Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book announced: what you should know about the latest from Microsoft

Microsoft has just finished up announcing a slew of new mobile products, including the brand new Lumia 950, 950XL and 550 smartphones. These new Windows-powered devices of course don’t run Android, but we figured it was important to catch you up on the latest flagship handsets from Microsoft, and just how they compare to the Android competition.

But Microsoft didn’t just announce phones at its event. Also announced were two new tablet/laptop hybrid devices, the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. The former is, of course, the successor to the Surface Pro 3 and is much thinner, lighter and more powerful than its predecessor. The latter is a new offering from the Washington-based company that is more closely related to a full-fledged laptop.

Today we’re going to run you through these new offerings and help give you a better look at Microsoft’s latest.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 4

For starters, Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 4 (pictured above) has just been made official, bringing a larger screen, better specifications and a new operating system to the table. It sports a big 12.3-inch display with Microsoft’s PixelGlass technology and a pixel density of 267ppi. Microsoft actually shrunk down the size of this tablet so much that it fits in the same physical footprint as its 12.0-inch predecessor. It’s also powered by a sixth-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and has an impressive 1TB of on-board storage.

Microsoft says the Surface Pro 4 is 30-percent faster than the Surface Pro 3 and 50-percent faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.

The Surface Pro 4 comes with an all-new Surface Pen as well, which has an eraser on the end of it. The new pen, which attaches magnetically to the side of the Surface, has an impressive 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. The included Type Cover is thinner and lighter than last year’s iteration. The trackpad is 40-percent larger, there’s more space between each key and it also has better travel at just 1.3mm. Oh, and there’s a fingerprint scanner integrated into the keyboard, as well.

Pre-orders for the Surface Pro 4 begin Wednesday, October 7th starting at $899, with the device becoming available on Monday, October 26th.

Microsoft Surface Book

Next up is the Surface Book, which is arguably the most interesting of the two tablet/laptop hybrids announced today. If the Surface Pro 4 is more similar to a tablet, the Surface Book is more closely related to a full-fledged laptop. Still, though, calling it a laptop doesn’t do this thing justice.

It has a big 13.5-inch display with a pixel density of 267ppi. Unlike the Surface Pro 4 that comes with a keyboard that’s more of an add-on, the Surface Book’s keyboard is just like something you’d find on a normal laptop. It’s backlit, and sports 1.6mm of travel. The trackpad is glass and also has five points of touch sensitivity. The keyboard hinge is definitely one of the most attractive parts of this new device, which Microsoft is calling the Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge. Take a look below:

Under the hood, the Surface Book comes with a sixth-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of on-board storage and a 12-hour battery life. Sounds pretty nice, right? Unfortunately these specs will cost you. Pre-orders for the Surface Book begin October 7th for $1,499, and the device will go on sale October 26th.

These new tablet/laptop hybrid devices honestly look really nice. Of course, this is an Android-centric website, so we’re not expecting all of you to ditch your Android tablet right away for one of these new products from Microsoft. Google’s new Pixel C tablet also looks like it could be a decent Surface Pro 4 competitor, but we’ll ultimately let you decide. Now that you’ve seen the latest laptop/tablet hybrids from Microsoft, what are your thoughts? Let us know what you think in the comments.