Microsoft has announced some long-awaited updates to its Surface Laptop and Surface Pro devices, both of which are being refreshed with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 chips. Known as Surface Laptop 8th Edition and Surface Pro 12th Edition, these new devices replace some of my Windows products of the last couple of years, but also offer a snapshot of how strongly the component shortage has impacted pricing.
The substance of the update is based around these new Qualcomm chips, have been slowly rolling out on various Windows laptops throughout this first half of the year. Microsoft says the new chips provide “up to 53 percent faster graphic performance than the previous generation,” as well as 15.5 hours of battery life.
While these chips are certainly impressive in the testing I’ve done (whether that’s the Snapdragon X2 Elite or Snapdragon X2 Plus), the real story here is the accompanying price hike.
The new Surface Laptop starts at $1,599, a $600 increase over the $999 starting price of the previous generation, which was known as the Surface Laptop 7th Edition when it launched in 2024. That initial $999 price was then officially increased a couple of months ago, bringing it up to $1,499. Like the previous generation, the Surface Laptop 8th Edition still starts with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.
We’re seeing some companies react to Apple’s decision on the MacBook Neo by falling back to 8 GB, such as with the new Dell XPS 13. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft follows suit on its budget-tier Surface Laptop 13 later this year, but for now, that device still uses the base Snapdragon X chip and is being sold at $1,150.
The Surface Pro’s new pricing is just as hard to swallow. That machine also started at $999 last year, then went up to $1,199 in early 2026 when Microsoft cut the 256-GB model. The new starting configuration costs $1,499, which doesn’t include the price of the detachable keyboard.
Microsoft isn’t alone in the way its approached pricing this year. Other Windows laptops sporting the latest silicon from Intel or Qualcomm have been priced quite high, while previous-generation laptops have stuck around in retail channels. The prices of these new Surface devices show how strong of an effect the component supply shortage continues to have on the PC industry, where RAM and storage prices remain dramatically inflated.
That said, many of my favorite things about the Surface Laptop are still in place, whether that’s the taller 3:2 aspect ratio display shape or the supreme detachable keyboard. The only other significant change in this year’s Surface devices are some new colors. There’s a new greenish color option called Jade for the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, while the Surface Pro now comes in a goldish Dune color.
The new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are both available starting today.
These new Surface devices are the follow-up to Microsoft’s flashier announcement earlier this month, the Surface Laptop Ultra. That one is based on the anticipated Nvidia RTX Spark chip, which is coming out later this year and will serve as the company’s proper MacBook Pro alternative.
Update, Tuesday June 16 at 12:50 pm: Microsoft’s original fact sheet showed that there was a 256-GB version of the Surface Laptop 8th Edition as the starting configuration. I have been informed that this was an error on Microsoft’s part. In the US, the configurations will start with 512 GB of storage at $1,599. The 256 GB will be an “international SKU” only and not available in the US. We’ve updated this story to reflect this updated information.
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