Microsoft supposedly intends to enhance the computational specs inside the Surface Hub 2, providing improved performance to its meeting room screen. As per Windows Central‘s Zac Bowden, Microsoft plans to produce a new compute cartridge dubbed Upward, which is effectively the core of the Surface Hub 2, and can be used to replace the current one while maintaining the same display.
Intel Iris Xe graphics and 11th-generation Intel Core processors are rumored to be within the new compute cartridge. This is a rather substantial update, considering the older model is still using 8th-gen Intel processors, which are pretty ancient at this point. They’re also older than Intel’s latest advancements in graphics performance, so it will see a large boost, too. While 12th-generation processors are commonplace at this point, 13th-generation ones have only recently begun appearing on store shelves, so some customers may have wished for an upgrade.
The article also states that Microsoft would advertise the computing cartridge under the moniker Surface Hub 2X, which was previously announced for a different Surface Hub 2 variant than the Surface Hub 2S we ended up receiving. This device would have come preinstalled with a special version of Windows that allowed for things like tiling.
This is the first time Microsoft is issuing a performance upgrade for the Surface Hub 2, although the gadget was designed with upgradeability in mind. With only one screw holding it to the Surface Hub 2 device, the compute cartridge may be easily removed and replaced.
Since the Surface Hub 2 already features a very high-resolution and very pricey display, this makes perfect sense. Both a 50-inch 4K variant and an 85-inch panel with the same resolution but a different aspect ratio are available. Rather than spending a lot of money on a new display, clients can save money by just upgrading the computing cartridge. Similarly, Microsoft recently announced a new Smart Camera for the Surface Hub 2, adding new AI functions for meetings to the display.
