Nearly 10 years ago I reviewed my favorite Surface device. Microsoft hand-delivered its Surface Studio all-in-one PC to me, and I was hooked from the moment I switched it on. It had a beautiful floating touchscreen that you could push all the way down into a drawing board mode, making it unlike anything I had seen in the PC market. But like many other Surface devices, it no longer exists.
Over the past few years, Microsoft has been steadily walking back from the experimental ethos that built the brand. The detachable Surface Book? Gone. The giant Surface Hub touchscreen displays? Gone. The Android-powered Surface Duo? Gone. Even the Surface Laptop Studio, which was supposed to replace the Surface Book, has been axed.
What’s left of Microsoft’s Surface devices has been reduced to just the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro, with a variety of different sizes and specifications. Earlier this month Microsoft launched its Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8 devices with Intel chips inside, and rumors suggest Qualcomm-powered consumer versions will be announced next month.
Both of the new Surface Laptop and Pro models are simply refinements of an existing formula and don’t push the categories forward in meaningful ways. The Surface Pro and Surface Laptop have matured to the point where Microsoft can launch smaller models that squeeze in more powerful chips, but apart from that, you know what you’re getting at this point. The real surprise is the pricing: Both start at an eye-watering $1,949.99, which could seriously hinder their adoption by the businesses they target.
There’s still a chance for Microsoft to launch a different kind of Surface, though. Months of rumors suggest Nvidia is about to enter the Windows on Arm market with its own chips, the N1 and N1X. Lenovo and Dell are rumored to be working on devices with Nvidia’s new chips, and recent reports suggest Nvidia will announce its Arm-powered processors at its Computex keynote this weekend.
Microsoft used Nvidia’s Arm-powered Tegra chips for its original Surface RT tablet in 2012, before partnering more closely with Qualcomm for its Windows on Arm efforts. It’s hard to imagine that Nvidia would be dipping its toes back into the Windows on Arm market without having renewed a close partnership with Microsoft.
The advantage of Nvidia’s new chips over Qualcomm’s existing offerings will likely be on the GPU side. That’s where Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips have been weaker than the competition, and Nvidia has an opportunity to really push Windows on Arm gaming laptops forward with a stronger GPU and better driver support.
Could we finally see a Surface gaming laptop? I’m not so sure Microsoft would be interested in this market itself, despite regular calls for an Xbox or Surface gaming laptop. Former Surface chief Panos Panay told me in 2022 that OEMs serve this part of the market well, so there was no need for Microsoft to do its own.
Where I do see the potential for a Microsoft and Nvidia partnership with these new chips is on the AI side. Nvidia isn’t a gaming company anymore, so if it’s launching new Arm-powered processors then you can bet they’ll be focused on powering local AI agents, too. I’m expecting Nvidia’s N1 and N1X chips to be tuned for AI workloads. Microsoft has been working hard to make Windows attractive to AI developers, so a Nvidia partnership here would make a lot of sense.
I’m also expecting Microsoft to continue the type of hardware work that leads to devices like its smart Surface camera. While this camera was primarily designed for the Surface Hub devices Microsoft is now giving up on, it’s the combination of AI and hardware that could be used in regular webcams down the line.
The future outlook for the rest of Surface still feels uncertain, nearly three years after Panay announced his departure. Microsoft’s changes to its hardware portfolio in 2023 hit the Surface unit heavily with layoffs, and the loss of leaders like Panay and former Surface design chief Ralf Groene have meant there’s no real face of Surface at Microsoft anymore. Instead of big onstage events, Microsoft has increasingly been announcing new Surface devices with blog posts.
I’m hoping we don’t see another round of layoffs before Microsoft’s new financial year starts in July, but as a company reshaping every part of its business around AI, nothing feels off the table. It’s still unclear where Surface fits into Microsoft’s AI future, but Nvidia’s new chips should drop some hints.
Early signals on Xbox Game Pass price changes
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s big decision to reduce Xbox Game Pass pricing sounds like it’s starting to pay off. In an internal memo to Xbox employees, seen by Notepad, Sharma revealed last week that there’s reason to be optimistic. “Growth slowed down and subscriber loss accelerated after the pricing and SKU changes last year,” said Sharma. “Since our price reduction we have seen acquisitions grow and retention improve, which is a good first step.”
It’s a very early sign that things are going in the right direction for Game Pass, but Sharma noted the team still needs to “build” on this and “learn quickly.” The memo certainly doesn’t read like a victory lap. “We will not solve this in one moment or one launch,” said Sharma. “We will have to outwork the problem in front of us in our path to restore durable growth.”
Sharma also briefly touched on the Xbox to XBOX rebrand, which Microsoft started working on earlier this month. “We are building a stronger XBOX. That means making hard choices about what we build, where we invest, and what kind of company we need to be going forward,” said Sharma. “That is part of what you are starting to see in the shift from Xbox to XBOX. It reflects a decision to be deliberate in how we show up for the players who care most about this brand.”
All eyes are now on next week’s Xbox showcase. After leaks of an Xbox cloud gaming controller and the Xbox Elite 3, it’ll be interesting to see what Microsoft officially unveils. With Xbox also celebrating 25 years, there may be room for something a little more tangible to mark the moment, too.
- Microsoft’s consumer marketing chief to leave next year. Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, Yusuf Mehdi, announced last week that he’s leaving the company at some point next year. He will remain focused on marketing for Windows, Copilot for consumers, and the Microsoft 365 consumer business until 2027, and Microsoft hasn’t named a successor yet. Mehdi started at Microsoft as an intern in the ’90s, just like many veteran employees. He worked on the launch of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 early in his career, as well as the marketing for Internet Explorer. He also spent more than 10 years running Microsoft’s search and online businesses and also helped launch the Xbox One, Windows 10, and Copilot Plus PCs. He’s the latest in a long line of veteran executive departures at Microsoft this year.
- Microsoft is letting Office users remove an annoying Copilot button. Microsoft is rolling out Office app updates next week that allow users to disable a floating Copilot button. The button has been annoying Excel users in recent weeks, because it obstructs cells. The planned update will allow Office users to move the button back into the ribbon, so it no longer floats on top of documents. This change to Office apps comes just a month after Microsoft also started removing “unnecessary” Copilot buttons from various Windows 11 apps.
- Microsoft is testing a screen tint feature for Windows 11. The latest test builds of Windows 11 includes a new accessibility feature that adds a color overlay on top of your screen. The screen tint feature is designed to help people who feel tired or have sensitive eyes after a long session with bright and saturated screens. There are six preset colors to choose from, or you can pick a custom color and adjust the tint strength.
- ChatGPT can now generate presentations in PowerPoint. OpenAI is integrating ChatGPT into PowerPoint, following a similar add-on for Excel and Google Sheets. The PowerPoint integration adds a sidebar to allow users to create or edit presentations using chatbot prompts. It all feels very similar to Microsoft’s own Copilot integration and is available in beta for most ChatGPT paying customers.
- Anthropic is in talks to use Microsoft’s AI chips. Anthropic is already paying $15 billion a year to access SpaceX’s data centers, but this is reportedly not enough capacity for Claude. The Information reports that Anthropic is in early talks to rent Azure servers that use Microsoft’s own chips to power some of Claude’s workloads. Microsoft launched its Maia 200 chip earlier this year, a successor to its first in-house AI chip. The Maia 200 is designed to handle large-scale AI workloads like Claude.
- Windows 11’s new speed boosts are starting to roll out. Microsoft started testing a macOS-like speed boost for Windows 11 earlier this month, and it’s already rolling out to end users. The feature, dubbed “Low Latency Profile,” ramps up CPU frequencies in short bursts to improve the speed of menus, flyouts, app launch times, and more. Low Latency Profile is part of the latest Windows 11 preview update, and Microsoft is gradually enabling it for all Windows 11 users.
- Qualcomm promises $300 Windows laptops with new Snapdragon C. RAMageddon has been hitting PC prices recently, but Qualcomm is aiming to keep entry-level laptops affordable. A new Snapdragon C platform runs Qualcomm’s older Kryo cores, and Acer, HP, and Lenovo will be among the first partners. Qualcomm isn’t sharing detailed specs or release dates for Snapdragon C laptops just yet, but they should ship later this year.
- Intel’s first handheld gaming chip is the Arc G3, and this Acer is using it. The Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme are Intel’s new custom handheld gaming chips. We don’t know a lot about these chips just yet, but Acer is using them in two variants of its new Atlas 8 handheld. The Atlas 8 will include an 8-inch IPS screen running at 1920 x 1200 resolution, and a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. It will run Windows 11 and Microsoft’s new Xbox mode, and it should launch at some point in October.
I’m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at notepad@theverge.com if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
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