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From Microsoft, HoloLens VR Dev Kit, New Phones, Continuum
Ars Technica and scads of other tech hardware sites are reporting that the big news so far from this morning's Microsoft product launch event in New York is that the company's Hololens development kit will begin shipping in the first quarter of next year, and at a price that puts the units out of the hands of typical consumers: $3000. At that level, developers are more likely to make the plunge, which Ars applauds.
The company also announced three new smartphones: two of them, the Lumia 950, 950XL, are worth designating "flagships," while the 550, notably, will sell for $139, putting it in the territory of cheap grey-market Android phones. More interesting than spec bumps, though, is Continuum for Windows, a Window 10 feature which made its official debut at the event. Continuum is one manifestation of the pocket-computer idea that others have had as well in various forms: it means that with an adapter, a phone can be used as the CPU and graphics engine when connected to a screen and keyboard: "The adapter features a Microsoft Display Dock, an HDMI and Display Port, plus 3 USB ports to provide productivity on the go and let you plug in additional peripherals, such as mice and keyboards. Other accessories can be connected too, Microsoft said."
Microsoft also demo'd the Surface 4. Its improved screen is 12.3" at 2160x1440, for a pixel density of 267 PPI. The new pro has a Skylake 6th-gen processor, which they say provides a 30% performance boost over the Surface Pro 3, and a 50% boost over the MacBook Air. The SP4 goes up to 1TB of storage, and up to 16GB of RAM. The Type Cover was improved as well — the touchpad is 40% larger and supports 5-point multi-touch, while the keys have better travel and pitch.
On top of this, Microsoft also unveiled the Surface Book laptop. Its defining feature is that you can unclip the 13.5" touchscreen and use it separately as a tablet. The keyboard dock has a dedicated GPU that will boost performance when attached. Microsoft is using a new type of hinge that bends and extends at multiple points, so you can also reattach the screen backward if you want to use it as a tablet while keeping the extra GPU power available. They claim a 12-hour battery life for the Surface Book.
The company also announced three new smartphones: two of them, the Lumia 950, 950XL, are worth designating "flagships," while the 550, notably, will sell for $139, putting it in the territory of cheap grey-market Android phones. More interesting than spec bumps, though, is Continuum for Windows, a Window 10 feature which made its official debut at the event. Continuum is one manifestation of the pocket-computer idea that others have had as well in various forms: it means that with an adapter, a phone can be used as the CPU and graphics engine when connected to a screen and keyboard: "The adapter features a Microsoft Display Dock, an HDMI and Display Port, plus 3 USB ports to provide productivity on the go and let you plug in additional peripherals, such as mice and keyboards. Other accessories can be connected too, Microsoft said."
Microsoft also demo'd the Surface 4. Its improved screen is 12.3" at 2160x1440, for a pixel density of 267 PPI. The new pro has a Skylake 6th-gen processor, which they say provides a 30% performance boost over the Surface Pro 3, and a 50% boost over the MacBook Air. The SP4 goes up to 1TB of storage, and up to 16GB of RAM. The Type Cover was improved as well — the touchpad is 40% larger and supports 5-point multi-touch, while the keys have better travel and pitch.
On top of this, Microsoft also unveiled the Surface Book laptop. Its defining feature is that you can unclip the 13.5" touchscreen and use it separately as a tablet. The keyboard dock has a dedicated GPU that will boost performance when attached. Microsoft is using a new type of hinge that bends and extends at multiple points, so you can also reattach the screen backward if you want to use it as a tablet while keeping the extra GPU power available. They claim a 12-hour battery life for the Surface Book.
I'm hardly an MS fanboy, but I gotta admit it's pretty cool what they're capable of when they don't have to worry about flying chairs.
Got a SP3 and a docking station, but there have been numerous instances where the portability of my phone would be much better in order to move around and work. I may run VS2013 on my surface especially when onsite with my client, but for quick Office-type tasks, just a regular keyboard/mouse attached to a proper screen would be great.
I guess I'm going to have to invest on a better KVM switch now.
If they went with Atom processors for the phones.. Without access to the library of existing x86 applications,Windows continues to fail to take advantage of their one key advantage, that dwindles more and more by the day.
MS should have been pushing the x86 phone story *hard*. I was skeptical when Surface RT happened, and that did turn out to be a bust. MS should have learned from this. While continuum lays the groundwork for an interesting story, it falls short when paired with an ARM device with respect to MS ecosystem.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
The most interesting part of this (for me, at least) is the new Surface Book...could be a killer for creative work, a Surface Pro that's actually a goodlaptop.
That is, if there isn't perceptible lag in the wireless display, that would really hurt stylus use.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
That Surface book looks nice (obviously time will tell how it will perform). It looks to corner the high end laptop market.
Next few weeks OEMs are bringing out their new hardware. Let us see how they compete with MS offerings
I wonder what form factor you could squeeze out of keyboard/battery/lcd that you would plug your phone into?
love is just extroverted narcissism
... and here I thought Microsoft was actually smart for once and have tie-ins with the sci-fi show
I guess Apple had a bigger influence on product placement.
I thought the Hololens has great potential but Microsoft kind of went the wrong direction in its demo. I get first person shooter is a great demo for 3D reality. But the fact this is a $3000 device aimed at business seems a bit childish to show its abilities playing a game. Besides that you could tell the guy had to kind of react slow which was also not natural. Otherwise I thought Microsoft impressed the best it has so far in selling Windows 10. Still most of what they talked about is in higher end and new products. The Surface 4 Pro seems great, but hardly a consumer notebook. In fact, I used to probably be a potential buyer for a Surface 4 Pro as I used to buy Macbook Pro's. But now I am perfectly fine with a Macbook Air and could easily buy an even cheaper notebook and still be productive. Much like a see the new Vaio Pro tablet its just a niche market but most like has better profit margins. The least interesting new products were the phones. Just did not see anyone dumping a iPhone or Galaxy for any of the Windows models. So in closing, I guess you could say, Microsoft had a lot for upper end devices but little to impress the average consumer.
Surface book, i7, 512gigs :)
It's my favorite SyFy show.
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And I think MS agrees with you. Consumers will have to wait until the technology matures and the price comes down.
Businesses however, won't blink at $3K for a dev kit. Heck a lot of data visualization software costs that much a year just for the license.
That part of the Ars Technica article isn't written very clearly:
In other words, the Surface Pro 3 had a 12" 2160x1440 screen. The Surface Pro 4 has a 12.3" 2736x1824 screen that's 267 PPI. I had been waiting for an ARM-based high-resolution 12-13" tablet for my piano sheet music collection. But I may just end up grabbing one of these if they've extended the battery life to ARM tablet levels.
Looking at the specs I can't see why anyone would buy the Surface Pro 4 over the Surface Book...