What you need to know
- A new leak appears to reveal the date of the next Surface hardware announcements.
- March 21 is the current working date, which our own sources can confirm.
- Microsoft will ship new Surface PCs in April and June.
Microsoft looks to be gearing up to announce new hardware in March, where the company is expected to unveil updated versions of the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Reliable leaker WalkingCat first posted the potential date of March 21 on X, and my own sources have confirmed this to be accurate.
Late last year, I wrote about Microsoft’s plans for its upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, which are expected to feature some major upgrades in the form of refreshed designs, new chips, and next-gen NPU silicon that will power some of the upcoming advanced AI features Microsoft is building into the next version of Windows.
In my report, I mentioned that these devices would be announced in the spring, which lines up nicely with the March 21 date we’re now hearing. With that said, my sources say Microsoft is planning to roll out new hardware in two waves, the first of which will be in April, and the second in June.
I know that the June wave will include the Arm powered Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, as that’s when the first Qualcomm X Series PCs are expected to start shipping across the board. These PCs depend on the Windows Germanium platform release, which won’t RTM until April, making it too late for any PCs launching that month.
That means the April wave will consist of Intel hardware launching with Windows 11 Moment 5. According to my sources, Microsoft intends to ship a commercial focused version of Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with newer Intel chips and a scoped set of features designed for commercial customers.
These features include an anti-reflective display, a new NFC reader, and support for Windows Studio Effects. While I don’t know the name of these devices for certain, I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up shipping as the Surface Pro 9+ and Surface Laptop 5+. Microsoft did this with the Surface Pro 7+ back in 2019, which was also a commercial focused release.
As I understand it, consumers will be able to purchase these commercial focused devices if they wish, but the recommendation is to wait for the true Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 coming in June with next-gen Arm chips and updated designs.
Microsoft intends to market the upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 as its first true AI PCs, and will be some of the first to ship with the new Windows Germanium platform release. The upcoming Windows OS release this fall will enable a number of next-gen AI features designed specifically for this hardware, known as CADMUS PCs internally.
It's unclear if Microsoft will talk about the Arm Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 in March. If it does, Microsoft will also have to talk the next-gen Windows AI release it's also working on, which is expected to ship in the fall as Windows 11 version 24H2.
Elsewhere, I also hear Microsoft is planning to ship an updated Surface Laptop Go 4 and consumer-facing Surface Go 4 this year, which are likely to appear in October, if not sooner. That will round off the Surface lineup for 2024.
