Rumors began making the rounds earlier this month about a more affordable, mid-range Surface laptop – codenamed Sparti – being in the works. The device is expected to house a 12.5-inch display, and cost around $699 for the lowest tier. That device, along with the refreshed Surface Pro X running the Microsoft SQ2 processor, is said to debut at an event as early as this week.
Now, a new report suggests that the new mid-ranger and the Pro X 2 could be unveiled on October 1. The new 12.5-inch device is reportedly being referred to as the Surface Laptop Go by retailers, but the actual branding of the laptop is still unknown. The report also states that the entire line-up could be offered with a 10th-gen Core i5-1035G1, which is a 10nm chip without Iris Plus graphics. This move is supposedly being made to keep the components uniform to achieve lower costs. The firm could also be ditching the Windows Hello camera, moving to a power button mounted fingerprint sensor, for biometric authentication.
Additionally, the Redmond giant is also said to be preparing an SKU of the device geared towards education customers that sports 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash memory. The report also states that all storage configurations might come with cheaper flash memory modules – including the 256GB variant – instead of SSDs. The lowest-tier version might run Windows 10 Home in S Mode, with the more expensive SKUs being offered with Windows 10 Pro. Connectivity features include support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.
With the rumored launch not too far away, it will be interesting to see what the company has in store for this fall. However, for those looking for a refresh of the Pro or the Laptop, that might not be happening this year, so it’s best not to hold your breath for any major announcements.
Source: WinFuture (German)