Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 available in Korea

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Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 available in Korea

Published: 07 Dec. 2022, 16:38

Microsoft's Surface Pro 9 [MICROSOFT]

Microsoft released its newest tablet and laptop — the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 — in Korea, bringing new features designed to facilitate the growing trend of hybrid work that blends in-office, remote and on-the-go working.

The Pro 9 maintains its previous design, widely known as 2-in-1, with the device, which comes with a detachable keyboard, converting easily to a laptop, tablet or digital canvas. It has an improved camera and audio features powered by a chipset built by Microsoft and Qualcomm, the Arm-powered SQ3.

The SQ3-based Pro 9 is fitted with Automatic Framing, where cameras automatically zoom in and out and adjust angle to keep the subject in frame even when they move around during virtual meetings. Voice recognition function are enhanced to reduce background noise during video calls.

Those features are only available in the version with the SQ3 chip, but not in the Intel chip variant of Surface Pro 9.

The price of the 13-inch Pro 9 ranges from 1.4 million won ($1,063) to 2.9 million won, depending on the type of processor used and other options.

Sarah Shim, Microsoft Korea’s manager, demonstrates Surface Pro 9 on Dec. 7 at the company's headquarters in central Seoul. [MICROSOFT]

The Surface Laptop 5 is in the form of a traditional laptop and its price starts from 1.39 million won. The series is powered by Intel’s 12th Gen central processing unit and comes with two display options – 13.5 inch and 15 inch.

The latest devices are designed to support multitasking across Microsoft’s apps and services, such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Office tools.

Sarah Shim, Microsoft Korea manager, said that the company is offering better aftercare service for the new products as the number of parts available for replacement has been increased compared to previous Surface models.

Some Surface users in Korea have complained about Microsoft’s after-sales service.

The manager introduced use cases at Lotte Engineering & Construction, where many employees find it efficient to carry around the Surface Pro series between office and construction sites.

The Surface family of the Pro 9 and Laptop 5 was first introduced in October.

In Korea, Surface devices hold only a marginal market share in the tablet and laptop markets, overshadowed by domestic manufacturers like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics and Apple.

The company declined to disclose its market share in Korea.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]