Microsoft’s prototype Surface Laptop leaks with Intel’s Lunar Lake chips inside

Microsoft launched its Surface Laptop 7 earlier this year without Intel chips, in a bid to promote Windows on Arm and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips. Now, it looks like a Surface Laptop might arrive next year with Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chips.

A Surface Laptop prototype has appeared in a since-deleted listing on Chinese second-hand marketplace Goofish, complete with what looks like Intel’s Core Ultra 7 268V processor inside. Windows Central spotted the listing, but it’s not clear if this will simply be a Surface Laptop 7 variant or a Surface Laptop 8.

Either way, the prototype laptop is clearly marked as such with a giant “prototype - not for sale” etching at the bottom of the device. While it’s easy to fake the CPU listing inside Windows, the appearance of the prototype label confirms this is likely a genuine unreleased laptop from Microsoft. It’s rare for such devices to leak, let alone be sold online.

If Microsoft is considering Lunar Lake chips for its Surface Laptop line, it would ensure there’s an Intel option for those who want Copilot Plus PC features. The Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 both shipped with Intel’s Meteor Lake processors earlier this year, but they didn’t include an NPU powerful enough for Microsoft’s Copilot Plus features. They were instead targeted at businesses, and lacked the refreshed designs found on the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7.

The listing of this prototype Surface Laptop notes that the unannounced device should go on sale at some point in 2025, which could point to a CES 2025 announcement if Microsoft is readying this for consumers. The other possibility is Microsoft once again limiting Intel-based Surface devices to commercial customers.

We’ve asked Microsoft to comment on this leaked prototype, but the company didn’t respond in time for publication.