Microsoft launches new Surface devices in new AI era

Microsoft today announced the general availability of the all-new Surface Pro and the all-new Surface Laptop to empower users in South Africa to unlock new experiences and accelerate their Artificial Intelligence (AI) transformation journey.

The devices are part of Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs portfolio, a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI.

Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all-day battery life, and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs are designed to achieve a level of performance never seen before.

They also come with a host of innovative features including Cocreator, which generates and refines AI images in real time; and Live Captions, which instantly translates any live or pre-recorded video from 44 languages.

Talia Naidoo, Surface Category Manager at Microsoft South Africa, said that the new Surface devices have been designed for students, professionals and enthusiasts, looking to enhance their productivity by the power of AI experiences we have never seen before.

“Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of AI transformation with solutions such as Microsoft Copilot allowing us to do things that we never dreamed possible – and now, we begin a new chapter of AI innovation by introducing our first-ever Copilot+ PCs from Surface.”

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11^th Edition Copilot+ PC is designed to empower consumers that are always on-the-go with lightning-fast performance, AI-accelerated power and a stunning optional OLED (organic light emitting diodes) display – all in a thin, light and versatile package.

Built with the new Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, the device delivers incredible performance that is 90% faster than the Surface Pro 9. When docked in at the office, the powerful 2-in-1 supports fast connectivity with Wi-Fi 7, and the ability to connect to three 4k monitors.

In addition, the all-day battery life of up to 14 hours provides peace of mind for users on the go.

Similarly, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7^th Edition Copilot+ PC empowers users to accelerate innovation, solve problems faster and drive business impact with new AI capabilities and Copilot experiences powered by the new Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors.

The laptop has been completely redesigned from the ground up to help users be even more productive with stunning new brighter displays with razor-thin bezels, more ports than ever before, faster connectivity with Wi-Fi 7, and up to 22 hours of battery life.

The laptop is available in two sizes: the 13.8-inch display in a more compact design and a 15-inch display for expanded visuals.

Both devices have been developed to be secure by default, Naidoo explains “At Microsoft, we believe that the best way to secure information on a PC is to secure the whole PC itself.

All Copilot+ PCs are Secured-core PCs, bringing advanced security to both commercial and consumer devices. In addition to the layers of protection in Windows 11, Secured-core PCs also provide advanced firmware safeguards and dynamic root-of-trust measurement to help protect from chip to cloud.”

Furthermore, a Microsoft Pluton security processor will be enabled by default on all Copilot+ PCs. Pluton is a chip-to-cloud security technology – designed by Microsoft and built by silicon partners – with Zero Trust principles at the core.

This helps protect credentials, identities, personal data and encryption keys, making them significantly harder to remove from the device, even if a user is tricked into installing malware or an attacker has physical possession of the PC.

All Copilot+ PCs, including the all-new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, will ship with Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS). This provides more secure biometric sign ins and eliminates the need for a password.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition Copilot+ PC will be available in South Africa from the 3^rd of September 2024. The estimated retail price for the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC will start from R29,999 which includes a type cover keyboard, while the estimated retail price for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition Copilot+ PC will start from R26,999.

The new Surface devices are available from Incredible Connection, Makro, Amazon, Takealot, Evetech, and Braintree.

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