Microsoft is a few months removed from the fall 2019 launch of the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and the Surface Pro X, but there is much more ahead for 2020. According to Petri.com’s Brad Sams, Microsoft will be announcing new Surface hardware at an event in New York City later this spring, including the Surface Book 3, and the Surface Go 2.
Although Sams’ report reveals that the Surface Book 3 and the Surface Go will not feature a major design overhaul, he believes that the Surface Book 3 will come with new internals and perhaps changes to the way the device is charged. It could end up sporting 10th-generation Intel Processors and Nvidia’s 16 series GTX graphics cards. That marks a significant upgrade from the current Surface Book 2, which was silently refreshed by Microsoft in April of 2019 with eighth-generation quad-core Intel processors.
This would confirm previous rumors of a powerful Surface Book 3 model, though Sams reports an additional high-end 15-inch with Nvidia Quadro series graphics is a possibility too. Solid-state-drive storage on the Surface Book 3 could also be bumped up to 1TB, with additional RAM configurations ranging from 16GB to 32GB. Prices on the device are believed to start at $1400 for the 13.5-inch model, with higher-end models costing more.
According to Sams, the cheaper Surface Go 2, meanwhile, will supposedly sport “low-end Intel chips” such as the Intel Pentium Gold processor, or even the Intel Core M series processor. Prices on this model could start at around $400 and the design will remain the same as the last generation. There will not, however, be an option for a Surface Go 2 with a Qualcomm SoC, as Sams reports that “rumors that the company would use a 7c chipset from Qualcomm do not appear to be accurate at this time.”
Timing for release or the hardware event is not known, but Microsoft last refreshed the Surface Book 2 in April of 2019, so an event around that month could remain a possibility. The original Surface Book 2 was released in November 2017, and the Surface Go in July 2018. These devices are stuck on older-generation Intel processors, and upgrades are long overdue, so the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2 would be welcome additions.
In addition to the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2, Sams believes Microsoft could also use this spring hardware event as a chance to talk more about the Surface Earbuds. These were originally revealed in October 2019, but the release was delayed. It’s likely that a shipping date could be announced. A successor to the Surface Headphones is also a possibility, though Sams believes that while they exist, a release date isn’t known.