The hype continue for the most-anticipated Microsoft product of 2017, the Surface Pro 5. Although Microsoft and Intel remains silent on the matter, it becomes an open secret that Surface Pro 5 will be powered by Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake processor.
Adding to the build-up of a Kaby Lake-powered Surface Pro 5 was when Microsoft failed to release the device in October during the public presentation of the Surface Book. Instead, news hitting the internet revealed that Surface Pro 5 is set for a Spring 2017 launch, coinciding the release of Kaby Lake processor.
Understanding Kaby Lake
Setting aside the expected superb and sleek design, Surface Pro 5's Kaby Lake processor played very important role in the ongoing craze in the tech market. But just how powerful this seventh generation Intel processor is? Is it worth the wait and money?
Surface Pro 5 Core i7 Kaby Lake processor has almost the same core architecture to its predecessor Skylake with no major change in design. In previous generations of processors, Intel would see reduction in process size with smaller and lower power consumption, and improved performance.
This is not the case with Kaby Lake. It retains the architecture of the 14nm+ (nanometer) process size of Skylake. Instead of shelving the 14nm+ technology in lieu of the upcoming processor, Intel decided to extend its life for another generation before upgrading onto Cannon Lake with 10nm+ design. The changes however become notable on the longer and thinner transistor fins of the Kaby Lake, which eventually increase drive current and processor performance for Surface Pro 5.
From the usual lower the power and increase the performance, Intel opted for same-power-increase-performance with Kaby Lake. Modifying the transistor fins will pave the way for the processor to "Turbo Boost" for higher speed of Surface Pro 5.
Trusted Reviews reported that this change to the processor will result to faster decoding of Ultra HD video on-chip without sacrificing battery life of the host device, in this case Surface Pro 5. The improvement in Kaby Lake's media engine will enable the device to decode VP9 and HEVC 10-bit codecs, which covers the most popular Ultra HD formats, especially for streaming.
This dual-core hyper-threaded Core i7-7500U chip claims to have 12 percent performance increase productivity and 19 percent increase in web performance. In short, with Kaby Lake, your frequently used applications and favorite website load significantly faster without sacrificing battery life of Surface Pro 5.
On top of this powerful Kaby Lake beast, Microsoft Surface Pro 5 will be armed with 16GB of RAM, 512GB massive storage space, 4K resolution video support, wireless charging Surface Pen, USB Type-C ports, Thunderbolt 3 support and screen fingerprint sensor. Its price could pitch from $899 to as high as $1999.Watch the preview of the power of Kaby Lake here: