The tablet will be powered by Windows 8.1 out of the box

Mar 25, 2015 22:22 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is flooding the smartphone market with affordable handsets, at least until later this summer when Windows 10 for Phones is supposed to get released.

However, these aren't the only products the Redmond-based company plans to launch in the next couple of months until Windows 10's arrival.

It has come to our attention that WindowsCentral has learned from sources close to the matter that Microsoft plans to launch a Surface 2 successor, which is likely to be officially announced at this year’s BUILD conference.

In fact, the cited source claims the next Surface tablet might be announced sometime before or at BUILD 2015. Given the fact that Microsoft's conference will take place between April 29 and May 1, the Surface 2 successor will be released with Windows 8.1 onboard.

Windows 8.1 onboard, but upgradeable to Windows 10 OS

Obviously, the new tablet will be upgradeable to Windows 10 when the OS gets released, so early adopters won't need to worry that their slate will be stuck on an older version of Windows.

Moving on to specs, the successor to Surface 2, which will be advertised as a non-pro tablet, will be equipped with a fanless low-specced processor, probably an Intel Atom chipset using the Cherry Trail architecture.

Apart from that, there aren't any details regarding its specifications; but from what we've learned, the device won't be a “Surface Mini” variant of the already available Surface 2, but a full-fledged tablet.

Since Microsoft already launched the Surface 3 Pro and the Redmond-based company is missing a true Surface 3 tablet from its portfolio, it would make sense that the upcoming tablet will be named Surface 3, but we don't rule out a Surface 4 naming scheme either.

Anyway, we'll be keeping an eye out for any additional details on the matter, so stay tuned for more updates on Microsoft's upcoming Surface tablet.