Microsoft Announces Surface Event For October 2, Radical Dual Screen Windows Lite Device Rumored
For starters, Microsoft has been hinting at and teasing a dual-screen Surface device for what seems like forever. Surface Chief Panos Panay has called it his pet project, and the device is being developed under the codename Centaurus. The Surface team reportedly showed off working prototypes of Centaurus to Microsoft employees earlier this year, and it could be widely available during the first half of 2020.
Previous reports have suggested that the new Surface device will have dual 9-inch displays, each with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (which is pretty standard fare for Surface devices). Rather than running a full-blown version of Windows 10, its reported that Centaurus will be among the first devices to ship with the stripped-down Windows Lite operating system. We'd also imagine the device will be running 10th generation Intel processors (Ice Lake, Comet Lake?).
Do you think they got the resemblance right?
— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) June 28, 2018
Huge thanks to LG Display for the awesome caricature. #nailedit pic.twitter.com/vejlOIVuoK
In addition to Centaurus, we expect the usual annual refreshes of other Surface products including the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, Surface Book and Surface Studio. Last year's Surface Go was the first Surface device to gain USB-C connectivity, which is pretty much a prerequisite with today's PCs. Microsoft, however, has been reluctant to more broadly adopt the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 interface on its Surface lineup. Hopefully that will change with the 2019 Surface refresh.
We're also expecting some slight design refreshes for the aforementioned Surface devices along with 9th and 10th generation Intel Core processors.
We will be covering the event live, so be sure to watch our coverage on October 2nd, and we'll definitely be covering any leaks that spring up between now and that launch date.
