Generally, you don’t see the first spy shots of a new device coming from the company itself, but Microsoft isn’t really following all that many of the rules with its Surface lineup of house-built Windows hardware. That’s why it makes a certain kind of sense that the first look at what could be a Surface Book 2 comes from none other than Microsoft’s own official Surface Instagram account, with the mostly innocuous tagline of “Your key to success” as the only official comment on the matter.
Spotted by Windows Central, the Surface account’s Instagram post from this weekend shows an all-black version of something that looks very much like a Surface Book keyboard, albeit with a different hinge. The Surface Book hinge created by Microsoft for the original was one of the highlights of its design, offering variable angle use with a rigidity approaching what you’d get out of a traditional notebook, but with the added benefit of being able to detach the screen and use it on its own, or flip it around for a tablet mode that still takes advantage of the components resident inside the base.
The image suggests that this new hinge may be a trimmed down version of the original, which could allow for less of a gap between Surface screen and Surface keyboard, and Windows Central suggests that is indeed the case based on separate info they’ve uncovered. The blog also says it can confirm the image in the Instagram post is indeed a Surface Book 2 prototype, taken from an internal sizzle real designed to promote some ideas for the Surface Book 2 within the company.
A teaser for a new Surface Book might suggest one is on the way soon, and there is talk of a potential Microsoft hardware event in October, but Windows Central believes next spring is still the earliest we’ll see any new devices go on sale, so don’t get too excited if you like what you see.
