Microsoft Surface Book 2 release date, specs rumors 2016: Surface Book revamp to be announced at special Microsoft event this October

There is no official word yet from Microsoft regarding the plans of releasing the next iteration of Surface Book this year. In spite of this, several rumors have kept the internet abuzz over the past several months regarding the development of Surface Book 2. As of the meantime, the rumors are rife that the Redmon-based tech giant will be having a huge surprise for the public later this year. The month of October may be the period to watch out for with regards to Microsoft's big device reveal.

As reported by Tech Radar, there is a good chance that the Surface Book 2 will appear within the last months of 2016. This is due to the report that Microsoft has purposely delayed the development of the Windows 10 Redstone 2 update to proceed with their hardware launch this year. This is supposed to be the second major update of the company's current operating system (OS), but for now, the release of the Redstone 2 update was pushed back to early 2017.

With this, Microsoft can now focus with the unveiling of their new Surface devices. Together with the Surface Book 2, the public may also get to see the Surface Pro 5, the all-new Surface Phone, and the all-in-one Surface PC.

On the other hand, it was reported that the Surface Book 2 will be using Intel's next generation of processors. The slated successor of the powerful Intel Skylake chipset, the 14-nm Kaby Lake processor, is expected to appear during the last quarter of 2016. Considering the time duration in incorporating the new Intel chipset with the Surface Book 2, it might take until 2017's first quarter to release the device to the market.

According to WCCF Tech, the Kaby Lake will boast 15W TDP or thermal design power, which is enough to further improve the current performance of the Surface Book. The online publication mentioned that with the anticipated shipping of Intel Kaby Lake chipsets later this year, the Surface Book 2 might be ready for unveiling this October.

The Surface Book 2 is expected to boast several new features and outshine the first Surface Book iteration released last year. The current Surface Book has the sixth generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor with NVIDIA GeForce GPU, with 1 GB GDDR5 memory. It boasts 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB SSD storage variants. It is also sporting a 13.5-inch PixelSense display with 3000 x 2000 maximum screen resolution.