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Surface Pro 8 price leak reveals an important lineup change

By JC Torres/

It's CES 2021 this week, kicking off a flood of new product announcements both during the event as well as long after it. One of those that may be happening this month is Microsoft's debut of its next-gen Surface products, namely its pro tablets and laptops. Leaks about the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop 4 haven't exactly been encouraging but this latest leak shows at least one change that could be a bit of a positive.

No, the Surface Pro 8 isn't going to become cheaper, which is really to be expected. It will, however, have a higher starting configuration that clearly separates it from a mid-range Windows device like, say, Microsoft's own Surface Go. WinFuture's Roland Quandt lists the prices and configurations for both Wi-Fi and LTE models of the Surface Pro 8 and one option is noticeably missing.

What's missing is the previous baseline option for the Surface Pro with only 4GB of RAM. Few might miss this configuration, which pretty much undersells what should be a Windows device for professional users. Considering the Surface Pro 8 will be using Tiger Lake Intel processors, a starting configuration with 4GB of RAM could confuse consumers into thinking they will be getting their money's worth with it.

There is still, however, an option with a Core i3 CPU and 8GB of RAM, the starting point for the Wi-Fi only models at $899.99. Truth be told, buyers might look at a $999.99 Core i5 model right off the bat, which does mean that the Surface Pro 8 will practically be starting at this price.

Quandt also lists three Core i5 models that will get LTE connectivity, starting at $1,149.99. There is still some disagreement whether these will be offered to regular consumers while a higher Core i7 model with LTE will be exclusive to business customers only.

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