[Windows Central Question]

New Surface Book will be launched in 2016?

[ven07]

No official confirmation so far :) but we do have this:

Microsoft appears to be teasing new Surface Book 2 hinge on Instagram | Windows Central

Make of that what you like lol There's still some time before the holidays hit so we could still see new hardware.

The surface team is pretty secretive so unless they actually want leaks to get out, you won't see anything. With them teasing this, it makes me think that they are close, but MS could decide to hold off until the start of 2017 and push the "surface phone" at the same time..

This is just speculation...

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[Darth_Bane]

New Surface Book will be launched in 2016?

My uneducated guess would be no, because the current Suface Book is on Intel's Skylake processor, and there's little reason to update a computer that is less then 1 year old.

Intel, will have the Kaby lake processor in 2017, so my guess would be, we'd see the SB2 then.

[zerospace-net]

I still think we're looking at early 2017 (redstone 2) rather than 2016 for the Surface Book refresh. Kaby lake is technically already available to OEMs.

[orlbuckeye]

Well word is a Surface All-In-One will be debuted in the October MS Hardware Presentation and the current Surface product will be announced in 2017 (spring maybe).

[zerospace-net]

Well word is a Surface All-In-One will be debuted in the October MS Hardware Presentation and the current Surface product will be announced in 2017 (spring maybe).

This makes the most sense -- AIO Surface device for fall/holiday season (I may tentatively recommend this device to family & friends, depending on stability) and refreshes on the Book and Pro units early next year, as rumors originally suggested.

[hasasimo]

I kind of doubt they'll miss an opportunity to take advantage of new hardware for the holiday season. Who knows how different it'll actually be from the original Surface Book, but I'd bet that there will indeed be a Surface Book 2 before 2016 is out. Perhaps a "Surface Book 1S" type if you will.

[LyricalNonsense]

Surface is a pretty good card that Microsoft has, and I'm sure they will release a new one to contend with the new MacBooks

- M

[zerospace-net]

Problem with Surface Book 2 for fall release is that kaby lake won't be in full production for retail channels until late 2016. Take that and the previous rumors about Redstone 2 early next year, and I'd bet more on that and MS going with different "new" hardware for the fall lineup. It's all but been confirmed that an all-in-one Surface is coming at the event, but most rumors have been pointing to early 2017 for both the next iteration of the Pro and Books. Think about it -- if intel won't have kaby lake available in large quantities until early 2017, how is MS going to launch a new Surface Book AND Surface Pro this fall and have enough supply? They had a hard enough time last year with the skylake-powered current gen units.

I'm still betting no new SB or SP this fall. The only sense it makes is to compete with the Macbooks, but why do that with same-gen hardware? I doubt the Macbooks are going to use kaby lake processors for the same reason, so by the time MS does release the SB2 and the new Pros, they'll be able to tout newer tech than Apple is using.

[BenIsCool]

I hope so

[orlbuckeye]

Microsoft Hardware event is next week. Leaks for new devices are All-in-One, Keyboard and mouse.

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e?...token=lxVF4zhz

[zerospace-net]

Microsoft Hardware event is next week. Leaks for new devices are All-in-One, Keyboard and mouse.

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e?...token=58ZF0B9H

And possibly SP4 and SB kaby lake refreshes. Guess they might have enough chips for it after all? But no real "new" Surface Pro or Surface Book is what I've been seeing. Just minor hardware refreshes.

[orlbuckeye]

No that won't be until 2017 near redstone 2 probably.

[zerospace-net]

No that won't be until 2017 near redstone 2 probably.

There have been rumors that MS has decided to do a simple hardware refresh on the SP4 and SB to add Kaby Lakes -- these have popped up from multiple sources, so it'll be interesting to find out. Amazon has also begun listing the SP4 current models as "2015" models. That suggests new SP4 and SB models coming this fall (not SP5 and SB2, mind you, just refreshes of the existing units).

[Cane Prevost]

Well here it is. Modest improvements in speed and battery. Hope this drives down the price of first gen Surface Books. Doesn't look like it's worth the upgrade if you have a first gen device. Not sure the price difference between the first gen and this one are worth it either. We'll have to see how pricing shakes down and what the price vs value difference is between first and second gen. I'm guessing that first gen will be the better value.

[orlbuckeye]

Well the improvement are to the i7 models only. They has added batteries and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GPU to replace the older DGPU. The entry level with i7 8 gb ram 256GB and the DGPU is 2399 and the i7 8gb 512 GB and DGPU is 2799,

[zerospace-net]

Well the improvement are to the i7 models only. They has added batteries and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GPU to replace the older DGPU. The entry level with i7 8 gb ram 256GB and the DGPU is 2399 and the i7 8gb 512 GB and DGPU is 2799,

Yep, the SP4 refresh rumors were a pipedream, apparently, and no kaby lake. Definitely not worth buying a new one right now. I'd wait til next year. ;)

[Dratwister]

Since the changes are on the base mostly. Will it be any chance for us to buy just separated base?

Also, is there any hint that the surface dial can work on other surface devices?

[Cane Prevost]

No word that Microsoft will sell the base only. I doubt that they will. The difference between the current i5 model with dedicated graphics and the new i7 model is roughly a thousand bucks right now. Not quite worth the upgrade price for me. I think I'm just going to save a few bucks and get the i5.

[zerospace-net]

My i5 SB unit performs fine -- as long as everything is working =P. I saw on MS's site somewhere that the dial is supposed to work with SP4 and SB, too. Honestly, I'm ditching my SB for the next gen Surface Pro when it launches, barring anything really crazy coming out. I'd be interested in the Surface Studio if I hadn't built a mini-desktop PC about 6-8 months ago.

[orlbuckeye]

No chance it would be a manufacturing nightmare. The issue is no one would buy the clipboard (they would just buy the Surface Pro) without the base but many more users would buy upgrades to the base without the clipboard. The clipboards would only sale to first time buyers.

[zerospace-net]

No chance it would be a manufacturing nightmare. The issue is no one would buy the clipboard (they would just buy the Surface Pro) without the base but many more users would buy upgrades to the base without the clipboard. The clipboards would only sale to first time buyers.

Until there was a big enough jump in hardware specs ... then people would want a new clipboard for an upgraded CPU & RAM. The base is just the battery & GPU, after all.

[Kevin Vitto1]

What's stopping people from buying the new model and switching out the bases? I've returned pc's to my local best buy before and they didn't really look at S/N

[Cane Prevost]

The last item I returned to Best Buy they opened the box and carefully inspected the serial number.

[zerospace-net]

The last item I returned to Best Buy they opened the box and carefully inspected the serial number.

The two serial #s are tied together (base and clipboard), even though each has its own. That's what I've been told. Right after the SB launch, I heard stories about people buying SB units that were supposed to have the GPU and they didn't -- as though folks had done the buy both, switch the bases, and then return the more expensive unit trick. Guess Best Buy wised up to that real fast ...