Look out MacBook Air M3! Microsoft Surface event may include our most anticipated launch of 2024

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft's Surface Event is officially slated for March 21, and it seems the company has a few pretty big announcements. According to Windows Central, Microsoft plans to launch new hardware in two waves this spring.

The first wave includes a commercially-focused Surface Pro and Surface Laptop that are expected to debut at the Surface Event in March and start shipping out in April. While this imminent launch is great for commercial businesses, consumers will have to wait a bit longer. The consumer-focused, Arm-powered devices we've been eagerly anticipating — the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 — will reportedly launch in mid/late May and start shipping in June.

These new Surface devices feature game-changing hardware improvements and a slew of AI-powered features. The Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, in particular, are rumored to rival the performance and battery life of Apple's iPad Pro and MacBook Air. Here's a closer look at the expected specs of Microsoft's upcoming Surface devices.

Microsoft's powerful new Surface devices

Both the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop for business will likely share design elements with their predecessors, be equipped with Intel's new Core Ultra 5 and 7 chips that have integrated Neural Processing Units (NPUs), and offer up to 64GB of RAM as a new configuration option.

Microsoft Surface Event Oct 12, 2022 — (Image credit: Microsoft)

According to Windows Central's contacts, the business-focused Surface Pro will debut an updated anti-reflective screen, an ultra-wide camera, a built-in NFC reader, and a more powerful NPU than the Surface Pro 9 5G. It'll also feature the dedicated Copilot button that's appearing on more Windows laptops.

The business-focused Surface Laptop will also feature a new Copilot button, plus support for Windows Studio Effects and a special configuration option that includes a built-in CAC reader.

The consumer-focused Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 feature major improvements to performance and efficiency, namely because they'll feature an Arm chip. Both devices will feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite-based SoC, which scored 21% higher than Apple's M3 chip in a performance benchmark.

Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro 10 is expected to get a new anti-reflective OLED display and only a few minor design tweaks. The Surface Laptop 6 will feature thinner display bezels, rounded corners, a larger haptic touchpad, and an updated port setup, with two USB-C ports on the right and one USB-A port on the left.

While the Arm variants of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will be first to launch, Windows Central thinks Intel variants of these two devices will also be available at some point. But with the speed and efficiency of Arm-powered chips, the Intel variants might not be as in-demand.