14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is planning to unveil the new-generation Surface Book and Surface Pro models in the spring of 2017, and new information coming from unofficial sources provides us with a closer look at the technical specifications of these devices.
Before anything, it’s worth having in mind that we’re still many months away from the public launch of these new Microsoft products, so while these rumors might be true, Redmond could change anything overnight should it want to.
MobiPicker claims that sources from China revealed that the Microsoft Surface Pro 5 could come with Intel’s new Kaby Lake line of processors, and this is one of the reasons the software giant is pushing the release to 2017. Intel is likely to start production of the new chips this quarter, and the processors should be ready by the second quarter of 2017, so this perfectly aligns with the debut of the revamped Surface generation.
4K display only on top models
What’s more, it looks like there are chances to see a memory boost on the Surface Pro 5, and very likely on the Surface Book 2 as well from to 16 GB. This would obviously make sense, given the fact that the CPU would get a major upgrade, and so would another revision of the graphics board.
Previous reports on the upcoming Surface generation indicated that Microsoft could finally introduce a 4K display on its tablets and laptops, but it turns out that this is only partially true. If such a feature does make it to the new models, it might only be offered on the top-of-the-range configurations while the other more affordable versions will continue to arrive with 2K screens.
As a result, the high-end Surface Book 2 and Surface Pro 5 models are likely to come with the most powerful Kaby Lake processors, and at least 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage space, a new graphics card, a 4K display, and a significantly improved Surface Phone. The operating system will obviously be Windows 10 Redstone 2.
Article updated to correctly state that the current Surface Pro and Surface Book models can already be offered with 1 TB of storage and 16 GB RAM.