Microsoft is prepping a new Surface Pro 6 variant for heavy multitaskers on a budget

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After Microsoft waited almost two years to upgrade the 2015-released Surface Pro 4 and another 16 months to revise the 2017 generation of the popular 2-in-1 tablet, it's hard to predict when a Surface Pro 7 might see daylight. That could happen in just a few months or much further down the line, but thanks to the always reliable Roland Quandt and the German publication WinFuture, we know exactly when to expect an additional Surface Pro 6 configuration to go on sale in North America.

Technically, Best Buy Canada appears to have inadvertently confirmed the rollout date of a new Surface Book 2 model (with a 15-inch screen), but it's probably safe to expect the freshly unearthed Surface Pro 6 variant in authorized stores on June 18 as well.

While nothing about the exterior design of the ultra-powerful and productive 12.3-inch Windows 10 machine is likely to change, you can count on a major under-the-hood enhancement to radically boost the user experience on a "mid-range" Surface Pro 6 model. We're talking a full 16 gigs of RAM tipped to be paired with an Intel Core i5 processor. Obviously, that state-of-the-art memory count is already available, but only in combination with an equally state-of-the-art Core i7 chip starting at a prohibitive recommended price of $1,899.

This Core i5/16GB RAM/256GB SSD configuration, meanwhile, is expected to cost "only" $1,399 in the US. That's hardly what we'd call affordable, but it's also not shocking given a Surface Pro 6 with Intel Core i5 inside, 256 gigs of solid-state storage, and 8 gigs of random-access memory currently sets you back $1,199. Besides, knowing Microsoft, there's a good chance some big discounts will be offered shortly after the Surface Pro 6 lineup is expanded.