Surface Pro 5 Release Date

Update 9 April 2016 – Surface Pro 5 Rumors All Around

It’s been quite a while since I last updated this article. Several sites, including Techradar and Times of India, have picked up the release date that I have predicted. It feels quite nice.

Anyways, personal feelings aside, Surface Pro 5 release date rumor one is about to be over because we are heading for June 2016. We have not seen any concrete information regarding a possible release.

Hence, Surface Pro 5 might be announced in development very soon, but it will be made available in October 2016, which was my second guess for its release.

Here are few rumors going around the internet regarding Surface Pro 5 specs:

1. Display: 4K – Tech enthusiasts are hoping that there is only one way to wow us with the display of new Surface, and it would only be 4k. Since, Surface Pro 4 boasts an amazing display, crispier images and flawless videos are the way to go in the next one.
2. Type-C port – It is faster and reversible. Those are the only two things that you need to know. However, due to rumours that Apple might remove 3.5mm audio jack from its next iPhone series and replace it with a single Type-C port for charging, data transfer and audio output, same thing is being expected by Surface Pro 5.
3. New and improved Cortana experience – This one is confirmed. Microsoft has gathered enough data from Windows 10 users and they will revamp Cortana in their next tablet.
4. Intel Kaby Lake processor lineup – It is a very long shot. Kaby Lake is currently being developed. Previous iteration was Skylake, or better known as Intel 6th generation processor. Since, Kaby Lake is going to be a refreshed version of Skylake, we hope that it might become the power inside Surface Pro 5.

We’ll update this post more frequently to include latest information. Subscribe it and we’ll see you later.

Editor’s Note:  Content written below was published on 4 November 2015.

Surface Pro 5 is the Perfection of Tablet Replacing a Laptop

Surface Pro 5 is an upcoming tablet (perfect laptop replacement) from Microsoft. Its release date is rumoured to be around either June 2016 or October 2016.

When Microsoft first thought of Surface, it was nothing but an attempt to capture the market share ruled by Apple’s iPad series and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series.

I watched the complete keynote of Microsoft Surface RT and Surface Pro, and was pleasantly surprised with what they were creating for us.

With portability and mobility working around every corner of technology around you, it felt necessary to introduce something that blurs the lines between a tablet and a laptop.

Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to deliver that promise with Surface RT and Surface Pro. But, they didn’t stop and give up.

I think designers at Microsoft are highly motivated by Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith) and one of its key dialogues is “Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something… You got a dream, You got to protect it”.

Watch These Highly Motivational Words, because of which, Microsoft’s Surface dream is going strong!

I could easily quote the whole movie because it is simply amazing. The bottom line is, after 3 generations of Surface line-up, we finally have Surface Pro 4, which has presented the dream of Panos Panay (and Microsoft team) in its true sense.

There are few quirks to be rectified, but Microsoft has finally given us a tablet that will indeed replace our laptop for most of our work.

But the question remains, how much more improvement and innovation does it need to actually make it the perfect replacement for your laptop.

Microsoft has also realized that ‘that’ statement was farfetched. There are obviously certain instances where laptop will be more comfortable to use than Surface Pro 4 and that is why; they have released Microsoft Surface Book as well.

Another reason could be that they don’t want tech enthusiasts to point fingers at them that even after 3 years, they still haven’t perfected Surface.

The point is, if you want to replace a laptop with a tablet, you should be able to use it on your lap anyway you want without toppling it.

This is that area where the lighter design of Surface Pro 4 (whole Surface line) can’t actually compete with a laptop.

I am sure that with the upcoming iteration of Surface, we are going to see some radical improvements and one of them is going to be slightly heavier type cover.

Now, let’s breakdown each element and discuss various aspects of Surface Pro 5 like specs, price and release date.

But before that let’s get an idea of the latest generation of Surface:

Surface Pro 4 Specs

Surface Pro 4 does have top of the line hardware specs and the fact that it has the latest generation of Intel Core Processors, dubbed “Skylake”, makes it future friendly with whatever competition it’s going to get with Apple’s iPad Pro and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2.

In the keynote, Microsoft mentioned about Nvidia graphics support as well. Currently, it is only on Surface Book, but we believe that if you want to actually replace laptops then this configuration must be presented as an option.

Surface Pro 4 Release Date and Price

Surface Pro 4 was announced on 6^th October 2015 and it is set to release on 16^th October 2015. The tablet and Surface Book were already available for pre-order from 6^th October 2015.

Recent news has told us that Surface Pro 4 is selling like hot cakes despite its steep price.

Have a look at the three several of Surface Pro 4 with default configurations.

As you can see, Surface Pro 4 isn’t the most cost effective solution. However, you are paying the price for portability, innovation and bragging rights for saying “I own Intel’s sixth generation in a tablet”.

That’s actually a direct conversion from US Dollars to Indian Rupees and it is never so simple. You have to factor in the marketing cost and custom charges while exporting materials. Add in all of that and you are looking at some pretty expensive tablet.

We’ll go deeper into Surface Pro 4’s price arguments in a separate article. For now, let’s focus on our next segment.

Surface Pro 5 Specs

Surface Pro 4 feels perfect, I agree, but we still need a bigger screen to tackle some basic hurdles of editing softwares like Adobe softwares, Autodesk softwares, etc.

Editing is painful in small screen devices and while 12.3 inches is great for playing games and watching videos up-close, actual production work still requires a bigger screen without having to connect it to docking station.

With nearly every company releasing variations in screen sizes, I feel that Surface Pro 5 is going to be released in two variations as well.

One with 12.3 inches (or back to 12.1) and one with 13.3 inches. We currently have Surface Book, with 13.5 inches screen and it needs a bump to 14-inches. Apart from screen size, hardware specs like processor will be improved further.

I don’t suppose Intel will release Cannonlake processors by June 2016, but if Surface Pro 5 release date comes around October 2016, then we might see that 10nm processor aiding the tablet in various aspects.

They will be able to keep it light weight and increase the screen-size without compromising the authenticity of Surface dream.

I do feel that 4GB RAM will become obsolete by next year. No matter how efficient Windows 10 is, production softwares still require raw power to encode and compile data.

Surface Pro 5 Price

As I mentioned, Surface Pro series has never been pocket friendly, but I still hope that Surface Pro 5 might be able to fix that.

If you can get a Core i7 laptop for the price of a tablet that has Intel Core i5 in it, you just don’t see the point and benefit in investing in the tablet.

Surface Pro 4 is 1.3 Kg and we have several laptops which are 1.9 to 2Kg in weight, and they are pretty portable too.

The point is, if you really want to justify that price point, at least throw in that most essential accessory that you have been saying as an integral part of Surface and still keeping it away from in-box contents of Surface Pro series.

Yes, I am talking about the type cover. Surface Pro 4 has an amazing type cover. The keys are mechanical and backlit. They have amazing travel and it feels like you are typing on a premium keyboard rather than an accessory.

However, it is not included with Surface Pro 4 (it was never included with previous versions as well) and this tablet will only replace your laptop if you shell out $129.99 – $159.99.

Let’s see if Surface 5 keynote in 2016 would surprise us with this much requested accessory (for free) or not!

Surface Pro 5 Wish list (Poll)

As I mentioned above, Surface Pro 4 still has few quirks to fix and one of them is still getting toppled easily while working on your lap.

Here’s my wish list of what I want in Surface Pro 5. Kindly add your wishes too by using either comment field or ‘Other’ option of Poll.

• Better camera quality. It was touted as take amazing pictures, but it is still not up to the mark.
• Add an option for a slightly heavier type cover. Sometimes, when you already know that you are going to be working outside of your office and comfort zones (desks), you can carry that heavier type cover so that you can work on the field without searching for a well-balanced plane.
• Better ‘Cortana’ experience.
• More stable VR headsets support.
• Less post production issues. When you buy something so dearly, you brag about the screen and it flickers, it just takes your faith away.

Should you wait for Surface Pro 5 or Buy Surface Pro 4?

This question has a lot of logical answers and one them is this:

• If you have Surface Pro 3, then you don’t actually need Surface Pro 4 unless, you are migrating your work to powerful production softwares.
• It goes something like this. If you used to work with Sony Vegas Pro in Surface Pro 3 and now you have shifted your workflow to Adobe Premier Pro, After Effects and Audition, you should indeed purchase Surface Pro 4.
• It has those tweaks and enhancements that you do require.
• But if you are still a college student (may be school), and you are going to work on same softwares and environment for the next year, till the time Surface Pro 5 is released, it would be foolish to invest in something
• However, you must lookout for Surface Pro 4 deals, in Christmas, Black Friday, etc.; because that would be the perfect time to buy it without carrying unnecessary burden over your shoulders.

I’ll be updating this article frequently with latest information about Surface Pro 5 release date. I suggest you to subscribe so that you can get latest updates on time and engage in discussions as they go along.

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K. K. Sonakiya

Editor at Release Date Portal

I am very fond of games and have been trying to build my dream PC for 8 years now and in this period, I made a mid-end PC that can at least play games to a significant extent.
I hope that when they do release Half Life 3, I have my dream PC with me.

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