Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, Lumia 950 and 950 XL, Band 2 and HoloLens

Yesterday, Microsoft held a presentation of several products at once. These are the new Surface and Surface Book hybrid tablets, the new Lumia smartphones, Band smart watches and the HoloLens virtual reality helmet version for developers. The new products shown are not only “pumped” according to the characteristics of the model of the electronics that was previously produced. There are several interesting innovations.

Windows 10

The company that follows the development of the company from Redmond (in particular, participants of the Windows Insiders program) knows the logo with a ninja cat with the Windows flag riding a tyrannosaurus. There are several variations of this funny picture: a cat rides on the back of a unicorn or narwhal. An invitation to yesterday’s press conference can replenish the collection: on it the cat is on the back of a shiba inu dog. It turns out a sample of a slightly outdated Doge media virus with the corresponding signatures. In this form, the main topics of the presentation are collected: much devices, so game streaming, wow hologram, amaze, such fast, much Cortana, very continuum, so 10.

Today, the top ten is installed on 110 million devices. To reach the nine-digit number, the OS took only 10 weeks. 24 hours after the release of Windows 10, it was installed on 14 million computers, and four weeks later the number hit 75 million. The overwhelming majority of those updated are ordinary users. The speed of updating to the “top ten” is already changing the market for components: a number of experts believe that the drop in prices for RAM is associated with the release of free Windows 10.

Surface Pro 4

The fourth version of the laptop-tablet Microsoft.

• Processor: Skylake, the most recent Intel microarchitecture release with 14 nanometer process technology. Depending on the configuration, it can be a mobile Core m3 or brands i3, i5 and i7.
• Video Accelerator: Built-in processor. This is either Intel HD Graphics 515, or HD Graphics 520, or Intel Iris.
• RAM: 4 to 16 GB.
• Storage: 128 GB to 1 terabyte of solid state storage.
• Screen: 12.3-inch resolution of 2736 × 1824 pixels, 267 PPI. Aspect ratio - 3: 2. Multi-touch up to 10 fingers. Protected by Gorilla Glass 4 0.4 mm thick. Physically, the device managed to be kept at the level of the size of the 12-inch Surface, that is, compatibility with accessories to the previous model is possible.
• Cameras: Front at 5 megapixels and the main at 8 megapixels with autofocus and the ability to record videos in 1080p quality.
• Wireless Connections: Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0.
• I / O: Full-size USB 3.0, microSD card reader, headphone jack, Mini DisplayPort, SurfaceConnect.
• Stylus pen: SurfacePen. Logs 1024 levels of clicks. Several interchangeable nozzles for different styles of writing and drawing. Unlike the Apple Pencil, this pencil has an eraser: on the other end of the stylus there is an eraser that can erase what is written on the tablet. The stylus holds the year on one charge. It is held on a magnetic mount to the Surface Pro 4 case. Holding the button on the stylus will open the Cortana voice assistant. Two clicks - and the OneNote note-taking application opens on the tablet.
• Keyboard: Microsoft promises that the keyboard cover is of notebook quality. Companies can be trusted: even a Linux fan will agree that Microsoft can do keyboards. The touchpad is made of glass and is 40% larger. Added fingerprint scanner. The dock now has two DisplayPort ports with the ability to transfer 4K, Ethernet and four USB 3.0. The keyboard is still sold separately for $ 130.
• Battery: up to 9 hours of operation. Capacity is not called.
• Dimensions: 292 × 201 × 8.45 mm, weight slightly less than 800 grams.
• Price: Depending on configuration, from $ 899 to $ 2,699.

Microsoft continues to insist that the transformer tablet is a rival to the MacBook Air. The direct text claims that the Surface Pro 4 is one and a half times faster, but it was not named in which modifications. Panos Panay, vice president of Surface, said it makes no sense to compare Surface Pro 4 with tablets - it has a completely different performance class. Examples of device use were shown from the stage: writing notes, leaving notes on web pages in the Edge browser, full Office features, and others.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/devices/surface-pro-4

Surface book

The presentation took place with a plot twist that can be compared with Apple's One more thing. First, they showed a video with renderings in appearance of an ordinary laptop, without going into its characteristics. After only a quarter hour of explanation, the audience was asked to watch the video again. In fact, they showed a video with the same beginning, but in the middle the main feature unexpectedly appeared.


The second version of the video

This is not really a laptop. This is a transformer at the level of a powerful laptop and a full desktop Windows 10, the screen of which is removed and turns into a Surface tablet. On the bottom half with a keyboard is a graphic video accelerator and battery. If the tablet screen is removed from the base, the device will switch to the integrated graphics in the processor and continue to work.

The tablet screen is attached to the base using the Muscle Wire lock. The laptop closes with the unusual Dynamic Fulcrum Hinge connection, which flexes 360 degrees. Due to the original design when closed, the laptop has a weird gap between the upper and lower halves.

• Processor: Skylake, i5 or i7.
• Video Accelerator: Integrated Intel HG Graphics or discrete graphics based on the unnamed model Nvidia GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory.
• RAM: 8 or 16 GB.
• Storage Solid state drive up to 1 TB, connected via PCI Express. But at the moment, only a version with 512 GB of storage is possible to pre-order.
• Screen: 13.5-inch resolution of 3000 × 2000 pixels, 267 PPI. Aspect ratio - 3: 2. Multi-touch up to 10 fingers.
• Cameras: Front at 5 megapixels and the main at 8 megapixels with autofocus and the ability to record 1080p.
• Wireless Connections: Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0.
• I / O: 2 full-sized USB 3.0, full-sized card reader, headphone jack, Mini DisplayPort, SurfaceConnect.
• Stylus: The kit comes with the same SurfacePen. The stylus can be attached to the side of the tablet in the same way as the Surface Pro 4.
• Keyboard: Glass touchpad with 5-finger multi-touch. The choice of material was justified by the need for better gliding. The depth of the keyboard buttons is 1.6 mm.
• Battery: up to 12 hours of operation. Capacity is not called.
• Dimensions: 312 × 232 × 23 mm. Weight - from 1.5 kg.
• Price: Depending on configuration, from 1499 to 2699 dollars. In some countries it is available for pre-order, and the first deliveries will begin on October 26th.

If Microsoft Surface is the "killer" of the Apple MacBook Air, then the Surface Book competes with the MacBook Pro. According to the assurances of the company, the Surface Book is twice as fast.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/devices/surface-book

Lumia

The new Lumia phones are the flagship 950 and 950 XL and the cheap Lumia 550. The characteristics of the first two are presented below. They differ in battery, processor and screen size. Otherwise, they are completely identical.

• Processor: In the 950 there is a six-core Snapdragon 808, in the 950 XL an eight-core 810 is installed. And the liquid cooling system removes heat from all this power.
• RAM: 3 GB.
• Storage: 32 GB with support for microSD cards up to 2 TB.
• Screen: 1440 × 2560 AMOLED. The 950 has a screen diagonal of 5.2 inches (564 PPI), the XL - 5.7 (518 PPI).
• Connectors: USB Type C. Smartphones have Qi wireless charging, support Qualcomm Quick Charge. If necessary, half an hour of charging will give half the battery charge.
• Cameras: Phones of the Lumia line have proven themselves in excellent picture quality. Both models have a front camera of 5 megapixels and a main camera of 20. Triple LED flash allows you to highlight the desired color, so that the faces look natural in any environment.
• Battery: At 950 a battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh is installed, in XL there is a little more capacious at 3300.
• Price: 549 and 649 dollars. Available in November.

It could be a boring update of the line with new processors, pointlessly clear screens and a demonstration of the camera's capabilities. Instead, Microsoft revealed something else called Continuum. The phone can be connected to a small box of Microsoft Display Dock. The latter has HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB outputs. So the smartphone turns into a computer with universal applications that work both on the phone and on the computer screen. The cost of the dock is still unknown




The power of such a solution cannot be called high. It is unlikely that there will be so many universal applications, and their appearance will take time. In promotional materials, the emphasis is on the ability to conduct a presentation directly from the phone using the universal Microsoft Office application. At any time, the phone continues to fulfill its functions: the speaker reads a message from a young man in the hall, without interrupting the presentation.



The flagships have a Windows Hello biometric identification system based on voice or infrared scanning of the retina. There is no fingerprint scanner. The design of the phones is restrained, no one showed the catchy bright colors that were known to previous Lumia devices. The phones have physical volume buttons, a power button between them and a shooting button.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phone/lumia950/ The

Lumia 550 is a $ 139 budget handset that will go on sale in December. The 550 features are more modest: a 4.7-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 720 × 1280 pixels, LTE support, a quad-core Snapdragon 210 with a frequency of 1.2 GHz, 1 GiB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. 550 cameras are frontal at 2 megapixels and the main at 5.

Microsoft Band 2

Update smart watches, which were first introduced last year. Microsoft uses the same name in some places, which can lead to slight confusion. The watch has a curved OLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection and integration with Cortana, which provided the opportunity to pester the user about a missed run. Like the previous device, Band 2 works with iOS, Android and Windows Phone.



Band 2 is presented as a device for physically active people with built-in satellite navigation, monitoring of sleep and UV level. For example, they can calculate the maximum oxygen consumption by the user. This feature was usually introduced in more serious and professional solutions. At the same time, Band 2 has integration with Uber, RunKeeper, Starbucks, Subway and Twitter. The cost of the watch is $ 249 (50 more than last year's version), the pre-order is already open.

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-us

Hololen

Microsoft's augmented reality helmet has not yet reached the product stage for consumers. A $ 3,000 developer version was introduced . The flat price (not 2999) hints at the complete lack of focus on the ordinary consumer at this stage of development.

The glasses are fully autonomous and computer independent. Microsoft showed from the scene an example of the game Project X-Ray, which uses the capabilities of the device. The real manipulator in the player’s hands has turned into a weapon in the game world, which needs to shoot back from the adversary. Enemies threateningly destroy objects of reality, and the player is invited to dodge their shots.



A version for developers will be released in the first quarter of 2016. Microsoft did not specify specifications, although the device should be compatible with earlier samples. The latter use an x86 architecture processor, 2 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and are updated at a frequency of 60 frames per second. Probably, the new version for developers will have a similar hardware.

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us

Video recording of the entire presentation (1 hour 47 minutes)