The Surface Pro 8 may have leaked, with 120hz display and Thunderbolt in tow

What you need to know

• A retail listing for the Surface Pro 8 has appeared.
• While the render is of the Surface Pro X, we believe the leaked specs are likely accurate.
• Microsoft has a Surface reveal event coming up on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.

This Wednesday, Microsoft will kick off a new Surface hardware event, and we expect to see the Surface Duo 2, a new Surface Book with a refreshed hinge, and much more. Although, one new Surface may have leaked ahead of its September 22 announce date.

Twitter account Shadow_Leaker posted (via The Verge) the above retail image of a purported Surface Pro 8 although we believe the render is actually of the Surface Pro X which appeared when the Microsoft SQ2 chip was announced. However, the specs the leakster posted may in fact be accurate.

The supposed specs include 11th-gen Intel Core processors, a 13-inch 120Hz display, dual Thunderbolt interfaces, and replaceable SSDs which we've seen on the Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop line previously. Of course, the Surface Pro 8 will also launch with Windows 11 as standard.

Adding Thunderbolt support would be a major boost for the Surface Pro line, which has up until now used only the proprietary Surface port and USB-C interfaces for data. Opening it up to Thunderbolt adds in the potential for external GPUs for gaming and other devices that require more speed and bandwidth. On top of that, this will also mark the first time a Surface device has had a 120Hz display, giving it much smoother motion than previous Surface screens.

Not only will these upgrades benefit gaming scenarios across the board, but they will also benefit inking and drawing, which is bottlenecked somewhat by the choppy refresh rate of previous 60Hz Surface devices. Microsoft is also working on Dynamic Refresh Rates for Windows 11 to rival Apple's ProMotion technology to that end, and 120Hz is an obvious progression of that commitment.

Our senior editor Zac Bodwen weighed in on the leaks on Twitter. "Think of it as a combination of the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X design," says Bowden in a follow-uptweet. "Display is larger with thinner bezels, chassis is slightly tweaked, supports the new Pro X Type Covers, but the device is still thicker/more like the classic Pro chassis than the Pro X chassis."

While the render in the listing is not what the Surface Pro 8 will look like, the specs seem likely to be accurate. Either way, we won't have to wait long to find out, as the Surface event kicks off this Wednesday on September 22, 2021.