Microsoft's Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 could land as early as this month

The folks over at Windows Central are reporting that Microsoft is prepped to deliver the long-awaited hardware refreshes to its Surface Laptop and Pro lines as early as the end of this month.

According to the report, Microsoft will be roll out its new hardware offerings for 2024 in two waves with an initial announcement on March 21, 2024, followed by staggered release schedule of April for Intel-powered devices and a June period for ARM variants.

As a bit of a refresher, in late 2023, reports first surfaced of Microsoft’s plans to refresh the hardware design of its Surface Laptop line up alongside a major focus on improved CPU and NPU pairings from chip partners Qualcomm and Intel.

Both the Surface Laptop 6 and Surface Pro 10 are reportedly coming with Intel Core Ultra and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC variants as well as some updated hardware features that include anti-reflective OLED screens, brighter NIT counts, thinner bezel profiles, rounded industrial design, ultrawide front facing webcam, haptic trackpads, dedicated Copilot AI buttons on the keyboard, NFC-reader, an additional USB-C port, and AI-powered extras.

Among the reported AI-led features coming with NPU paired PCs are beefed up Windows Studio Effects for enhanced video and call conferencing, on-device Copilot suggestions and aid, improved battery management, as well as a new AI Explorer experience.

The folks over at Windows Central are reporting that AI Explorer “is the blockbuster AI experience that will separate AI PCs from non-AI PCs. It’s described as an “advanced Copilot” with a built-in history/timeline feature that turns everything you do on your computer into a searchable moment using natural language. It works across any app and allows the user to search for previously opened conversations, documents, webpages, and images.”

For those of us old enough to remember Windows 10 Timeline feature, it sounds like Microsoft is about to bring that back to be a bit more useful than simply showing a thumbnail of used in-box Windows apps.

Microsoft is also said to be rolling out the new AI features and services at a different time than shipping its new hardware. According to Microsoft’s own roadmap, the version of Windows with all the new AI goodies, Windows 11 version 24H2 Update, won’t land until the fall of 2024.

Microsoft will presumably have a sizzle reel of what the new AI features can do as it announces the hardware these experiences will run on, while also planning on an additional software-focused announcement sometime later this year.

Without an official word from Microsoft or formal invitations for the press available, it’s very plausible that the company follows through with a March and June release of its hardware, which isn’t unprecedented for Surface team.