Enlarge / Microsoft is streaming a Surface-focused hardware event on September 22. (credit: Microsoft)

Windows 11 is coming out on October 5, but it's not the only thing Microsoft has in store this fall. The company will be livestreaming an event at 11 am Eastern on September 22 , where it promises to "talk about devices and Windows 11." Microsoft wasn't specific about what kinds of devices it plans to reveal, but the looping video on the event site is of a Surface tablet, so it's not hard to guess. (Before you get too excited, it looks like a Surface Pro X , not a preview of some unannounced product.)

Without more specifics on the kinds of hardware Microsoft intends to focus on, all we can do is speculate. Current rumors suggest that the Surface Duo 2 Android phone or the aging Surface Book 3 are likely candidates, but there are newer processors available that would be suitable for everything from the Surface Pro to the Surface Studio , so refreshes for pretty much everything could be on the table (the Intel version of the Surface Pro is way overdue for a hardware redesign, but we'd at least like to see the 11th-generation Intel Core CPUs from the Surface Pro 7+ come to a Surface Pro device that regular people can easily buy).

The event will be remote and livestreamed from Microsoft's website, as it was for its Windows 11 event a couple of months ago. This has become the norm for tech product announcements in the pandemic era, including Apple's and Google's, but the Windows 11 livestream was a lot less reliable than Apple's or Google's typically are; hopefully Microsoft has smoothed out its technical wrinkles in the intervening months.

Enlarge / The Surface Neo failed to launch in 2020—this year, it looks like its operating system will share that fate. (credit: Microsoft)

At its fall 2019 Surface event, Microsoft announced that Windows 10X—a new consumer Windows distribution—would power a line of dual-screened tablet devices in 2020. But the Surface Neo never arrived, and in May 2020, Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay retargeted Windows 10X to "single screen experiences."

What was Windows 10X?

Microsoft's original plan for the Windows variant was to "enable unique experiences on multi-posture dual-screen PCs." This meant powering an entirely new class of devices—a hinged pair of touchscreens, which seemed to be trying to bridge the divide between tablet and notebook. In addition to Microsoft's own Surface Neo, the company's hardware partners—including Dell, Lenovo, and HP—were supposed to manufacture devices to the new specification.

But Microsoft nixed the Neo last year, and the talk of partner-manufactured 10X devices died along with it. The company's new chief product officer, Panos Panay, declared that Microsoft "need[s] to focus on meeting customers where they are now"—which meant focusing on single-screen devices and interfaces again.

Enlarge / Microsoft has so far neither confirmed nor denied Bloomberg's claims regarding in-house CPU designs. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Grid Engine )

This afternoon, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is in the process of developing its own ARM CPU designs, following in the footsteps of Apple's M1 mobile CPU and Amazon's Graviton datacenter CPU.

Bloomberg cites off-record conversations with Microsoft employees who didn't want to be named. These sources said that Microsoft is currently developing an ARM processor for datacenter use and exploring the possibility of another for its Surface line of mobile PCs.

Bloomberg's sources paint the datacenter part as "more likely" and a Surface part as "possible." This seems plausible, given that Microsoft's chip design unit reports to the Azure cloud VP, with no direct reporting ties to the Surface division. Microsoft declined to comment on any specific plans, saying only that it "[continues] to invest in our own capabilities in areas like design, manufacturing and tools, while also fostering and strengthening partnerships with a wide range of chip providers."

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has just announced its newest addition to the growing Surface family, the Surface Laptop Go , alongside an updated Surface Pro X . The Laptop Go aims to bring affordable Windows computing to stylish, premium hardware in the mid-range laptop segment, starting from $549. The LTE-enabled Pro X, on the other hand, starts at $999 and is more of a refresh, specifically on the top-tier models of the ultra-portable, always-connected two-in-one PC.

There’s a lot to love about the Surface Pro X, but while an LTE-connected computer is starting to feel like something of a bygone era, given current mobility trends, the Surface Laptop Go may be debuting at just the right time. As Panos Panay, chief product officer of Microsoft points out, Microsoft’s goal of a PC for every member of a household is becoming more necessary than ever. And making them affordable is a good idea.

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  The Surface Laptop Go comes in a new color, Sandstone. [credit: Microsoft ]

At the $549 price, the Surface Laptop Go comes with an i5 10 ^th -Gen Intel processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC storage. It also promises up to 13 hours of use, with fast charging that can juice up the laptop from zero to 80 percent in little over an hour. These are highly competitive specs to the similarly named Pixelbook Go from Google, which costs $100 more and packs an m3 processor with 8GB RAM, 64GB SSD storage, and up to 12 hours use in its base model. Of course, the Pixelbook is more limited within its Chrome OS versus Windows 10 Home in S mode, which comes loaded (and can easily be upgraded to full Windows 10 Home for free) on the Surface Laptop Go.