Surface Pro 8, Surface Laptop 4 Leaks Hint At Modest Upgrades

With all that's happening in the Mac market the past weeks, it's almost too easy to forget other manufacturers have their own new wares to show. Intel is, of course, making sure no one forgets by making a lot of noise about its 11th-gen processors and new Intel Iris Xe graphics. One company that has been unusually silent, however, is Microsoft, whose line of Surface products used to be the talk of the PC town. Microsoft seems to be taking a more modest strategy if these leaked photos and information about its upcoming Surface computers are anything to go by.

Photos of the Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Pro 8 coming from some sort of certification were recently leaked with some disappointing but unsurprising clues. Although nothing is final nor confirmed, these images reveal 2021 devices that look remarkably similar to their predecessors. In short, nothing seems to have changed, at least going by looks alone.

Windows Central does give some hope, at least with the Surface Pro 8. Its sources claim that the detachable PC will run on the latest Intel chips which, if reality matches marketing, will be quite an upgrade, especially on the graphics side. The more interesting tip, however, is that it will have an LTE option.

There is, unfortunately, less information about the Surface Laptop 4 but it's only natural to expect to also have Tiger Lake processors. There is, however, also word that Intel will be sharing the spotlight with some AMD options. Hopefully, these AMD Ryzen models will fare better than their predecessor.

Given yet another incremental upgrade, it won't be surprising if Microsoft won't even have a grand event to announce these devices. They won't be coming any time soon, either, as the company is reportedly more focused on rolling out the Surface Duo to global markets first. Either way, it doesn't seem like a great way to start 2021.