Microsoft isn’t known for its collaborations, just as London department store Liberty isn’t known for its technological nous. This new collaboration combines the power-packed Surface Pro 9 with Liberty’s rich history of textile design to create a laptop that’s destined to stand out from the pack.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition was created to celebrate ten years of the Microsoft Surface line, the unexpectedly excellent family of transformable tablets and laptops that has put Microsoft back in the top tier of hardware manufacturers.
The collaboration was unexpected and fortuitous, after Liberty’s lead designer, Adam Herbert, met Microsoft’s principal designer, Elliott Hsu, and decided to form an alliance.
The end result is inspired in part by the graphic language of Windows 11, with its animated ‘floral bloom’ desktop wallpaper.
The result is a laptop with an engraved floral design on its keyboard and case, a special-edition Microsoft Surface x Liberty print that blends the Microsoft bloom with Liberty’s 150 years’ experience of working with artists and designers on fabrics and textiles.
‘We started to do very loose line drawings of the Bloom, and really started to think about a virtually created flower but translated it into a Liberty print,’ says Herbert, ‘We took something that was created in a very modern, cutting-edge way, but then [redrew] it into something that is Liberty. And I think that was a really exciting juxtaposition.’
Microsoft Surface Family, 2022
There’s also a desktop theme that references the collaboration, and this special edition of the Surface Pro 9 comes complete with the optional keyboard and Slim Pen 2. The hybrid device is powered by Intel’s new Evo 12th Gen processor and offers over 15 hours of battery life.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition, complete with Surface Pro Liberty Keyboard and Slim Pen 2, from £1,099.99, available from Microsoft store and Liberty
store.microsoft.com (opens in new tab), libertylondon.com (opens in new tab)
-
Remembering New York artist Daniel Brush, 1947 – 2022In tribute to Daniel Brush, who has died aged 75, we revisit this 2020 Wallpaper* profile of the elusive New York artist by jewellery historian Vivienne Becker, who unravelled the secrets of his singular designs for her book, ‘Daniel Brush: Jewels Sculpture’
-
Interior design books championing shelf love
Welcome to the Wallpaper* guide of the best interior design books published in 2022 and beyond – a collection of riveting visual tomes to feed creative innovation, inspiration and imagination
-
Christmas decorations from leading creatives and design brands
Our edit of contemporary Christmas decorations ranges from architect-designed festive ornaments to Christmas baubles by leading creatives
-
New Kindle Scribe crowns 15 years of evolution of Amazon’s e-reader
We review the latest and most sophisticated Kindle ever made, the Amazon Kindle Scribe, and look back over the device’s 15-year evolution and how it squares up to rivals like the reMarkable 2
-
We Are Rewind takes tape into the 21st century
We Are Rewind’s self-consciously retro Cassette Player is designed to tap into our ongoing obsession for analogue formats. Just the thing for your mixtape 2022?
-
Ten years of Microsoft Surface: the company’s design team on what comes next
The Microsoft Surface series is a well-established line of premium mobile devices. How are its designers continuing to innovate?
-
Wallpaper* wants… ten best-designed wireless chargers for Apple devices
Looking to get rid of wires? Our top ten elegantly designed MagSafe-compatible wireless charging stations will help you find your way through the tangle
-
Google accelerates home WiFi with shapely new Nest WiFi Pro router
Google’s newest domestic device is inspired by ceramic art and incorporates the newest ultra-fast standard of WiFi technology, WiFi 6E
-
Cut your own grooves with Teenage Engineering’s new Record Factory
The PO-80 Record Factory from Yuri Suzuki and Teenage Engineering is a musical toy with a serious side
-
The little Amazon Astro is a big company’s first foray into domestic robotics
Amazon is betting big on home automation. Can the friendly-looking Astro ensure our relationship with robots gets off to a healthy start?
-
Hands on with new Nothing Phone (1): a clearly different smartphone
Nothing Phone (1) launches, hitting the sweet spot between price, performance, and efficiency, and promoting the simplification of your smartphone life
