Microsoft Surface Pro 5 to be released only when it can bring meaningful changes

Launched in October 2015, the Surface Pro 4 (pictured above) will soon be 2 years old, so it's about time for Microsoft to unveil a Surface Pro 5, right? Well, maybe not.

Panos Panay, Vice President of Devices at Microsoft, recently talked to Cnet about the future of the Surface line, mentioning that "there's no such thing as a Pro 5." This, however, doesn't mean that there won't be a Surface Pro 5 sometime in the future.

Panay said that a fifth-generation Surface Pro would only be released when it can bring "meaningful" changes - which may not necessarily mean "hardware changes" (though we did hear that the next Surface Pro would feature a new, speedier processor). Reportedly, Microsoft is planning to bring "an experiential change that makes a huge difference in product line" - that's what the Surface Pro 5 should be about.

But when should we expect to see a fifth-gen Surface Pro? Panos Panay won't say, so we don't really know if it's going to happen this year. However, Microsoft is hosting a Surface event later this month, on May 23, so maybe we'll hear more about this on that day.

Meanwhile, the Surface Pro 4 certainly remains a great convertible tablet, especially if we're talking about the higher-end models with Intel Core i7 processors. It's just that the Pro 4 will soon need a successor - here's hoping Microsoft is working on that, despite Panay's "there's no such thing as a Pro 5" affirmation.

source: Cnet