Microsoft will be holding an event this week where it will be announcing some refreshes to some of its Surface devices, including the Surface Pro and the Surface Laptop. We"ve been expecting a refresh to Intel"s eighth-generation Core processors, which are quad-core. USB Type-C is also a possibility, something that the two lines of devices have been lacking.
But a new rumor/leak from WinFuture claims otherwise, that Microsoft won"t include Type-C ports at all. If true, this wouldn"t really surprise me, as everything I"ve heard about these new devices is that they"re a spec bump. It"s not something that Microsoft really needs to make changes to the chassis for, especially when it"s planning big changes for next year. That"s not saying that it can"t or won"t be done; I"m just saying that if there"s no USB Type-C, it"s not the craziest thing in the world.
However, it"s worth taking a look at the rest of the rumor though, because if you get past the part about USB Type-C, none of it makes any sense.
Windows 10 Home
The Pro 6 rumor actually popped up last week, and the information here is mostly the same. I chose not to write it up at the time, as it seemed ridiculous, but the rumor is gaining more traction now, as WinFuture does have an excellent track record with leaks.
And the thing that caught my eye both times was that apparently, these devices will run Windows 10 Home. This would be a first for both the Pro and the Laptop lineups. In fact, the Surface Pro was actually named after the OS, as was its Surface RT counterpart. Switching to Windows 10 Home on either device would be unprecedented; currently, the only Surface that ships with Home is the Surface Go.
Core m3-7Y30
The choice of processor in the base model is another red flag. Yes, the Core i5 and Core i7 will be quad-core, eighth-gen chips, but the Core m3 model is exactly the same as what"s in the current Surface Pro. Combined with 4GB RAM and presumably 128GB of storage, that makes the Surface Pro 6 base model exactly the same as the current Surface Pro base model, except for the OS downgrade.
Surface Pro 6 model 1796
The current Surface Pro is the first since the original to not have a number attached to it. This change fit in with the rest of the PC market, which does something along the same lines. So according to this rumor, Microsoft is bringing back its numbering scheme; however, it"s keeping the same model number as the current Surface Pro.
These two things contradict each other. The name Surface Pro 6 implies a major upgrade, big enough to bring back the numbering scheme. The same model number implies that it"s the same as before.
These Surface rumors are frankly absurd. Of course, that doesn"t mean that they"re not true. As I said earlier, WinFuture does indeed have a great track record when it comes to leaks. Other specifics include that the Laptop starts with a Core i5 and 8GB RAM, meaning that the m3 model won"t be available at launch (it may come later, as it did with the current Laptop), and that prices will be a bit lower, due to the change in operating system.
Back to the conversation on USB Type-C, it"s still worth holding onto some hope at this point. While these rumors could be true, they"re so far off the wall that you probably shouldn"t put any stock into them until Microsoft announces its wares on Tuesday.