- Next-gen Surface devices rumored to have been delayed by a month
- Another suggestion is that “the prices will probably be so bad” that no one will be able to afford them.
- Large price increases on existing Surface devices have already raised concerns that the new hardware will be really expensive.
Since the recent leak about Microsoft’s next-generation Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, there has been concern that the devices are too expensive, and a new rumor will be of little comfort to those laboring under that fear.
It should be clear that the hardware itself remains a rumor, but another well-known leaker believes that these updates are coming, but they have apparently been slightly delayed and could be very expensive.
Notebookcheck.net saw Roland Quandt posting on Bluesky that: “It looks like the Surface was delayed about a month. I wonder why. It shouldn’t matter, since the prices will probably be so bad that no one will be able to afford those things anyway…”
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According to the latest rumor about these Surface devices, the hardware with Intel CPUs inside was expected to arrive in the US in the spring, followed by the Snapdragon (Arm) models in the summer (starting in June). So, with May being the last month of spring and what appears to be the expected launch month at the moment, the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop will now arrive in June. And that would line up with a reveal at Microsoft Build 2026, earlier that month.
This is all in theory, of course, as is the pricing information, so sprinkle the seasoning liberally.
Analysis: increasingly sinister
A response to Quandt’s post on Bluesky asks if this means Microsoft is ready to release the Arm and Intel variants of these devices at the same time. That could be the case, and Quandt recognizes it, although he doesn’t know it.
Whatever you heard then are presumably more vague whispers about the release schedule, and nothing concrete about how the timing between the Arm and Intel versions might fall.
Prices expected to be “so bad” that no one can afford the new Surface Laptop or Pro sounds ominous, to say the least. Unfortunately, expensive next-gen devices make sense given what happened recently with current-gen models.
Microsoft has just significantly increased prices on the existing Surface range, with some versions going up to $500 in the US. And while I wouldn’t trust retailers’ early pricing (because it’s generally guesswork), the hints we’ve picked up from European websites suggest that the price tags will really matter.
If true, it would be a shame, as Surface products themselves tend to be good, but the price could greatly ruin the appeal if they end up being too expensive. Especially if prices are taken to the extreme, so MacBooks end up looking relatively affordable.
These rumors – and the very real price increases for existing Surface products – underscore how Microsoft is struggling with the RAM crisis and, what I can only assume, weakness in its hardware supply chain. The rumored delay in the launch of the new Surface Laptop and Pro would also make sense in that sense.
Apple seems much more robust in this regard, especially considering that it has managed to successfully launch a new budget laptop in this climate, the MacBook Neo.
It’s no secret that Apple has more hardware clout than Microsoft, but the extent to which the latter appears to be faltering now is perhaps worrying. Microsoft may argue that its software is much more important than the hardware anyway – and of course it is – and the focus is naturally on that big push to fix Windows 11, but it’s not a good idea if the company’s laptop range is starting to fall apart, which seems to be the suggestion of the rumours.
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