Surface IT Pro Blog:
Surface Pro 11th Edition and Surface Laptop 7th Edition are designed for the era of AI, enhancing employee productivity and creativity with the latest Copilot+ PC experiences. We’re excited to announce the general availability of both devices for business customers: Surface Pro 11th Edition and Surface Laptop 7th Edition begin shipping Sept. 10. Surface Pro 10 with 5G and Surface Pro 11th Edition with 5G begin shipping Sept. 26.
As organizations embrace modernization, these new Copilot+ PCs offer a robust platform for IT pros and developers to drive business impact with AI. We partnered with the Microsoft Mechanics team and Vivek Pradeep, Vice President and Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, for a deep dive into the innovations brought by these groundbreaking devices. Check out the video:
Built to unlock productivity and creativity
Surface Pro 11th Edition delivers exceptional performance in a form factor that redefines what a laptop can do. The latest Snapdragon® X Elite and X Plus processors turbo-boost productivity offering lightning-fast app performance and up to 20% more AI processing power than the iPad Pro M41. Optional 5G offers a secure, mobile connection, and—when combined with the Surface Pro Flex Keyboard— you get flexible productivity from any location.Surface Laptop 7th Edition offers the same Snapdragon® X Series performance in a newly sleek profile with a smaller footprint and larger screen real estate. This device, redesigned for productivity, features more ports, Wi-Fi 7 and has up to 22 hours2 of battery life. Offered in 13.8” and 15” sizes, it provides larger, brighter viewing areas in an all-new, compact design. From security to serviceability, both devices are engineered for trust to help your business outperform.
What about app performance? Microsoft dedicated significant resources to the developer ecosystem to ensure seamless performance when running both native and emulated apps on Windows on Arm. This expansion of tooling and support has enabled more developers to run their apps natively, with nearly 90% of total app minutes projected to be spent in native applications.3
As Windows on Arm adoption continues to grow, Prism, Microsoft’s new emulation engine, represents a leap forward from previous emulation efforts. Prism incorporates significant optimizations that enhance performance and reduce CPU usage for emulated apps. The combination of Prism and the powerful Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors propels both the new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro to deliver emulated app performance that surpasses even native apps on earlier models like Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9.
Additionally, Microsoft remains committed to advancing Arm and app compatibility through ongoing outreach to hundreds of ISVs and the App Assure program, which provides eligible customers4 with developer resources to address app compatibility on Arm at no additional cost. The combination of this state-of-the-art processor and the innovative Prism emulation engine means customers will enjoy exceptional performance and a superior experience on these new devices.
Hardware-accelerated AI
We’re no longer living in the days of an animated paperclip recognizing pre-trained tasks and offering limited guidance. Generative AI, small language models and other local, specialized AI models are fundamentally shifting how we interact with the data and technology around us. We’re in an era where AI can enhance your productivity by democratizing knowledge at unprecedented levels, solving complex relationships, making connections and enhancing memory – all at your fingertips. Enabling this wave of innovation is the culmination of years of computational research and advancements, making processors more powerful and efficient.Copilot+ PCs represent the convergence of specialized AI capabilities and advanced hardware. Thanks to innovations in processing, devices like Surface Pro 11th Edition and Surface Laptop 7th Edition feature readily available machine learning models and generative AI that can run directly on the hardware. This shift allows for several benefits including efficient processing, reduced latency and improved performance.
At the heart of Copilot+ PCs, the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) enables high-efficiency AI processing, delivering up to 45 trillion operations per second (TOPs) while being optimized to perform trillions of compute operations using less than 10 watts of power. Such optimization enables groundbreaking computing power and sustained inferencing allowing AI to potentially run in the background with minimal impact to battery life. This “sustained efficiency” plays a critical role in scaling AI to the edge and transforming how devices learn and adapt to individual needs.
Unlocking AI in your environment
Key to the success of scaling AI to devices is the availability and ease-of-access to models and APIs. Copilot+ PCs like Surface Pro and Surface Laptop serve not just as tools for experiencing AI but also as powerful platforms for integrating innovative AI solutions into your line of business apps. These devices enable developers to easily access and deploy existing AI models using the Windows Copilot Runtime. This includes Windows Copilot Library, a set of APIs enabled by more than 40 on-device AI models that ship with Windows, making it easier than ever for developers and businesses alike to include responsibly trained AI in their own apps with minimal lines of code.You can also tap into AI experiences already built into Windows such as Windows Studio Effects. Introduced with Surface Pro 9 5G, Windows Studio Effects like Background Blur, Automatic Framing and Voice Focus have helped users look and sound their best all while running exclusively on the NPU, freeing up the CPU and GPU to focus on other tasks. Those features, enhanced with the latest trained models on Copilot+ PCs, are joined by new capabilities like Portrait Light, Creative Filters and Eye Contact Teleprompter. Developers can invoke these effects directly in their application. No need to train or update the models—Microsoft handles that for you, allowing developers to focus on other aspects of their apps.
For developers with their own AI models, tools like ONNX Runtime and DirectML offer ways to take advantage of local AI processing. For instance, a simple Python file for model inferencing can prioritize NPU usage, with fallback to CPU when necessary. This capability opens new possibilities for creating efficient, AI-driven applications.
Whether you work on generative AI, small language models or other specialized AI technologies, Surface Pro and Surface Laptop offer the ideal environment to test and deliver your AI visions to end users. Be sure to follow the Windows Developer Blog and check back here for another blog post where we’ll dive deeper into how on-device AI and Surface can help unlock AI for your business.
Securing and managing access to your AI-enhanced devices
As you navigate an AI-driven world, the importance of endpoint security has never been greater. Built with Zero Trust principles in mind, Surface Pro and Surface Laptop offer robust defense against ever-evolving security threats. Featuring Windows Hello biometric authentication with Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) along with the Microsoft Pluton security processor, these devices deliver next-generation security that grants IT professionals exceptional peace of mind. Developed by Microsoft, Pluton is embedded directly into the processor enabling future security features to be deployed via Windows Update. Working alongside Pluton, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) helps you meet regulatory standards and supports enterprise-grade security like BitLocker. Additionally, as Windows 11 Pro devices, built-in security measures like Windows Defender and Memory Integrity are activated by default, protecting your devices from the moment they turn on.Unlock the freedom to work from anywhere with optional 5G on Surface Pro 10 and Surface Pro 11th Edition, eliminating the need to rely on potentially unsafe public Wi-Fi. This consistent connection ensures your users receive critical security updates and any changes you push through cloud management tools like Intune.
Enhance your hybrid workforce's security management with the Surface Management Portal, Surface Support Portal and the Surface IT Toolkit – comprehensive tools that provide insights and make it easy to lock down devices. These tools help ensure that managing and securing access to your AI-enhanced devices is streamlined and efficient. The combination of these advanced security measures positions Surface Pro and Surface Laptop as excellent choices for any organization looking to stay ahead in the digital landscape.
Supporting the new era of work
Together, Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are set to transform your business, offering unparalleled performance, efficiency and security. Designed to meet the unique needs of AI-adopting enterprises, these devices provide a robust platform for IT pros and developers to innovate and drive business impact. Embrace AI-driven modernization and unlock the full potential of your organization with the latest Surface Copilot+ PCs.To learn more, visit Surface.com/Business to find an authorized reseller and follow our Surface IT Pro Blog.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out our other blog for more information: Unlock Business Potential with new Surface for Business PCs and you can read more about Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 here: Introducing Surface Pro 10 & Surface Laptop 6: AI PCs built for business.
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Accelerate AI transformation with Surface Pro and Surface Laptop
Embrace AI-driven modernization with the latest Copilot+ PCs from Surface
techcommunity.microsoft.com