Microsoft's hardware business seems to be in disarray on all fronts, especially Xbox, but it's still trucking along with refreshed versions of its smaller Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 13. The big change is the new Snapdragon X2 Plus chip, which aims to be a solid update from the slower Qualcomm chips powering those devices last year. As Microsoft's smallest PCs, the key for both the Surface Pro 12 and Laptop 13 is portability over raw power. These were also ostensibly low-cost devices last year, with launch prices below $1,000, but as with everything else, the RAMaggedon has bumped the Surface Pro 12-inch up to $1,150 and the Surface Laptop 13 to $1,199.

Design-wise, nothing has changed with either device. The Surface Pro 12-inch is still a small 12-inch tablet with a kickstand, and it can transform into a pseudo-laptop with the $150 Surface Pro keyboard (sold separately, as always, because Microsoft seems to hate smart consumer choices). The Surface Laptop 13, meanwhile, is the company's basic notebook design shrunk down to a 13-inch screen and 2.7-pound frame. Both systems also feature new 500-nit displays, which are 25 percent brighter than before.

I thought the 12-inch tablet was absolutely adorable when I reviewed it last year, and I'm hoping the new internals alleviate my performance concerns. Microsoft claims the Snapdragon X2 Plus chips deliver 60 percent better graphics than the last generation, as well as 95 percent faster on-device AI and 18 percent better battery efficiency. As for basic Office productivity work, the company says the new chip is 18 percent faster.

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