Developing new hardware requires a different mindset than software. With software, you can push out a new build with a few clicks of the mouse but with hardware, you need to build a physical product to test the features and new ideas.

During the past couple of weeks, we have seen a couple early Surface prototypes being posted to social media and this morning, Ralf Groene posted an early prototype of the Surface Book. If you are interested in the backstory of how the company built the billion-dollar brand, I wrote a book detailing the history.

As you might expect, the device has a face only a creator could love; it has a 9-volt battery stuck into where the display should be located. That being said, this prototype was used to test the muscle wire detach mechanism for the Surface Book, according to Groene.

And looking at the device, you can certainly see the genesis of the Surface Book starting to show its final iteration even if this piece of hardware lacks many of the PC components needed for an actual laptop.

With the Surface Book 2 now over a year old, I fully expect that a Surface Book 3 will be announced later this year. The question that everyone is wondering if it will have a new form-factor or if the team will simply update the silicon inside as they did with the second revision.

Tagged with Prototype, Surface, Surface Book