Microsoft introduces cheaper Surface devices with half the memory

The 12-inch Surface Pro now starts at $849, while the 13-inch Surface Laptop costs $949 and up. Both start with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB.

Microsoft just added a cheaper 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop to its lineup. Both models come equipped with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB, costing $849 for the specced-down Surface Pro and $949 for the Surface Laptop, as spotted earlier by Windows Central.

When the 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop launched in 2025, the base configurations offered 16GB of RAM and 256GB of USF storage, for $799 and $899, respectively. But in April 2026, Microsoft hiked the prices to $1,049 and $1,199. The memory crunch has also resulted in a higher base price for Microsoft’s newest Surface models.

Other than slashing device memory in half, Microsoft hasn’t changed any other specs on the more affordable Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. They still come with the same 8-core Snapdragon X Plus chip and 256GB of storage, but won’t offer support for Copilot Plus, Microsoft’s built-in AI tech that requires at least 16GB of RAM.

Even with the price decrease, the 8GB Surface devices are still more expensive than the $599 MacBook Neo, which has disrupted the laptop space with its speedy performance and affordable price tag.

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Posted Thursday 25 June 2026 at 10:44 am AEST (my time).

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