Microsoft’s Next Gen Surface Book Reportedly Arriving In Early 2018
Microsoft has some big things planned this fall, including the release of its Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 and, tying into that, its big push towards mixed reality experiences. One thing that is not on the docket for a fall release, however, is a new generation Surface Book. Instead, it seems Microsoft is content to wait until next year before releasing refreshed models.
The Redmond outfit has a press event scheduled for October 3 in San Francisco. That is when it will highlight its mixed reality initiative and how it ties into Windows 10. Then later in the month, Microsoft will announce a new Surface Pro model at its Future Decoded event in London, according to what ZDNet is hearing from its contacts.
Following all that, the Xbox One X will hit the ground running on November 7. In other words, it is quite the busy season for Microsoft, so we can see why it might want to wait until 2018 to throw a new Surface Book lineup into the mix.
The Surface Book is a premium laptop with a detachable display. It has a far nicer keyboard than the Surface Pro's optional Type Cover, and can be considered a laptop that pulls double duty as a tablet (whereas the reverse is true of the Surface Pro).
Current iterations of the Surface Book are powered by Intel's Skylake processor family, while the rest of the Surface family has been bumped up to Kaby Lake. Intel just recently introduced new quad-core 8th generation Kaby Lake Refresh Core i5 and Core i7 processors, which could end up in the Surface Book 2.
We would also like to see an upgrade to the Surface Book's discrete graphics. Current models run mobile GPUs from NVIDIA's previous Maxwell generation, whereas there are new GeForce GTX 10-series GPUs now available.
The Redmond outfit has a press event scheduled for October 3 in San Francisco. That is when it will highlight its mixed reality initiative and how it ties into Windows 10. Then later in the month, Microsoft will announce a new Surface Pro model at its Future Decoded event in London, according to what ZDNet is hearing from its contacts.
Following all that, the Xbox One X will hit the ground running on November 7. In other words, it is quite the busy season for Microsoft, so we can see why it might want to wait until 2018 to throw a new Surface Book lineup into the mix.
The Surface Book is a premium laptop with a detachable display. It has a far nicer keyboard than the Surface Pro's optional Type Cover, and can be considered a laptop that pulls double duty as a tablet (whereas the reverse is true of the Surface Pro).
Current iterations of the Surface Book are powered by Intel's Skylake processor family, while the rest of the Surface family has been bumped up to Kaby Lake. Intel just recently introduced new quad-core 8th generation Kaby Lake Refresh Core i5 and Core i7 processors, which could end up in the Surface Book 2.
We would also like to see an upgrade to the Surface Book's discrete graphics. Current models run mobile GPUs from NVIDIA's previous Maxwell generation, whereas there are new GeForce GTX 10-series GPUs now available.
