NEW YORK—Microsoft gave its Surface Pro tablet an upgrade today. Surface Pro 4 has the same shape and size as Surface Pro 3, but it now sports a Skylake 6th generation Core processor.

The tablet also has a larger screen; what was a 12-inch 2160×1440 screen is now 12.3 inches with a 267PPI display. The larger screen has been incorporated without changing the overall dimensions of the system, so it remains compatible with the Surface Pro 3 Dock. Rather, Microsoft has made the bezels narrower, allowing more screen to fit into the same space. The new Surface Pro 4 also ditches the processor fan for silent operation.

With Windows Hello, Microsoft has been promoting the use of biometric authentication for Windows. The showcase for this has previously been facial recognition using Intel's RealSense stereoscopic infrared cameras. The Surface Pro 4 uses this, but the new Type Cover offers fingerprint reading. Microsoft has opted for fingerprint authentication through a fingerprint reader in its new Type Cover keyboard, meaning Surface Pro 3 can utilize Windows Hello.















Introducing the product today, Microsoft's Panos Panay boasted of the Surface Pro 4's "30 percent" speed improvement over the Surface Pro 3 and a "50 percent" speed advantage when compared to the Macbook Air. It also uses Gorilla Glass 4 (in the thinnest glass cover shipped—400 microns thick, 0.4mm).

The Surface Pro 4 comes bundled with the latest Surface Pen. The Pen utilizes a tail-end eraser, 1,024 points of pressure on the tip, and a battery Microsoft says can last "all-year." It comes in five colors.

Other peripherals announced include that new Type Cover and a Surface Pro docking station, and each can retroactively work with the Surface Pro 3. The docking station comes with four USB 3.0, two 4K DisplayPorts, and an Ethernet port. Beyond being the thinnest Type Cover to date, the new edition boasts 1.3mm travel in the keys and 19mm pitch. Its 40 percent larger touchpad offers 5-point multitouch.

The tablet itself features up to 1TB of storage alongside a possible 16GB of RAM. Surface Pro 4 costs $899 and will be available October 26. In the UK, pricing starts at £750. Eurozone pricing isn't known yet.