New hinge possibly coming on the second-gen Book

Aug 29, 2016 07:41 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is expected to unveil the next-generation Surface Book in the coming months, and a teaser that the company itself posted on Instagram a few hours ago seems to be the earliest confirmation that we’re getting closer to this moment.

Although Redmond has remained completely tight-lipped until now on everything regarding the new-generation Surface Book, the photo you see here seems to be the living proof that Microsoft’s working on a laptop with an improved hinge, which would thus address criticism received by the first model.

First and foremost, some context. Microsoft launched the Surface Book in October 2015 as its first laptop, offering features such as a detachable keyboard and a pen for easy drawing and writing. In order to make the conversion from tablet to laptop and vice-versa easier, Microsoft opted for an odd design of the hinge, which was received with mixed reactions from customers.

While there were buyers who liked the hinge and didn’t find anything wrong about it, others criticized the design, pointing out not only that it looked ugly but also that it allowed dust to easily slip in between the screen and the keyboard.

Microsoft was aware of this criticism, and if this is indeed a teaser of the Surface Book 2, it looks like the company is addressing it, with the second generation introducing a new hinge that looks more similar to the traditional design used by laptops.

Is this really a teaser?

Posted on Instagram with no other specifics, this photo is titled “Your key to success,” and since it doesn’t look like any other Surface model, many rushed to believe that it’s the second-generation Surface Book.

Rumor has it that it actually shows one of the prototypes that Microsoft has built and presented internally in order to get feedback from its own employees before launching it publicly. Since it’s available in black, it might also hint that Microsoft is working on a new color for the laptop or the keyboard, but again, since it’s just a prototype, a lot could change in the meantime.

The Surface Book 2 is expected to see daylight in October 2016, when Microsoft is likely to take the wraps off a completely new series of hardware products, including the Surface Pro 5 and the Band 2.

There are sources who claim that a spring 2017 unveiling for these devices makes more sense because it would align with the debut of Redstone 2, so for the moment, there’s still no certain launch date.

UPDATE: It appears that this could be a crop from an original Surface Book ad, even though from this angle, it just seems like the laptop uses a different type of hinge. We've reached out to Microsoft for confirmation and will update the article again with more info.

The first-generation Surface Book hinge and the gap allowing dust to slip in
The first-generation Surface Book hinge and the gap allowing dust to slip in

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

This could be the second-generation Surface Book hinge
The first-generation Surface Book hinge and the gap allowing dust to slip in
Open gallery