Surface Laptop 2: what we want to see

The original Surface Laptop might not even be a year old yet, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get excited for its sequel, does it?

In this article, we’d like to lay out our expectations for what the Surface Laptop 2 will look like. No matter how much we love the original, Windows 10-powered Surface Laptop, there’s always room to improve.

With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, the Surface Laptop has access to a ton of productivity-focused features, making the back to school angle more compelling – and we expect the Surface Laptop 2 to follow suit. But, when can we expect the Surface Laptop 2 to arrive? Well, now that Microsoft is actively testing and developing Redstone 5, and its business is booming, we could be seeing a Surface Laptop 2 announcement soon – especially with the rumored 2019 redesign of the Surface Pro.

Still, because there isn’t much in the way of concrete information, all we can do is speculate about the key Surface Laptop 2 details, like possible features, release date and price. We’d also like to create a kind of wish list. So, keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with all the latest news and rumors.

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 first 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 the Surface Laptop 2 would be coming out in 2019. However, we haven’t heard anything about any Surface hardware so far this year, so anything is on the table. Right now, we’d have to put our finger on October being the next possible time to push out a Surface Laptop 2.

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

Again, there has been little to no information regarding the Surface Laptop 2 price. So, we only have the current model’s pricing to go off of.

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).

So, if we are to see a Surface Laptop 2 in 2018, it’s tough to expect Microsoft to deviate far – if at all – from this price in either direction.

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.

It’s safe to assume that, if Microsoft goes the Intel route once again, 8th-generation Kaby Lake R or Coffee Lake processors will be included. Whether that’s the Core U series processors found in the best Ultrabooks, or the new G series models with embedded AMD Vega graphics is anyone’s guess.

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.

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