Surface Pro 5 Release Date Specs May Not Feature Kaby Lake CPU, Tablet Rumors Suggest

Surface Pro 5 discussions are heating up as we enter the early months of spring, and the latest rumor is shockingly tied to a recent trailer for Alien: Covenant. Is this our first glimpse at the tablet, and why are we seeing logos for AMD instead of Intel?

Despite the “Meet Walter” trailer debuting about two weeks ago, the discussion this week focuses on the tech featured in the ad. Around the 45-second mark we see one character holding a tablet that looks fairly similar to a Surface device. Later on, the Walter Android is injected with an AMD chip that makes the creature come to life. As is to be expected, the film’s production company at 20th Century Fox revealed that all tech in Covenant is powered by AMD Ryzen and Radeon.

Read: Surface Pro 5 Could Release In Late Spring With New Windows 10 Update

Is this a confirmation that the Surface Pro 5 will use Ryzen instead of Kaby Lake like popularly assumed ? There’s a possible connection here, but the evidence is far from conclusive in our eyes. Most obviously, we don’t get a close enough look at the tablet to discern if it's a Surface. Mobile designs have a tendency to look familiar across manufacturers, so it’s hard to tell who’s making what from a distance.

On the other hand, product placement of new tech in high-budget movies is very common. Sony famously leverages the latest James Bond films to subtly advertise new Xperia phones. That’s what’s happening in this case, but there’s no sign of Microsoft being involved.

Anecdotally, AMD and Microsoft do have a fairly close relationship, though. The two companies flaunt DirectX 12 graphics partnerships for Windows 10, and AMD frequently collaborates with Redmond on various Visual Studios APIs. An AMD chip is also the linchpin of the Xbox One games console. These ties were so clear that there was once speculation Microsoft might purchase all of AMD outright. That hasn’t happened yet, but a friendship remains.

Is that closeness enough to stifle the established trend tying Intel chips to every Surface ever made? We have our doubts, but the discovery is interesting nonetheless. One of the primary theories for the Surface Pro 5’s delay into 2017 was to make sure the tablets could feature Kaby Lake CPUs. If this sighting is true, those prior assumptions were wrong.

The Surface Pro 5 has not been officially announced by Microsoft.

Do you think the Surface Pro 5 spec will feature Kaby Lake? Is this rumored trailer sighting a bunch of noise? Tell us in the comments section!