1000 days of wonder! Today is a major milestone for fans of Microsoft hardware. It marks 1000 days since the company unveiled the Surface Neo to the world.
And it’s still unreleased, 1000 days on.
The mythic device was made official alongside a slate of other hardware like the Surface Pro X and the Surface Duo. The venue was a special event that Microsoft hosted on October 2, 2019, to talk about its forthcoming hardware ambitions.
But while the other two products have shipped — with varying degrees of success — the one device that many believed was the most exciting is still nowhere in sight.
So, what happened?
A lot, actually.
The last we heard from Microsoft was that the device had been postponed alongside Windows 10X, the company’s new mobile-inspired operating system. Of course, this is simply another way to say that products are stuck in development hell.
In other words, both projects are pretty much dead, and Redmond has no active plans to bring them to market now or in the near future.
To add to the mystery, Microsoft never officially detailed the specs of the Surface Neo. We did, however, get little nuggets of information from people close to the matter who were testing the hardware. And together, these helped paint the picture.
Apparently, the Surface Neo had two 9-inch displays, each with a resolution of 1440 x 1928.
The entry-level model was supposed to have 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. However, there was no confirmation of support for LTE, though some of the test models packed this connectivity.
The device was powered by an Intel Core i5-L16G7, which is the same chip that did the business in the stylishly brilliant Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. Then again, the hybrid Lakefield processors were nothing to write home about in terms of performance.
Last we saw of the Surface Neo was in that Red Notice move.
However, sources inside Microsoft are clear that the device is dead in the water, and there are no plans to ship it or anything like it in the immediate future. That said, when it comes to Microsoft, plans can—and have previously—changed.
Maybe they will, for a dual-screen Surface.
