Microsoft Surface Laptop and Pro raise the price barrier for budget shoppers
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What’s changing?
What are your options?
Microsoft just put up an updated slate of Surface computing machines on the pre-order shelves, offering a fresh design language and a lower asking price with its new tablet and laptop. While at it, the company has also pulled the entry-level Surface Pro and Laptop models from its website.
Right now, the Microsoft online store only shows the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite variants starting at $1,199. Likewise, the price of the Surface Pro now sits at $1,199.99 on the Microsoft Store for its cheapest configuration.
For the 15-inch Surface Laptop, the cost of entry has climbed to $1,499. Microsoft’s storefront currently lists the starting price at $1,299 for this one, but the 256GB storage variant is currently out of stock.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
In fact, you can no longer buy a 256GB storage variant of the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop (13.8-inch and 15-inch) from Microsoft’s website. When these two devices were introduced last year, both carried a starting price worth $999 in the US market.
What’s changing?
This is not a price hike, per se, as Microsoft has merely yanked a low-storage option from its storefront. The price barrier for buyers has gone up, nonetheless. In a statement shared with Engadget, the company says you can still buy the $999 models from third-party sellers.
The outlet, however, notes that the price of charging accessories has gone up by 33% under the Surface label. The 127W charger now goes for $175, up from its $125 hit not too long ago. The 65W charger has climbed from $60 to $90 on the official store.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
It is unclear how long the supplies of the $999 Surface Pro (13-inch) and Laptop (13.8-inch) will last and whether Microsoft will restock the 256GB models on its online shop.
What are your options?
The latter seems unlikely, as Microsoft is offering the new 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop at a lower asking price. For the 13-inch Surface Laptop, do keep in mind that the choice is between SSD and UFS storage, and the modules are not user-replaceable, either.
The new Microsoft tablet starts at $799, which gives it a lot of breathing space against the larger Surface Pro. It introduces a fresh design language for the slate as well as the keyboard. This one offers Qualcomm’s mid-tier Snapdragon X Plus silicon, 16GB of RAM, and a new magnetic charging system for the stylus.
Coming to the 13-inch Surface Laptop, it’s a MacBook Air wannabe with a similar design, the same memory and processor situation as its 12-inch tablet sibling, and a price tag worth $899 in the US. It, however, misses out on a fast refresh rate screen and doesn’t stray too far from its rival’s limitations.
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