Microsoft unveiled the new Neo laptop.Microsoft on Wednesday officially recognized the existence of a two-screened foldable laptop, the Surface Neo.The product will be ready next holiday season, Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, said at an event in New York on Wednesday.Although Microsoft is arguably most well known for its software like Windows and Office, it’s been making hardware since 1980. In the most recent fiscal year devices produced less than 5% of Microsoft’s total revenue, at $6.1 billion, up about 19% from the same period one year earlier.Since 2012, Microsoft’s Surface brand — from the little Surface Go to the elaborate Surface Studio desktop — has inspired new types of computers from the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo. They haven’t become universal hits, though, in the same way that Apple’s iPhone has.The Surface Neo also has a touchscreen display above the keyboard.The device features a 360-degree hinge, an Intel chip and has a USB-C port. It will support the use of a stylus and a keyboard that folds over half of one of the displays. A virtual trackpad can also be displayed.Rumors about the two-screened device, known by the codename Centaurus, have been circulating since December. In May Microsoft reportedly showed employees a prototype of the product.Microsoft’s interest in this type of device goes back further, though. In 2017 people started discussing a folding device with the codename Andromeda that was said to be smaller than Centaurus. “After struggling to find a serious use case, and the fact that their previous mobile hardware had absorbed $10 billion …, the device went into the vault, for now,” Brad Sams wrote in his 2018 book “Beneath A Surface.”Microsoft unveiled the Surface Neo on Wednesday.
