly thinner than its predecessor and brings some serious camera improvements. Specifically, it now has three sensors instead of the lone 11-megapixel camera used in the last-gen setup. I had a chance to check out the Duo 2 briefly at a (COVID-safe) demo in New York, and I’m so far cautiously impressed by its updates.

Microsoft’s demo area wasn’t the best place to take memorable photos, but I did try out the Duo 2’s triple lenses on an Xbox controller. I easily switched from the main camera to the ultrawide and telephoto options, and also gave Portrait mode a go. I can’t judge the quality of these photos yet, since I could only view them on the Duo 2’s screens, but I already feel like the bugginess I experienced with the original Surface Duo is mostly gone.

That’s not surprising, since one of the biggest issues plaguing the Duo’s camera software was that it only had one camera that sat above the screen. You had to flip the phone so that the correct side was facing you when you wanted to take a selfie, and have the camera side face out for other shots. This meant the device needed to know which screen to activate based on how you were holding it.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

With the triple cameras sitting on the Duo 2’s back/outside and a 12-megapixel front-facing camera, there’s no longer a need to figure that out. It’s a shame, though: There’s also no longer a way to take photos without having the Duo 2 opened up; if you’re shooting with the rear cameras, you must use the device with both screens facing you.

The bulky camera bump also prevents you from flipping one of the screens all the way over to have both displays lay evenly back to back. I never really cared to do that with the original Duo since it was too wide to use as a makeshift phone, but it’s still disappointing that with this change, the Duo 2 will really mostly be used in Book mode. It’s no longer a phone-tablet hybrid.

I’m surprised at this functional shift, since one of the refinements Microsoft made with the Duo 2 is narrowing the device’s overall width. Each panel now measures 5.8 inches instead of 5.6 inches on the original, for a combined 8.3-inch screen as opposed to an 8.1-inch canvas. But they’re also taller, with resolutions of 1,344 x 1,892 instead of the older 1,350 x 1,800. This would have made the Duo 2 slightly more phone-like in shape, but in person I frankly couldn’t tell that it had changed in size at all.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Speaking of, Microsoft claims that this is the thinnest 5G mobile device on the market. Indeed, at 5.5mm (or 0.21 inches) thick, the Duo 2 is certainly sleek. The company also introduced a slight curve on the inner edges of each screen — an effect that’s reminiscent of pages in an open book. This could potentially make it easier to drag apps across screens, which I was able to do quickly during my demo.

Another new feature that makes the Duo 2 feel faster than the original is its higher refresh rate. Both panels now run at 90Hz and are supposed to be in sync, too. I loaded up Engadget’s website and expanded it across the two displays, scrolling frenetically up and down on an article, and the two halves of the page did indeed keep pace with each other. I’m used to a 90Hz screen by now, thanks to long-term use of the Pixel 5, but it’s certainly a nice feature to see.

Microsoft also added support for its new Slim Pen 2, which offers haptic feedback so doodlers or artists can feel a vibration when they put the stylus to the screen. It also tries to mimic the feel and resistance of pen on paper, and I spent more time with this on the new Surface Laptop Studio than on the Duo 2.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Frankly, the fact that I encountered so few hiccups with the Duo 2 surprised me. The original Duo was riddled with bugs, and even simple things like expanding an app to span both displays were difficult. During my preview, this went smoothly. Admittedly, I didn’t spend much time with the Duo 2, so I’m still cautious about the seemingly improved software, but Microsoft has indeed been working on fixing past issues.

That responsiveness could also be attributed to the beefy Snapdragon 888 processor that powers the Duo 2, though we’ll have to perform real-world testing to be sure. We’ll also need to run our own battery test to see how long the Duo 2’s 4,449mAh cell lasts, as well as how successful Microsoft was at fixing the flaws of the original. I’m curious to see if the new triple camera system and the problems it introduces are a bane or boon to the Duo series, but for now I’m cautiously optimistic about the second Duo. You can pre-order it now starting at $1,500, and it’ll be available on October 21st. That said, I suggest you wait until we can review one before spending any money on a device that’s still so novel.

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

If we learned anything from last year's Surface Book 3, it's that Microsoft's wild detachable tablet design wasn't long for this world. There was just no way to compete with other powerful notebooks when it required shoving full Windows PC, complete with a power-hungry CPU, into a large slate. Enter the Surface Laptop Studio, a new stab at building a powerful Surface notebook.

Developing...

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

Microsoft's first attempt at a dual-screen Android device wasn't exactly a success. Middling hardware and consistently buggy software held back what could have been a compelling experience. But with the Surface Duo 2, the company wants to change all that with a device that focuses on addressing the shortcomings of its predecessor. 

Take one look at the Surface Duo 2, and you’ll notice it has a substantial camera bump. That might not seem like much of an upgrade, but it is because it means the Surface Duo 2 comes with a far more capable and versatile camera system than its predecessor. The original featured a single 11-megapixel above its right display. That meant you had to use that one camera for both selfies and regular shots. Add some imprecise software for switching between camera modes, and the Surface Duo was never great at capturing snapshots.

With the addition of three new cameras, the Surface Duo 2 should at the very least allow you to capture a greater variety of shots. The triple rear camera array consists of a 12-megapixel wide-angle, a 12-megapixel telephoto and a 16-megapixel ultra-wide. The primary and telephoto cameras feature f/1.7 and f/2.4 aperture lenses, phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization.

Less noticeable but welcome all the same are the tweaks Microsoft has made to Duo’s signature dual PixelSense displays. The new model features slightly larger 5.8-inch AMOLED screens that combine into a single 8.3-inch display. They’re also brighter and feature a variable refresh rate of up to 90Hz for smoother scrolling.

Other notable features include a new sound system Microsoft says delivers stereo sound no matter how you hold or position the Surface Duo 2. On the side of the device, you’ll find a nifty ambient display that shows things like how much battery life you have. Oh, there’s also a new Obsidian black that is quite fetching, and you can attach a Surface Pen magnetically to the device.

Developing...

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

We all know what to expect with new laptops: Upgraded chips, often thinner designs, and whiz-bang new features. But it's easy to ignore how some of those changes can affect people with disabilities. Making a notebook thinner can also make it harder to open, for example. So to better equip its PCs to be more accessible, Microsoft created the Surface Adaptive Kit, a collection of add-ons that can help you find specific keys, locate ports and flip open your PC or kickstand.

While they may just look like a collection of simple stickers, it still shows that Microsoft is actually thinking of people with disabilities. The Adaptive Kit comes from its Inclusive Tech Lab, the same folks behind the revolutionary Xbox Adaptive Controller. The impetus for the Surface kit is also very similar: It's all about making Microsoft's hardware easier for everyone to use.

In the box, you'll find a set of translucent keycap labels to highlight keys you use often, a set of three-dimensional bump labels for ports and buttons, and raised port indicators with matching cable wrap. To give you more leverage with cases and kickstands, there's also a ring opener and pull-tab opener. 

The company isn't saying how much the Surface Adaptive Kit will cost when it arrives later this year, but hopefully it'll come in relatively cheap. After all, an accessibility-focused product should work for all budgets.  

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

When Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro X in 2019, it promised the start of something new for the company’s 2-in-1 line. Unfortunately, buggy limited app compatibility due to the computer’s ARM-based architecture and Windows on ARM software meant the Pro X never quite delivered on its promise. 

Microsoft isn’t updating the Surface Pro X’s hardware. As before you can configure the computer with either the company’s original SQ1 chip or its more recent SQ2 chip. However, Microsoft is introducing a new WiFi-only model that starts at $899. More important here is that the computer now comes with Windows 11 out of the box and includes support for native 64-bit emulation.

It’s also compatible with Microsoft’s new Slim Pen 2, which you can store and charge in the Pro X’s Type Cover. Picking up the Slim Pen 2 activates an interface in Windows 11 that allows you to customize your inking experience.

The WiFi-only model is available to pre-order today, with in-store availability to follow on October 5th.

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

Microsoft's new Surface launches include a refresh for its smallest tablet, the Surface Go 2. The tech firm has unveiled the Surface Go 3, a performance-focused upgrade that brings faster chips to the 10.5-inch slate. You’ll get up to a 60 percent speed boost, Microsoft claimed.

Developing...

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

It wouldn't be a major Surface launch without a new pen, and Microsoft is happy to deliver. The company has introduced a Surface Slim Pen 2 that uses a haptic motor to provide "tactical signals" as you draw and write. In theory, it'll feel like you're putting pen to paper rather than glass.

Developing...

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

Microsoft's new Surface Pro 8 tablet can actually go toe-to-toe with most ultraportables. It features a 13-inch PixelSense screen, a significant upgrade from the previous 12.3-inch display. Even better, it's one of the first non-gaming notebooks we've seen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling through web pages and jotting down notes a lot smoother. And of course, it's built with Windows 11 in mind.

Together with some of Intel's latest 11th-gen processors, as well as long-awaited support for Thunderbolt 4, the Surface Pro 8 could tempt over potential buyers who were turned off by the limitations of previous models. As much as I've liked earlier Surface Pros, the last model made it clear that Microsoft seriously needed to change things up.

Thankfully, the Surface Pro 8 finally supports Thunderbolt 4 on its two USB-C ports. That means you'll be able to connect fast external hard drives, several 4K external monitors or even an external GPU. As for other updates, the rear camera is now 10MP instead of 8MP, and it also supports 4K video. The front-facing camera is still 5MP with 1080p video, but it should offer better low-light performance.

Developing...

Follow all of the news from Microsoft's fall Surface event right here.

Amazon's looser stance on workers' marijuana use now covers people who were previously dismissed. The online retailer said it has restored employment eligibility for workers and applicants who were fired or rejected from unregulated roles (that is, not truck driving or similar jobs) after cannabis screenings. The company didn't promise to rehire recently fired workers or compensate them for lost earnings, but it may be helpful for those still looking for work.

The decision, as before, came down to a combination of equity and practical reality. Candidate marijuana screening "disproportionately" affects people of color, Amazon said. It also noted that varying state levels of legalized cannabis use made it harder to run a consistent and equitable drug testing program across the US. Amazon was also frank about its constant need for more workers — dropping marijuana tests lets it "expand [the] applicant pool."

The move comes on top of recent political efforts, including lobbying for and otherwise supporting bills that reform the federal approach to marijuana. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (aka MORE Act), for instance, would purge criminal records.

Those measures aren't guaranteed to become law. However, Amazon's overall strategy is clear — it's determined to boost hiring, and it's betting that its sheer corporate clout can persuade lawmakers to widen the door for more recruits.