Microsoft’s Surface line now includes headphones

Granted, most of today's big announcements were iterative updates on devices we've seen in past years. Even so, Microsoft did sneak one surprise into today's event. The simply titled Surface Headphones are perhaps the oddest addition to the line of laptop and desktop products.

The key to these over-the-ear headphones, however, is clearly Cortana. The company has had some issues helping spread its Siri/Alexa/Assistant competitor, so perhaps these devices with their next level of noise canceling will go a ways toward spreading that gospel.

Priced at $350, the wireless headphones should be competitive with the likes of Bose's ubiquitous QuietComfort and competing offerings from companies like Sony and Samsung. Of course, if Cortana is the main distinguishing factor, it's going to be hard for these products to truly stand out from the pack.

It's still early days, and we don't even have a release date (beyond "coming soon"), so perhaps the company still has a couple of tricks left up its sleeve.