To take on Apple’s MacBook 2016 line-up, Microsoft will reportedly announce the future generation of Surface Book as early as June. The Surface Book 2 may also be accompanied by the Surface Pro 5, according to unofficial reports.

The ongoing promotional sale of the Microsoft Surface Book further substantiates prevailing rumours. The Redmond giant has slashed the price of all variants of the notebook running Core i5 processor by US$150 (AU$200).

The Microsoft Store is now selling 128 GB Surface Books with 8GB of RAM at US$1349 (AU$1800), down from its original price of US$1499 (AU$2000).

With the same Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, the Surface Book with 256GB of internal storage is currently priced at US$1549 (AU$2067). The device was formerly listed with a price tag of US$1699 (AU$2267).

Lastly, the 256GB model with a dedicated GPU is listed at US$1749 (AU$2334) as compared to its normal price of US$1899 (AU$2534).

The Microsoft Surface Book promotional sale is valid till May 14. The deal is only true for models running on Intel Core i5 processor.

The Microsoft Surface Book 2 is expected to come with a 13.5-inch display screen supporting 4K resolution. Rumours are rife that the Redmond-based tech giant will equip the Surface Book 2 with Intel’s 7th generation of Kaby Lake processor, instead of Skylake chipset which powers its predecessor.

However, there are contradictory speculations the Surface Book 2 will come along with with the Windows 10 Redstone 2 update. A report by ZDNet indicated that Intel will bring its new Kaby Lake processors by the end of 2016, which hints at a delayed release date of Microsoft Surface Book 2.

Related: Microsoft Surface Pro 5: Specs, features of upcoming laptop-tablet hybrid in various reports

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