Expected in May, the imminent launch of Microsoft’s Surface Book 3 is one step closer as it’s now passed through the FCC. Spotted by Windows Latest, the filing once again shows something only called Portable Computing Device, just like when the Surface Go 2 was certified by the FCC.
Other than that, there’s not much to tell here. This is just another milestone that demonstrates that Microsoft is close to announcing the product.
As for what the Surface Book 3 will actually be, there are still a lot of questions. We’re expecting to see Intel’s 10th-generation ‘Comet Lake’ CPUs, along with newer Nvidia GeForce GTX 16xx graphics. According to a few reports, there will be Quadro options as well. But other than the internals, not much is known about if or how the design will change.
The Surface Book has historically been criticized for its hinge gap and its poor weight balance. Both of these are due to its unique design, with a detachable display. Other than the GPU and one of the two batteries, all of the internals are stored in the screen so it can work when it’s detached. Naturally, this results in a heavier tablet portion.
Third-generation Surface products are typically where the product matures though, and typically where kinks are worked out. We’ve seen this in the Surface Pro 3, Surface 3, and most recently, the Surface Laptop 3. Hopefully, the Surface Book 3 will follow suit.