Microsoft is taking the wraps off the next-gen Surface Hub, the Surface Hub 2. The company today unveiled the new generation of its interactive whiteboard, available next year.

Redmond isn’t revealing many technical details about the new Surface Hub 2 as of yet, but the essential details are being disclosed today — including our first ever look at the device. Microsoft’s new Surface Hub 2’s design is a huge leap forward from the first-gen Surface Hub, and it looks absolutely beautiful.

Coming in at 50.5-inch with a 4K+ display, the new Surface Hub 2 boasts a beautiful design with tiny bezels that offer an immersive collaboration experience. It comes with 4K cameras, integrated speakers, and far-field mic arrays for a premium video conferencing experience, too. The device’s best feature, however, is screen rotation. Yes.

And it’s not just regular screen rotation. Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2 features Dynamic Rotation, which lets users rotate the device to portrait or landscape for the best view and usability, and the rotating experience is simply beautiful. Take a look:

Microsoft’s also introducing a new “tiling” experience with the Surface Hub 2. Companies can line up four Surface Hub 2s together to get an incredibly beautiful experience across all the Surface Hub 2s. In fact, some of the built-in apps like Microsoft Whiteboard, PowerBI, PowerPoint, and video calling will make use of the tiling experience by using all the four Surface Hub 2s at the same time.

Windows 10 on the Surface Hub 2 is also getting a massive update from the looks of things. Microsoft isn’t officially detailing any of the software updates, but the Surface Hub 2’s introduction video shows off a big new software update for the next-gen Surface Hub. The new Surface Hub software will support multi-user sign in, include native Microsoft Teams integration, and more.

The updated software is also designed with Microsoft’s Fluent Design, so it already looks much better than the original Surface Hub’s software. Microsoft’s bringing Windows Timeline to the Surface Hub 2 software as well, so users will be able to easily access their files and apps from other devices instantly right from the home screen on the Surface Hub 2. Microsoft says it will bring as much Surface Hub 2 software functionality as is possible to the previous generation Hubs.

Microsoft isn’t sharing pricing and exact availability details for the new Surface Hub 2 just yet. The company will start testing the Surface Hub 2 with some of its commercial customers this year, and it will be generally available next year. Interested businesses and customers can find out more about the device here. We were told to expect more information about Surface Hub 2 in late summer/early fall. That sounds a lot like the Microsoft Ignite timeframe doesn’t it?

Tagged with Microsoft 365, Surface Hub, Surface Hub 2