Surface Laptop 2: what we want to see

The Surface Laptop is around a year old now, so we think it’s about time to start getting excited about the Surface Laptop 2.

We’re going to set out all of our expectations for what we want to see in the Surface Laptop 2. No matter how much we love the original, Windows 10 S-powered Surface Laptop, there’s always room for improvement.

With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, the Surface Laptop has access to a bunch of productivity focused features, and that’ll only grow with next month’s October 2018 Update. We expect that the Surface Laptop 2 is going to leverage the power of Redstone 5 in order to be the best laptop for college students.

But, when will we see the Surface Laptop 2? Well, right now all the signs are pointing to a Microsoft press event on October 2 having some new Surface hardware, so we are expecting to see the student laptop make an appearance there. 

Keep in mind, though, that we don’t have any concrete information about the Surface Laptop 2. Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate, so that’s what we’ll do. We’re going to look over the key Surface Laptop 2 details, like possible features, release date and price. We’d also like to create some kind of wish list. So, keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll keep it updated with all the latest information.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The would-be second Surface Laptop
• When is it out? Probably around October 2018 
• What will it cost? Likely as much as – if not more than – the current model

Surface Laptop 2 release date

Unfortunately, we know next to nothing regarding when we’ll see the next Surface Laptop from Microsoft. So, that leaves us with the release of last year to base any speculation upon.

The Surface Laptop came out in June 2017 in the US. Now, Microsoft seems to like to alternate between different Surface devices year after year, so that would lead us to believe that the Surface Laptop 2 would be coming out in 2019. 

However, no official information has slipped out about any specific Surface hardware, so anything is on the table. And, now that Microsoft has teased a press event for October 2, think we’ll see the Surface Laptop 2 in the very near future. Plus, it looks like Surface Laptop Inventory is starting to disappear – which leads us to believe that the Surface Laptop 2 reveal really is around the corner.

Granted, Microsoft hasn’t been awfully consistent with the release timings of its Surface Pro or Surface Book products. So, maybe we’ll see an announcement in the next couple weeks in time for the back to school 2018 season, but a September or October release date is far more likely.   

Surface Laptop 2 price

For a while there was little to no information regarding the Surface Laptop 2 price. We only had the current model’s pricing to go off of.

However, a recent rumor suggests that the Surface Laptop 2 will be priced the same as its predecessor, which gives us a good idea of the kind of cash we'll need to spend to get it. 

With that, we know that Surface Laptop today starts at $799 (around £560, AU$1,000), a new configuration featuring a lower-power Intel Core m3 processor. The original starting model, meanwhile, starts at $999 (around £705, AU$1,250).

Surface Laptop 2 specs

Unsurprisingly, we know nothing with any amount of concrete certainty about what kind of hardware will be inside the would-be Surface Laptop 2. But, again, we have the current models as a baseline for our best guesses.

If Microsoft goes the Intel route with the Surface Laptop 2, it’s safe to assume it’ll integrate 8th-generation Kaby Lake R or Coffee Lake processors. However, now that Intel is gearing up to release its Whiskey Lake U-series processors, the Surface lineup may skip the 8th-generation entirely.

Otherwise, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the existing basic RAM and storage configurations to remain the same, as memory and storage standards haven’t drastically changed since last year.

What we want to see in a Surface Laptop 2

With such little known about a would-be Surface Laptop 2 for 2018, that leaves us plenty of room to develop a wish list of sorts for the product. So, here are the major upgrades we want to see from a Surface Laptop sequel:

More (or better) ports, please
Frankly, Microsoft needs to get with the times and adopt USB-C 3.1 or Thunderbolt 3. The Surface Connect port is fine and allows for some of the same functionality – but it’s not as widespread as USB-C. Maybe just kill the DisplayPort and use USB-C instead? Who knows. At least we might finally be getting a dongle. 

LTE connectivity
Now that the Surface Pro LTE is on the horizon, we would love to see Microsoft’s other lightweight workhorse get nigh-universal connectivity. Whether that comes through an adaptation of the Surface Pro’s implementation, Intel’s new dedicated 5G modem or, say, a Windows 10 S on ARM implementation with Qualcomm, either would make the device that much more tempting.

Fast charging
It’s about time for this feature to become an expected standard on laptops. Fast charging techniques certainly have become an expected feature of high-end smartphones, so why not laptops? Such a move would only further solidify the Surface Laptop’s portability chops.

More colors
One of the Surface Laptop’s most attractive features is its propensity for color, with platinum, burgundy, graphite gold and cobalt blue options. Microsoft should absolutely blow this out of the water, as it very well could become the company’s iMac G3 moment.

• These are the best laptops for students we’ve seen this year

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