Microsoft’s hardware plans for the coming year, and a bit beyond, have reportedly leaked according to reports from Thurott and ZDNet. So what could we see announced this year? Oh, just HoloLens 2 and maybe a cheaper Surface Pro. And early next year, we could also see the release of the Surface Pro 6.
As we previously reported, a leak of Microsoft’s hardware plans has been making the rounds, suggesting big plans for the end of 2018 and the early part of 2019. Not only could we see the announcement of the long-rumored Andromeda device, but leaked code names and release targets strongly suggest that a next-generation HoloLens is slated for release in 2018, and a new Surface Pro will be coming out in the early part of 2019.
“The coming family of small, cheaper Surface tablets (basically, successors to the Surface 3), are expected later this year. The Walking Cat said these could be codenamed ‘Lex,’ but like Thurrott.com’s Brad Sams, I’ve also heard the name ‘Libra’ associated with these. Target launch date: This summer, I’m hearing, at least for some models,” ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports.
Additionally, the same leak mentions a device codenamed “Sydney” coming out later this year. Foley’s sources indicate this device is likely the upcoming HoloLens 2, which would be the first major hardware refresh since the device debuted in 2016.
“It supposedly will be lighter, have better field of view, hopefully be cheaper and, as Microsoft has said previously, will come with an A.I. chip inside so as to handle A.I. processing at the ‘edge’ for better performance,” Foley continues.
As always, it is important to view these leaks with some amount of skepticism, but given the number of individual sources coming out to corroborate Microsoft’s upcoming hardware roadmap, these leaks are more credible than most. That is not all, according to Foley’s other sources, we might be looking at a new Surface Book at some point in the near future as well.
“Intel eighth-generation refreshes of Surface Pro and Surface Laptop could be coming this fall. I’m not sure if these will include USB-C ports (I’d think/hope so), but I believe they still will include the Surface Connect port,” Foley reports.
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