Microsoft’s got a refreshed Surface Pro 7 Plus coming soon to enterprise and education customers. It looks exactly like the Surface Pro 7, down to the dimensions, display panel, and placement of the ports, but with some notable changes on the spec sheet.
The display is the same 12.3-inch
PixelSense display and you still get the single USB-C port + USB-A port + 3.5mm
headphone jack, and Surface Connect port. The battery life is now rated for 15
hours of mixed use (the Surface Pro 7 was rated at 10.5 hours) thanks to a
larger 50.4Wh battery (versus the 7 Pro’s 46.5 Wh one) and the improved
efficiency of the new Intel Core processors.
Intel’s 11th Generation processers power
the Surface 7 Pro Plus. The Core i3 (1115G4) model starts at $899 and comes
with 8GB RAM + 128GB SSD while the Core i5 (1135G7) model is the only one that
comes with an LTE-enabled option. This model runs US$ 1149 and is equipped with a
Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE modem – so no 5G. Finally, a maxed out Core i7
(1165G7) model with 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD will run US$ 2799. Wi-Fi models will offer
support for a microSDXC card while the LTE model simply replaces the expansion
slot in favor of a nanoSIM card slot.
As per The Verge, Microsoft’s hardware
team totally flipped the internals of the Surface Pro 7 in order to make the
SSD component removable. At the same time, the TDM (Thermal Design Model) was
updated, which allowed for a slightly larger battery to fit in the same amount
of space. Microsoft’s decision to refresh the hardware rather than replace the
Pro 7 with a “Surface Pro 8” was more for businesses to keep its form factor
consistent.
That reminds us. As of right now,
Microsoft is only going to offer the Surface 7 Pro Plus to enterprise and
education customers. There was no word on whether it would ever be available
directly to consumers, but the Windows 10 tablet/PC will arrive on January 15
in the US for eligible customers. It will eventually arrive to customers in
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and throughout most of Europe.
