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Surface Pro 2 ready to go with an adjustable kickstand and improved battery life

Surface Pro 2 ready to go with an adjustable kickstand and improved battery life

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Microsoft Surface Pro better stock 1020
Microsoft Surface Pro better stock 1020

Microsoft has finalized the design of its Surface Pro 2 refresh and plans to ship it later this year. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed to The Verge that the Surface Pro 2 design will be largely the same as the original, but the company is planning to include an adjustable kickstand on its latest tablet. The kickstand won't be fully adjustable, Microsoft is planning to support two positions of use with the Surface Pro 2: one traditional "laptop" mode and a new angle that's designed to make the device easier to use on uneven surfaces. Neowin and Paul Thurrott both originally reported details on the Surface Pro 2.

As largely expected, Microsoft will also upgrade its Surface Pro 2 to Intel's new Haswell processor, and the company is also planning to ship units with 8GB of RAM on board. The Haswell upgrade will improve the battery life on the Surface Pro 2, but not significantly. We're told Haswell will add just over two hours of usage to the Surface Pro 2. While there's kickstand improvements and specification changes, the device will look almost identical to the existing Surface Pro tablet that debuted earlier this year.

Surface 2 with Windows RT also on the way

On the Windows RT side, the software maker has also finalized the design of the Surface 2 to replace the Surface RT. Microsoft is dropping the RT moniker for its next tablet, and the new version will also include an adjustable kickstand. We understand that the Surface 2 will make use of Nvidia's Tegra 4 chipset. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang previously revealed the chipmaker was working with Microsoft on the Surface 2. Both devices will ship later this year as replacements to the existing Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets.