Everyone is waiting for an official announcement of the next Surface Pro, but right now, the Pro 5 is not likely to surface (pun intended) until at least spring 2017. Until Microsoft takes the wraps off, we’ve rounded up the Surface Pro 5 UK release date, price and specification rumours. See also: Best convertible laptops and tablets 2016.
You might also like: What is Microsoft Teams? | Windows 10 Redstone 2 | Surface 4 | Surface Book 2 | Surface Phone | Surface Studio .
Microsoft launched the Pro 4 in October 2015, so October 2016 seemed like the most probable release date for a new model. However, at its October Windows event, the new Surface hardware was limited to the new Surface Book i7 and the Surface Studio. So we’re expecting the Surface Pro 5 in 2017.
The fact the next big Windows 10 update (called the Creators Update) isn’t coming out until Spring 2017 has led many to speculate that Microsoft will hold back its Surface hardware until then.
The latest leak comes from a Chinese website (via Digitimes ) which claims that Microsoft has given the manufacturing contract for the Surface Pro 5 to Pegatron (which also makes the Surface Studio). The report also states that the Surface Pro 5 with have a 4K display, a stylus which recharges wirelessly and that it will launch in Q1 2017. That mean the first quarter, and it’s most likely that we’ll see a March announcement.
Recently, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 10 running on an ARM processor:
There was a lot of speculation that the new Surface will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 635 processor instead of an Intel Kaby Lake chip. The benefits of this would be longer battery life, and potentially the addition of LTE for mobile connectivity.
But, let’s not forget we’re talking about the Surface 5 PRO here. The Pro has always been about having desktop power in a portable device, and a seventh-generation Intel Core chip would be the logical choice. And we think this is still the most likely option out of the two theories.
The photo below from a developer shows a wall in Microsoft’s building 88, and suggests Microsoft has more than one new Windows Surface in store, so it’s feasible that the Surface Pro 5 may go with Kaby Lake, and a Surface 5 (the non-Pro version) might have the ARM chip.
Read our Surface Book review .
Should Microsoft wait until the spring to update its Surface Pro 5 it will give it more time to get the product ready (the Pro 4 launched with a number of issues including battery drain). An older report by Kitguru says the Surface Pro 5 will arrive in early 2017 (mainly due to the Kaby Lake processor, but this delay could in fact, as we’ve said above, be down to waiting for the ARM processor.).
Also see: Best Windows tablets 2016
Although it’s early days, there are a few rumours circulating. One is that the Surface Pen – the stylus bundled with Surface Pro tablets – will be updated so that it contains a rechargeable battery that charges wirelessly when magnetically attached to the tablet. The current Surface Pen attaches magnetically but is not rechargeable as it takes an alkaline AAAA battery:
Another more obvious rumour is that the Pro 5 will have the latest generation of Intel processor. Some say it will be the sixth-generation Skylake chip, but other rumours suggest it will be the following generation, codenamed Kaby Lake. Yet others say that because Microsoft has demoed Windows 10 running on an ARM processor, the Pro 5 will switch to a Qualcomm Snapdragon system-on-chip (SoC) in order to give better battery life.
The report mentioned above, which cites manufacturing sources in China, suggests the Surface Pro 5 will come with a 2K screen but there will also be a 4K model for those willing to splash the cash. It also touts an upgrade to 16GB of RAM, presumably for cheaper models as the Pro 4 is currently available with this capacity.
One other candidate for an upgrade is the USB port. The Surface Pro 5 could be the first in the range to get a USB-C port rather than the USB 3.0 port on the Pro 4. This could also be used for charging: the proprietary charging connector is an annoyance that could quite easily be solved by USB-C.
Cameras are the other likely components to see upgrades, along with the latest versions of Wi-Fi (hopefully with MU-MIMO support) and Bluetooth.
Now we’re really into wild speculation territory, but experience tells us that Microsoft will charge similar price for each version of the Pro 5. There’s no reason to suspect there won’t be a similar range of models, from an entry-level Core i3, up to a wallet-bashing Core i7 with plenty of RAM and internal storage. The Surface Pro 4 starts at £749 and we don’t expect this to change much.
In the US, the Surface Pro 4 has had a second discount of $150. A price cut can often hint at a new model coming soon but this is another limited time offer which ends on 27 August. Strangely the offer is not available in the UK store.
See also: How to get a cheap Windows tablet that looks like a Surface .
When more rumours – or hard facts – emerge, we’ll update this article, so keep it bookmarked if you’re excited about the Surface Pro 5.
“The digital revolution is changing the traditional workplace environment, making us more reliant on our peers to share knowledge and work together; while more people are working remotely and need to be productive from anywhere. And, the workforce demographic is shifting towards millennials who are more collaborative, multi-task more, and use multiple devices,” said Microsoft in a blog post.
The Surface as a Service Program means that authorised distributors can offer Surface devices with a subscription model. This will help customers get the latest devices without large upgrade costs. It has started with ALSO, a leading Cloud Solution Provider in Europe.

© Source: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/tablets/surface-pro-5-release-date-price-specs-3640545/
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The Kaby Lake-U (KBL-U) series with 15W TDP CPUs was introduced along with the 4.5W Kaby Lake-Y ones in Q3 2016. The first set of products with Kaby Lake-U were ultrabooks. However, ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs were not long behind. There are already three vendors in the market with Kaby Lake UCFF PCs – ASRock (Beebox-S), GIGABYTE (BRIX), and MSI ( Cubi 2 ). MSI was the first to launch KBL-U UCFF PCs in the North American market under the Cubi 2 tag. This review focuses on the build and performance of the Cubi2-005B – the KBL-U UCFF PC from MSI featuring the Core i7-7500U.
Ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) PCs have become quite popular after Intel introduced the NUCs. They have become powerful enough to be the primary computing platform for many households. In addition to the Intel NUCs, many system vendors have come up with their own approach to UCFF PCs. These include ASRock (with the Beebox series), ECS (LIVA), GIGABYTE (BRIX), and MSI (Cubi) amongst others.
Kaby Lake-U, as per Intel’s claims, is fabricated on a much more mature 14nm process and brings about a 11% improvement in performance for the same power consumption. The GPU’s media engine has also been updated. On the whole, the performance improvements look good for UCFF PCs – particularly for those upgrading from the first or second-generation systems.
MSI’s take on the UCFF PC market with the Cubi an Cubi 2 is interesting from two perspectives – Rather than having separate SKUs for units with / without support for 2.5″ drives (like the GIGABYTE BRIX) or compromising on the thickness of the system to include 2.5″ drives (like the ASRock Beebox), MSI allows for interchangeable bottom plates. The default one doesn’t come with 2.5″ drive support and results in a system thickness of 3.7 cm (while the extension bay / thicker bottom plate version makes the system 4.9 cm thick). The extension bay is also included with the Cubi 2 package. The second aspect is that MSI is targeting the Cubi 2 towards effectiveness for the average consumer. While a M.2 NVMe SSD can do wonders in terms of performance, the reality is that the high-performance versions come in the M.2 2280 form-factor. Rather than sacrificing the size of the unit, MSI has decided only to have a M.2 2242 slot in the PC. Even though it is connected to the PCIe lanes from the PCH, we believe it is likely that consumers will be using M.2 2242 SATA SSDs in that slot, or, end up using a 2.5″ drive with the extension bay.
Similar to other UCFF PCs in the market, the Cubi 2 also comes in a version without memory or storage. The Cubi 2 can take up to two DDR4 SO-DIMMs (operating at 2133 MHz) and a 2.5″ drive and/or a M.2 2242 SATA / PCIe SSD. We completed the hardware build to result in the following specifications for our MSI Cubi2-005B review configuration.
The MSI Cubi2-005B kit doesn’t come with any pre-installed OS, but does come with a CD containing the drivers. In any case, we ended up installing the latest drivers downloaded off the component vendors’ product support page. In addition to the main unit, the other components of the package include a 65 W (19V @ 3.42A) adapter, a US power cord, a VESA mount (along with the necessary screws), a 2.5″ drive extension bay, SATA data and power cables, user’s manual and a quick-start guide.
The gallery below takes us around the various chassis features.
The PCIe lanes in our review configuration of the MSI Cubi2-005BUS are distributed as follows:
In the table below, we have an overview of the various systems that we are comparing the MSI Cubi2-005B against. Note that they may not belong to the same market segment. The relevant configuration details of the machines are provided so that readers have an understanding of why some benchmark numbers are skewed for or against the MSI Cubi2-005B when we come to those sections.

© Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10944/msi-cubi-2-kaby-lake-ucff-pc-review
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Along with a refresh of the ThinkPad lineup, Lenovo is also offering several new accessories to compliment the new laptops. There are two new docks, and two new displays, each offering at a minimum USB-C connectivity to simplify connections.
It’s great to see more Thunderbolt 3 docking solutions on the market. Thunderbolt 3 offers up to 40 Gbps full duplex, which gives a lot more options for IO than ever before. It can natively support two DisplayPort 1.2 streams, for up to two UHD displays at 60 Hz each, and because it’s done over USB-C, it can leverage the 100 Watts of power delivery from that port.
Since the ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 dock is meant for business uers, some of the port selections may seem odd, but are still required by many organizations. The Thunderbolt 3 dock offers two DisplayPort ports, HDMI, VGA, five USB 3.0 ports with one of these always powered, Gigabit Ethernet, headset jack, and a Thunderbolt 3 port over USB-C, meaning you won’t lose your USB-C port when docking with this.
The dock ships with a 135-Watt AC Adapter, which provides up to 65W of power to the laptop, and the remainder for powering the accessories. There is also a power button on the dock to control the ThinkPad power state when docked, which is nice since the laptop could easily be closed when docked.
As far as display outputs, this dock will drive up to three UHD displays, but in that scenario only one will be at 60 Hz, since both of the DisplayPort outputs are from a single DP 1.2 stream. The third display would be driven off the Thunderbolt 3 output. It can drive two UHD displays at 60 Hz though, which is a much more likely scenario anyway.
The Gigabit Ethernet port also supports PXE boot and Wake-On-LAN for select ThinkPad systems.
The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock will be available in February for $279.99.
If your laptop has USB-C Gen 2, but not Thunderbolt 3, then this dock offers a subset of the Thunderbolt 3 versions features, due to the more limited bandwidth of USB 3.1 Gen 2. It still offers two DisplayPort outputs, along with VGA, and 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB Type-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a headset jack. This dock ships with a 90-Watt AC Adapter, offering up to 60W of power to charge the laptop.
The display options are much more limited than the Thunderbolt 3 option due to the limited bandwidth. A single UHD display can be driven but only at 30 Hz, or dual 1920×1080 displays at 60 Hz.
The Gigabit Ethernet port still offers PXE boot and Wake-On-LAN support for select ThinkPad systems.
The ThinkPad USB-C Dock will be available in January for $199.99.
Lenovo is also launching two new ThinkVision displays, which offer the same features in either a 23.8-inch or 27-inch model. These thin bezel IPS displays both offer QHD (2560×1440) resolution and factory-calibrated sRGB color gamut. Whether this means per-panel or per-batch is unknown, but it’s good to see a focus on improved color accuracy rather than just quoting gamut coverage values.
Both displays offer two HDMI inputs, DisplayPort input, DisplayPort output for daisychaining, and a USB-C offering for a single cable connection. There are also five USB 3.0 ports, with four down and one up, with the USB now on the edge of the display for easier access.
The stand features adjustable height, tilt, swivel, and pivot of plus or minus 90° and there is a ThinkCenter TINY desktop connector as well.
With the USB-C option, and four USB 3.0 ports, the display could be easily used as a single cable docking solution, and the display will offer up to 45W of power delivery to charge a laptop.
Both of these displays will be available in March 2017, with the P24h priced at $259 and the P27h priced at $329.
Source: Lenovo

© Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10939/lenovo-launches-new-thinkpad-accessories-docking-and-displays
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While the PC market has been contracting somewhat in recent years, there is still one line where buyers need more and more performance, and that is gaming. Even looking at just 1920×1080 as a resolution, even as recently as last year’s GTX 980M would not always run games at that resolution at a solid 60 frames per second.
With the launch of NVIDIA’s Pascal for notebooks, that has changed, and Lenovo is announcing today a new sub-brand dedicated to gaming. Previously, their gaming laptops were under their Ideapad lineup, which is the same as most of their consumer lineup, but with new branding of Legion, Lenovo is looking to move into this lucrative market. With a true gaming brand, they want to have the same community engagement that other companies have created around their own gaming brand, and it’s a smart idea.
Lenovo Legion Y720
To launch the Legion brand, Lenovo is announcing two new laptops in the Lenovo Legion Y520 and Y720. This is certainly not Lenovo’s first foray into gaming laptops, and the new models are a spiritual successor to laptops like the IdeaPad Y700 that we reviewed last year. The Y700 had a good design, but a sub-par display and a cramped display, and it’s interesting to see how quickly Lenovo has at least addressed the keyboard – the display may be better, but it will have to wait for proper testing to see.
Lenovo Legion Y720
Lenovo has taken a very interesting approach to fit a full keyboard plus number pad into the new Legion laptops. Where most laptops, including the Y700 from last year, end up compressing the keys into too small a space, Lenovo has shifted the number pad up, creating a nice spot for the dedicated full sized arrow keys. The Zero key is still half size, but that’s not very uncommon on a notebook. It’s a smart design, and on the Y520 it continues with the red backlighting they have previously established on the Y lineup, and they’ve also added some extra lighting around the trackpad for a nice touch. The Y720 offers an optional multi-color zoned keyboard as well. The keys feature 1.7 mm of travel as well.
Both the Y520 and Y720 are 15.6-inch models, and the higher model number is a reflection of the higher performance parts in the new shell. Both models feature the 7 th generation (Kaby Lake) Intel Core i7 processor, with the Y720 offering up to the i7-7700HQ quad-core model. Both offer two SODIMM slots, with up to 16 GB of RAM available from Lenovo, and more if you want to buy your own DDR4. They also both feature PCIe SSD based boot storage, as well as mechanical HDD options for bulk storage, and I would imagine the lowest end models may forgo the SSD option to save cost.
The big difference is really the GPU option, with the Y520 offering up to a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. The 1050 Ti has not been formally announced for notebooks as of the time of writing, but expect it to fall in-line with the other Pascal parts as far as the notebook performance is concerned, where it’s a bit slower than the desktop counterpart, but close enough that NVIDIA has stopped branding them separately. The Y720 offers the more powerful GTX 1060.
Lenovo Legion Y520
On the display side, the lower cost Y520 offers just a 1920×1080 display, but the Y720 offers a choice of either that or a 3840×2160 panel. The GTX 1060 is not going to be enough GPU for gaming at that resolution, especially with maximum settings, but it should be nice for lower demand games and office work.
As for audio, both have 2x2W speakers, but the Y720 adds a 3W subwoofer and is the first ever Dolby Atmos PC according to Lenovo.
On the battery side, the Y520 has just a 45 Wh battery, which is very small for a gaming notebook, and the Y720 bumps that up to 60 Wh. With the extra battery and performance, the Y720 tips the scales at 7.05 lbs, up from the 5.3 lbs of the Y520. Both models are fairly thin, with the Y720 at 1.14-inches and the Y520 at 1.01-inches, which should help with portability. The Y720 will be available in April for a starting price of $1400, and the Y520 will be offered in February for just $900 starting price, which is a pretty low entry point for a gaming notebook.
The new Legion brand appears to be off to a good start with these new models, and we hope to get some hands-on time with them this week.
Source: Lenovo

© Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10955/lenovo-launches-legion-branded-gaming-laptops
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