A drop chamber is designed to validate Microsoft’s simulation data against the reality of dropping a device on concrete flooring. The drop chamber was key to developing Microsoft’s removable battery packs on its latest Surface devices, for example, to ensure any drops wouldn’t puncture the batteries.

Alongside the rollout of cheaper Surfaces, Microsoft also increased prices on previous-gen laptops by around 20%.

The Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are lighter and thinner, with pared-down specs, but the 2024 models are better and available for the same prices, if not less.