Following along with Autumn’s usual tech madness, Microsoft held their first Windows 10 Device event. It was all hardware right from the get go and Microsoft quickly announced two new windows 10 flagship phones, the Lumia 950 and the 950 XL, two true premium devices.
The 950 sports a 5.2” Quad HD Amoled Display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, thats a 1.8ghz Hexa-core processor. On the back is what promises to be a fantastic camera, 20mp paired with Carl Zeiss optics and a triple LED Flash (hopefully) allowing for natural skin tones even in the darkest situations. All of this is will be kept going by a 3000 mAh with quick charge VIA a USB-C connection. The 950 XL is a very similar device with a few important spec bumps, a 5.7” screen, Snapdragon 810 and a 3340 mAh battery to name a few. The stand out feature here is liquid cooling (!?) which could be huge. These phones start at $549 and $649 respectively
On the other end of the scale is the all new Lumia 550, the first true Windows 10 budget device. A 5 inch display dominates the face of the phone, powered by a 1.2ghz Snapdragon 210, although the storage only starts at 8gb, there is support for microSD up to 200gb. A smaller but still completely usable 2100 mAh battery should keep you going. The 550 starts at just $139.
Stuck between computers and phones, is the microsoft display dock, which enables Microsoft Continuum, or the ability to turn your windows 10 phone into an (almost) fully fledged desktop experience. Plugging in via USB-C gives you access to HDMI and USB for a display and keyboard/mouse. Right now however, the desktop experience is pretty bare bones, no side by side apps, or even windowed apps for that matter. But while plugged into the display, you can still use your phone to its full potential to text, call etc. and most importantly, it makes me want a windows phone, for the first time.
On the less portable side of things (but still quite travel friendly) Microsoft announced some pretty killer new devices. The new Surface Pro 4 shouldn’t surprise anyone, but that doesn’t make it any less of an incredible product. In the same body as last year, Microsoft managed to fit a slightly larger screen with PixelSense promising high contrast and low glare. A new generation of processor at each level (Core m3, i5 and i7) will keep the Tablet/Laptop super hybrid running smoothly, at the top end, you can now go up to a crazy 16gb of RAM for some serious power. As usual, the surface comes with the Surface Pen for note taking, sketching etc. new this year is an eraser on the end of the pen which allows for the deletion of lines without the need of pressing any buttons.
Alongside the tablet-laptop hybrid is, well, a more laptop oriented tablet-laptop hybrid. The all new Surfacebook is the professional friendly Macbook Pro competitor that consumers have been waiting for. Starting at $1500 (CAD) it definitely is a high end laptop, a huge feature here is support and inclusion of the Surface Pen, with a detachable screen, this turns into a very attractive hybrid.
I know this has been quite a long one, so I’ll leave a couple smaller things out for now, but look for a future post on some more microsoft related things.