Microsoft has announced that it will hold a Surface-related event on September 22, where we expect the rumored Surface Pro 8 and Surface Duo 2 to be announced.

Given that last year only saw a minor refresh of the Surface Pro with the Surface Pro 7 Plus, we expect Microsoft to push things further with what is expected to be called the Surface Pro 8. The laptop/tablet hybrid is a very good device, but its design may be getting a bit dated. So I expect new specs and features beyond the refresh.

With this in mind, I've come up with five things I expect from Microsoft's Surface Pro 8. Let me know if you agree or what you would like to see in the next Microsoft tablet.

The most obvious change I would like to see in the Surface Pro 8 is a change in design; the design has been refined since the original Surface Pro in 2013, but little has changed.

There is only so much that can be done with the tablet's appearance, but I do wish Microsoft would make an effort to trim the bezels on the Surface Pro's display. Yes, I understand that you need a place to put your fingers when holding the Surface Pro as a tablet. However, I feel that a slimmer bezel combined with smarter touch detection would eliminate the need for a chunky screen area that looks rather outdated.

And while the Surface Pro's flat edges make it an attractive device, they are not necessarily comfortable to hold. Therefore, a more rounded design, such as that found on the Surface Pro X, would be desirable.

A few more ports would not hurt, including a USB-C port and a full-size SD card reader hidden behind the kickstand. Speaking of which, the kickstand is one thing we hope Microsoft doesn't mess with, as it is very good.

While we would like to see the Surface Pro 8 with a slimmer screen bezel and a larger display, such as 13 inches, we would also like to see tweaks to the panel used. The current Surface Pro's PixelSense touchscreen display is great with rich colors and contrast, but it is a bit overdone. It should also have more brightness.

So I would like to see a refreshed PixelSense display with a more color-accurate panel and increased brightness, ideally 500 nits or more. Also, a faster refresh rate would not be a problem. Additionally, a higher touch sampling rate would make the screen more responsive when used as a tablet.

Intel's Tiger Lake chip offers quite a bit of laptop-grade processor power, but some of AMD's mobile Ryzen CPUs are really impressive. So we'd like to see them in the Surface Pro 8. After all, Microsoft has worked with AMD before to put custom Ryzen chips in the Surface Laptop.

Also, given that the Valve Steam Deck uses an RDNA 2 GPU, I would like to see an integrated RDNA 2 GPU that would give the Surface Pro 8 more power for gaming. I like to play older and casual games on my Surface Pro 5, but I would like to see a future Surface Pro handle more demanding titles.

One thing I wish Microsoft would stop doing permanently is the 4GB option on the Surface Pro 8. On the Surface Pro 7 and older models, I simply feel that amount of RAM is not enough, especially if I have a lot of Chrome tabs open. It would also be nice if the RAM was upgradeable, following in the footsteps of the upgradeable storage on the Surface Pro 7 Plus.

There is much to like about the Surface Pro Type Cover. Despite its small size, it provides a surprisingly tactile typing experience. However, I would like to see Microsoft tweak it a bit.

Ideally, the key travel would be a bit larger, say 1.5 mm. More importantly, however, I would like to see the current trackpad made larger, as it feels quite cramped. A little more vertical and horizontal space would be nice.

A brighter backlight for the keys would be appreciated. Also, while it may not be to everyone's taste, for those who like to keep pounding the keys, there is the option of a metal type cover, made of the same magnesium alloy as the Surface Pro tablet, to protect the display and make the keyboard deck more comfortable It could be covered with a fabric layer.

Finally, I would love to see the Surface Pro 8 have powerful speakers. The sound on the recent Surface Pro is not bad, but it falls short compared to something like the iPad Pro 2021.

Laptop speakers never wow, but they are getting better and better, especially in products like the MacBook Pro. So we hope Microsoft finds a way to get more sound out of the upcoming Surface Pro. The company found a way to put a speaker system under the keyboard of the Surface Laptop 4, so there's no reason why Redmond's engineers can't come up with something clever for the Surface Pro. Enhanced audio would make watching movies on the Surface Pro, which promises to be an even better display, even more enjoyable.

These are the five upgrades I would like to see in the Microsoft Surface Pro 8. I feel they are fairly realistic demands. But time will tell. Hopefully, we will see the next Surface Pro debut within the next few weeks.