Microsoft may not have been able to draw buyers towards its Lumia smartphones, but the company surely has hit gold with its Surface lineup. The Surface Pro tablet-laptop convertible PCs have been extremely successful, and the upcoming Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is one of the most awaited gadgets of this year. However, the tablet has apparently got delayed.
A report by TheBitBag says that Microsoft has pushed forward the Surface Pro 5 release date because of the processor that it wants to use in the device. The recent price cuts for Surface Pro 4 and Pro 3 had given hopes that the Surface Pro 5 would be released soon. But Microsoft wants to use Intel’s next-gen Kaby Lake chipset, which will be shipped only by the end of 2016.
This is why Microsoft is not yet ready to release the Microsoft Surface Pro 5. Kaby Lake processors will provide double the efficiency of the Surface Pro 4 to the Pro 5. Another fact is that the Pro 5 will be running Redstone 2, which is the next big Windows 10 update expected to come with new features. Redstone 2 is also not ready, which is why the Microsoft Surface Pro 5 launch date is being postponed.
As for the features, the Surface Pro 5 is rumored to get a 4K display and a powerful battery. There will be a Surface Pen too for better user experience and more functionality. An onboard fingerprint scanner and a USB Type-C port is also expected in the upcoming hybrid tablet. Some say that the phone will get 4GB of RAM, while rumors suggest that it might go as high as 6GB. There might be 128GB of internal storage and might go up to 256GB or even as high as 500GB.
A CNET report suggests that the Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Core might have a starting price of $899, and it might go as high as $999 for the Intel Core i7 model. The top-most i7 Extreme version might cost $1,599.