We've launched our new website, we would love to hear your thoughts & feedback.

Close X

Did Microsoft just preview a Haswell Surface at Build?

posted on Jun 26th 2013 by Daniel Herzig

image.png

I’ve been reviewing the Build keynote from this afternoon and I’ve stumbled onto something that is a little bit mysterious. During Antoine Leblond’s developer address during the keynote (around the 48 minute mark), he used a Surface Pro machine to preview new Visual Studio development tools on power consumption.

At face value, this information isn’t particularly shocking. However, when he revealed a demo app’s power consumption, Visual Studio claimed that the app would last 9.17 hours (that’s 9 hours and 10 minutes) on battery- a feat that the current Surface Pro would definitely not be able to achieve with current estimates.

Though battery estimates have never been an exact science, this number is definitely out of the realm of possibility for the Surface Pro, which can at most last for a paltry 4 hours. The Surface RT, despite stellar battery life, is definitely not equipped to run Visual Studio. This estimate leads me to believe that Microsoft just teased the new Surface Pro with Haswell, right in plain sight.

I’ll update this post accordingly should I receive anymore information. The video in question is after the break.



  • Moshe

    Great eye! Hope this comes out really soon. Also hoping it comes with an Intel HD 5000. That would be awesome.

  • yangreen
  • Fullmetal691

    I just ran the diagnostics on my machine (With no battery) ad It said “A standard fully charged battery” I don’t think its a device specific metric, but a generic calculation.

  • Wes

    It’s easy to figure out: 10.86 mW-hr in 8.53 seconds, if stretched over 9.17 hrs, would consume 42 W-hrs. That’s the capacity of the Surface Pro’s battery.