An electronic Microsoft logo is seen at the Microsoft store in New York City, July 28, 2015.

An electronic Microsoft logo is seen at the Microsoft store in New York City, July 28, 2015. Reuters/Mike Sega

Microsoft had released the first generation Surface Book in October 2015. Now, the Redmond giant is rumoured to be working on its successor model to release it next month. Speculations indicate that Microsoft will be releasing Surface Book 2 to rival against the MacBook Pro 2016 that is also rumoured to launch in June.

The Surface Book from 2015 is powered by Intel Skylake chipset. However, the Surface Book 2 is expected to be powered by Intel Kaby lake i5 and i7 chips, The Next Trex reported.

The new chipsets that will be manufactured with 14 nm FinFet technology will deliver topnotch performance along with longer battery life. It is interesting to note that the rumour mill also claims that the Kaby Lake chipsets will be released later this year.

Last year’s Surface Book features a 13.5-inch display that supports 2000 x 3000 pixels resolution. Its successor model is also slated to feature same sized screen, but it will deliver 4K resolution.

The Surface Book 2 is also predicted to feature a USB Type-C port. Inclusion of this connectivity will let users take advantage of faster data transfer speeds. And also, it will allow users to connect an additional screen to the Surface Book 2.

Like last year’s model, the Surface Book 2 will be coming in multiple chipset variants that will carry different price tags. The starting model of Surface Book 2 is expected to cost less than $1,499.

The Apple MacBook Pro 2016 is heavily pegged to get unleashed at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2016 that will be held next month. As mentioned before, Microsoft may time the release of Surface Book 2 to rival against the MacBook Pro 2016.

The 13-inch and 15-inch models of MacBook Pro is expected to be powered by Intel Skylake chipsets and graphics from Nvidia and AMD. It is speculated that it may come with an innovative feature of touch-enabled keyboard. It is also expected to Thunderbolt 3 and multiple USB Type-C ports.