Microsoft’s Surface devices can adopt modular designs in response to the challenge of Apple’s M1 MacBooks, according to a patent application.
Identified by Windows Latest, the process details how potential laptop-style Surface devices can include “interchangeable case panels,” in which the modular panels fit into the lid to provide updated features. An important example is the faster cellular data connectivity, a feature that is missing from the Apple M1 – an excellent SoC that propelled several MacBooks on our list of best laptops.
Microsoft Surface Pro X already has cellular connectivity, but it is also based on an earlier Qualcomm ARM chip that can cause compatibility issues with Windows software. A 4G or 5G module could provide always-on connectivity to a native Surface x86, without any of these compatibility issues.
An illustration in filling an in-store display for a modular Surface laptop also features several different modules, if packaged generically, so that the system can expand to include separate add-ons, such as extended battery modules.
However, before you start saving for your order, remember that a patent application does not necessarily mean a product that is in deep development, if Microsoft intends to continue with the concept. It is also unclear whether this modular functionality would be applied to one of the existing Surface devices or reserved for an entirely new one – the patent refers to a foldable laptop design, so it probably wouldn’t be the Surface Pro, and since the Surface A screen book needs to be removable; it would be difficult to find a suitable place for the modules to fit.
This leaves the Laptop Surface, although nothing we hear about the Laptop Surface 4 suggests any major revision other than the adoption of Intel’s Tiger Lake-U CPUs.
Still, Microsoft is hardly afraid of designs out there. It’s only been a few weeks since the launch of the Surface Duo, a flawed but beautifully thin dual-screen smartphone.