The iPad series is essentially royalty in the tablet world, and the iPad Pro is one of the best tablets you can buy. But Microsoft's Surface Pro 8 might steal one of the iPad's best features. And maybe even better.

According to a new patent application (discovered by Windows Latest), Microsoft has developed its own floating hinge, which is found on the latest iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. While there is no guarantee that this feature will make it to the Surface Pro 8, the potential for this upgrade is exciting.

The floating hinge debuted last year with the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, allowing the viewing angle of the tablet to be more freely adjusted between 85 and 130 degrees. However, as my colleague Henry T. Casey noted in his review of the Magic Keyboard, there are limits to the angle adjustment, and he always hit the limit before he felt it.

However, whereas the iPad Pro's floating hinge relies on magnets to operate, Microsoft's patent utilizes a mechanical mechanism, which can be seen in the image above.

While technically the hinge is not "floating," it still means that the tablet itself does not need to be supported on the keyboard cover. This means that the viewing angle can be adjusted more freely than in previous models.

The fact that Microsoft chose a physical mechanism for this patent would provide enough support to allow a much wider angle than Apple's floating hinge. According to the patent text, the display can be held anywhere between 0 and 135 degrees. This would give the Surface Pro 8 a significant advantage over Apple's own efforts.

Of course, just because a design is patented does not mean that Microsoft will actually adopt it for its own products, whether it is the Surface Pro 8 or a future Microsoft tablet.

That said, current tablet stands are a bit limited, with a limited number of viewing angles, which puts them at a notable disadvantage when compared to the best laptops. In other words, this is one patent that we would like to see realized in the real world soon.

Current rumors point to the Surface Pro 8 being nearly identical in design to the Surface Pro 7, and some have already expressed disappointment. The tablet is also rumored to come with at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Leaked information also suggests that the top-of-the-line model will have 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

LTE is also rumored to be available on the Surface Pro 8, but only on models with a Core i5 processor. Otherwise, it will be Wi-Fi only. However, we are hopeful for a 5G option.

The Surface Pro 8 has been available for some time now, but Microsoft has not revealed any details. But we hope this upgrade will be the final product.