The much-anticipated next Surface Pro lineup will get a number of major upgrades and redesign, and according to speculations, the new Microsoft slate hybrid will both be task- and gaming-oriented.

According to Gamenguide, if Microsoft will indeed launch the Surface Pro 5 with the supposed specs intact, the next-gen slate will offer top-tier performance and speed levels that are powerful enough to manage even the most performance-intensive games, which will appeal to the gaming audience. Reportedly, one noted improvement for the Surface pro 5 is its better power management and battery capacity, giving the new slate a much better usage life. This is welcome improvement for Surface Pro fans, since most of the negative feedback for the previous lineup iterations have to do with the mediocre battery life.

Meanwhile, aside from longer usage, the Surface Pro 5 is also touted to be a graphics-focused slate. Speculations suggest that Microsoft will be pairing a seventh-gen Kaby Lake processor with AMD graphics, possibly with the new Polaris architecture. Should this be the case, then the Surface Pro 5 will go head-to-head with the new Apple workstations like the MacBook Pro, which is rumored to carry AMD GPUs.

Other purported specs for the next-gen Microsoft slate include a new display tech that will feature Ultra HD resolution with 4K quality; a tweaked Surface Pen; and for the top-tier model, up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB onboard storage.

As to when can fans expect the Surface Pro 5, rumor has it that Microsoft is thinking of unveiling the new Surface lineups by October, together with the announcements for the Windows 10 major updates. Although Microsoft has yet to confirm it, a late 2016 introduction is highly possible, since Microsoft will most likely release its new lineups at the same time as Apple's rumored MacBooks launch.