Microsoft's stellar Surface Laptop is overdue for a refresh, and we just got some pretty concrete evidence that a new model is coming soon.
An unreleased Surface Laptop 8th Edition with an Intel Panther Lake processor and a 13.8-inch display appeared in two Geekbench 6 listings earlier this week. The listings, which were viewed by Mashable and captured in screenshots by Notebookcheck, were removed by Thursday morning.
Primate Labs' Geekbench 6 is a popular benchmark for measuring devices' CPU performance. (We run it on every laptop we review.) Geekbench 6 results are automatically uploaded to a public online database unless the user enters a pair license key. Presumably, someone at Microsoft or Intel forgot to do so before benchmarking the device in question.
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A cached Google search result still shows one of the laptop's Geekbench 6 listings. Credit: Screenshot via Google
The laptop's Geekbench 6 results showed that it runs on a high-end Intel Core Ultra X7 368H chip with Arc B390 graphics and 32GB of RAM, per Notebookcheck's screenshots. It scores on par with other newer Windows laptops powered by the slightly lesser Core Ultra X7 358H chip, and with the M5 MacBook Air (in multi-core scenarios).
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The laptop's full name is "Microsoft Corporation Surface Laptop for Business 13.8in 8th Ed Intel," indicating that Microsoft will continue to earmark Intel configurations for business customers. The company originally launched its current Surface Laptop 7 with Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processors in May 2024; pricier enterprise models with Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips arrived in January 2025.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 came in two sizes and four colors: platinum, sapphire, dune, and black. Credit: Microsoft
That schedule might be flipped for the next generation. Earlier this month, Windows Central reported that Microsoft is planning on releasing Intel-based Surface Laptops and Surface Pros this spring. Snapdragon X2 variants for consumers will likely follow later in the summer, possibly due to supply shortages of those chips.
The new Surface Laptop will reportedly feature a similar design, new colors, improved haptics, and an optional OLED display, per Windows Central.
Microsoft hasn't confirmed any new Surface PCs yet, though it announced significant price hikes for its current-gen devices earlier this month, citing "recent increases in memory and component costs." Mashable reached out to the company for comment on this week's Geekbench 6 leak, and we'll update this story if we hear back.