Hands On With The Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, And Lumia 950XL In New York

We were fortunate enough to attend Microsoft’s Windows 10 Devices event in New York yesterday, at which the company unveiled a new line-up of products, including the innovative Surface Book, the thinner and lighter Surface Pro 4, a re-vamped Band fitness tracker and smartwatch, and a trio of Lumia-branded smartphones, the 950, 950 XL, and 550.

Microsoft’s Panos Panay handled the bulk of the presentations, and presented the new Surface and Lumia devices, though other execs participated as well, and showed off things like Project X-Ray for Hololens and the new Band. CEO Satya Nadella closed the show and outlined Microsoft’s vision for future products, before opening up a number of demo areas where we were able to get more up-close-and-personal with everything that was unveiled.



We’ve got a ton of coverage up of all of the initial announcements if you’d like more detail on each individual product. We cover the Surface Book here, the Surface Pro 4 here (and also have a comparison to the iPad Pro posted), the Lumia announcement here, and the Band. While out at the event, however, we snapped a ton of photos and recorded some video we thought you’d like to see as well.

The unique hinge mechanism also allows the tablet / clipboard to be removed from the base, and provides additional stability when the machine is used in clamshell mode, by extending outward, effectively making the base wider than the top and shifting the center of gravity. The base is also home to additional batteries and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GPU.

The Surface Pro 4 has been updated in a number of meaningful ways as well. The machines are now thinner and lighter. They’re packing Intel’s latest Skylake-based mobile processors, along with higher resolution screens, NVMe solid state storage, and additional memory—should you want it. There’s also a new Type Cover that’s more ridged, has a larger touch-pad, and keys more akin to an actual laptop.

The new Lumia 950, 950XL, and 550 represent new flagship and entry-level Windows 10-based mobile devices. The 950 series features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC, hi-DPI displays, expandable storage, and removable batteries. And the new Microsoft Band packs in an 11th sensor (a barometer) and has a new curved design that should be far more comfortable to wear than the original, especially for people with smaller wrists.


We’re still waiting for samples to test and formulate our final opinions, but our initial impressions of all of Microsoft’s latest devices are very good. The company seems to be firing on all cylinders at the moment, and their vision for the future of mobile devices seems to have been validated by both Apple and Google, who have both revealed devices that mimic the look of the Surface Pro.