Microsoft announced a new Surface 2-in-1 computer today. While a lot of people expected the new model to arrive as the Surface Pro 8, Microsoft has decided to call it the Surface Pro 7 Plus. Don’t be fooled by the name, this is not a bigger model but there are some really significant upgrades over the Surface Pro 7 from 2019.

The Surface Pro 7 Plus has a similar design to the original, so you get the same 12.3-inch with a 2736 x 1824 resolution and not the thinnest of bezels, same connectivity ports (a single USB-C port, a single USB-A port, a Surface Connect port, and an audio jack). There is an LTE version that has a nano-SIM tray but on the Wi-Fi version, you get a MicroSD card reader.

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Powering the Surface Pro 7 Plus is an Intel 11th-Gen processor. It can be configured up to Core i7, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of SSD storage. However, only the Core i5 model has optional LTE. One big upgrade that the Surface Pro 7 Plus boasts of is a removable SSD. Microsoft had to redesign the internals so that the SSD can be easily accessible.

Battery life has improved from 10 hours on the Surface Pro 7 to 15 hours thanks to the bigger 50.4Wh battery inside it. Robin Seiler, the company’s VP, told The Verge in an interview that they updated the Thermal Design Module to make space for the bigger battery.

If you like the Surface Pro 7 Plus, you may not be able to get it as Microsoft says that it will be made available only for businesses and schools. It will begin shipping on January 15 for a starting price of $899 for the base model that has a Core-i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

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