Microsoft's Surface Pro 5 leaks online with minimal design changes

[Shawn Knight]

Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President for Surface at Microsoft, told CNET recently that “there’s no such thing as a [Surface] Pro 5” in an attempt to drive home the notion that his company wouldn’t update the Surface Pro 4 until a “meaningful” change is in order.

After viewing images of the alleged device provided by serial leaker Evan Blass, however, it would seem that Microsoft may be having a change of heart (or perhaps the meaningful changes aren’t visually evident).

Indeed, the system in the supplied image looks very similar to what’s already on the market in the form of the Surface Pro 4 save for a few slightly different choices on the accessory color palette and an overall design that’s a hair slimmer and sleeker (sorry, there’s still no USB Type-C connector).

Blass doesn’t speculate on changes under the hood although it’s pretty much a given that we’ll find Intel’s latest family of processors and perhaps some speedier supporting hardware. He does note, however, that the device will simply be known as the Surface Pro rather than the Surface Pro 5.

Microsoft revealed earlier this month that it would be hosting a media event on May 23 in Shanghai where it’ll “show the world what’s next.” It’s at this event that we’ll likely see the next Surface Pro as well as a Surface Phone.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69393-microsoft-new-surface-pro-leaks-online-minimal-design.html

 

[treeski]

I'm just hoping for better battery life. If this new SP can reliably get 8-10 hours on a charge, I'll probably pick one up.

 

[oldikes]

Why are they so against usb c...

 

[madboyv1]

I mean other than color palate changes and changing ports around (I'll parrot the confusion of the lack of at least one USB-C), there's not much Microsoft can reasonably do to the Surface Pro physically without re-engineering pretty much the whole thing. And internally? Unless one of those battery breakthroughs becomes magically feasible commercially, all we're gonna get are incremental updates.

 

[Kibaruk]

I mean other than color palate changes and changing ports around (I'll parrot the confusion of the lack of at least one USB-C), there's not much Microsoft can reasonably do to the Surface Pro physically without re-engineering pretty much the whole thing. And internally? Unless one of those battery breakthroughs becomes magically feasible commercially, all we're gonna get are incremental updates.

This is the thing, there is nothing they can do to improve on the design besides camera location or add a fingerprint scanner (Doesn't make sense with Windows Hello though), they can't make it smaller nor lighter, so besides an internal refresh it would be odd to have any other change, the form factor is already perfect.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

It would be nice to have a place to store the pen INSIDE the tablet. This whole magnetic thing just doesn't work for a pen.

Would also like to see a lower resolution screen option, around 1920x1200. Current display PPI is too high, and Windows 10 UI scaling still sucks.

And finally, just give us at least two USB-C ports in ADDITION to the current dock port. Quit screwing around with type-A ports already.

 

[madboyv1]

This is the thing, there is nothing they can do to improve on the design besides camera location or add a fingerprint scanner (Doesn't make sense with Windows Hello though), they can't make it smaller nor lighter, so besides an internal refresh it would be odd to have any other change, the form factor is already perfect.

Agreed.