Surface Pro 5: 4 Major Upgrades Kaby Lake Specs Bring To Surface Pro 4

Surface Pro 5 speculation suggests 2017’s tablet is essentially a Kaby Lake variation of the Surface Pro 4. That may not sound too exciting at first blush, but we’re here to offer four reasons why a single spec improvement is a bigger deal than it appears.

1) Improved Video Codecs: 4K video sources are becoming increasingly common these days, and Kaby Lake is insanely well equipped to handle high-quality media. Its new 4K HVEC codec offers more than double the battery life when playing 4K videos. This boils down to a massive reduction in power consumption that keeps your computer lasting longer.

4K may not matter much if you’re watching content on the Surface Pro 5 tablet display, but, especially if you’re transmitting to another screen, that boost can be a huge help. Video is at the center of the modern web, and Kaby Lake is well suited to handle that aspect now and in the future.

2) Increased Web Performance: Every CPU refresh offers an increase in overall performance. With regard to the web, Intel’s advertised numbers suggest a 19 percent bump when using Microsoft’s Edge browser. As recapped by us last fall, those enhancements may be even larger if you go for a higher-end model.

A 19 percent increase is far from night and day, but the simple truth of the matter is Surface Pro 5 will make productivity better with Kaby Lake inside it. It means markedly faster research, work or social media browsing.

3) Gaming: A lot of folks hoped the Surface Pro 4 would be a formidable gaming machine. While Kaby Lake doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel in that area, Intel does promise some performance gains for gamers. While demoing the CPU, the hardware maker had totally average laptops running Overwatch at 30 fps.

A hardcore PC gamer will scoff at those results, but the point is, a mid or high-tier Surface Pro 5 should be able to run some fairly modern games if you want it to. It’s still not really designed for that, but at least it can handle itself OK.

4) General Battery Improvements: We’ve technically already mentioned this in the video section, but it’s worth reiterating for those who skipped by. The main purpose of putting Kaby Lake in the Surface Pro 5 is to make it a mobile device that lasts longer no matter what you’re doing. The Surface Pro 4 suffered from terrible battery drain issues when it launched in 2015. That shouldn’t happen with its successor.

It’d be irresponsible to offer an exact benchmark without knowing the full specs, but we’ve seen gains of up to 20 percent battery life on Kaby Lake. The difference may not be as large with the Pro 5, but at least you’ll be getting a tablet with more juice regardless.

Microsoft has not officially unveiled the Surface Pro 5, and it’s rumored to be absent from the company’s May 2 hardware event.

Is Kaby Lake a big enough spec improvement to make you consider a Surface Pro 5? Tell us in the comments section!