Microsoft Surface Pro 5 release date, specs news: New Surface Pro with LTE, Intel Kaby Lake processors coming soon?

Jackie Villegas Thursday, July 07, 2016

While Microsoft has yet to officially announce anything regarding its fifth-generation Surface Pro, the rumor mill has nonetheless been spinning about a possible October reveal and a bunch of new features in the rumored tablet.

Microsoft launched its Surface Pro 4 in October 2015, which makes it highly unlikely that the next model in the Surface Pro range will be unveiled before October 2016, as some have predicted.

According to PC Advisor UK, it looks like the rumored Surface Pro 5 will be arriving soon and that Microsoft may be offering more than one new Windows Surface device. In a photo shared by app developer Shubhan Chemburkar on Twitter, Microsoft appears to be preparing to launch a new Surface device later this year. Chemburkar's photo, which was taken on a recent visit to Microsoft's building 88, showed a wall with placeholders for what appear to be Surface devices. One of the placeholders is marked "2016" and captioned "coming soon."

While the image in the placeholder appears to be for a Surface or Surface-related device, it is unclear if the product coming out later this year is a tablet, laptop, or other device.

The report suggested that Microsoft may also be waiting until 2017 to debut the new Surface Pro, ensuring that it will come with the Intel Kaby Lake processors that are said to be coming out later this year.

Apart from getting the latest Intel processors, the Surface Pro 5 may also be getting an upgrade in terms of connectivity. According to PC World, while the Surface Pro 4 was without dedicated LTE, the technology may be loaded into the next model.

In addition, there have been rumors that the Surface Pro 5 will come with a 2K screen and that a variant with a 4K screen will also be made available for those willing to spend more. The Surface Pro 5 is also expected to feature a USB-C port in lieu of the USB 3.0 port in the Pro 4.

Microsoft has not announced the official release date for the Surface Pro 5.