Surface Book convertible laptop and other surprises from Microsoft's presentation

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Microsoft's presentation turned out to be interesting and full of surprises, even though a lot of information leaked to the Web a few days ago. The company introduced flagship devices in each category of gadgets, preparing a kind of One more thing in the form of a compact, long-playing and efficient Surface Book transforming laptop.

Microsoft Band

The concept and appearance of the smart bracelet have remained virtually unchanged. The OLED screen remains small, but slightly curved. It is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Microsoft says it's the only device on the market to offer this level of integration - Microsoft Band functionality is available on all popular platforms. It is also the only gadget that measures an athlete's VO2 max - the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can use.

From the sensors in the new product - GPS, ultraviolet radiation sensor, sleep tracker and calories burned. As before, the Band offers detailed personal workouts and notifications from a smartphone. The main change in this aspect is the appearance of the barometer.

The integration with the voice assistant Cortana has become even tighter: now the assistant will offer, for example, to reschedule the time of your workout if you accidentally missed it. The company has also entered into a series of agreements with Uber, Runkeeper, MyFitnessPal, Twitter and others to bring these services to Microsoft's bracelet.

Microsoft Band 2 can be pre-ordered today, with sales starting on October 30th. The price of the new item is $ 249.

Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL

Information about these two flagships has already leaked to the Network, but this made their announcement no less interesting. The new items turned out to be very attractive from a technical point of view.

Inside - productive eight-core processors, which for the first time received water cooling. Apparently, the Qualcomm 810 is inside, which gets very hot. The diagonals of the displays are 5, 2 and 5.7 inches with a pixel density of 564 ppi and 518 ppi, they are made using OLED technology. This allows information to be displayed on the Ambient screen without unnecessary energy consumption. The new adaptive antenna is designed to improve the quality of communication.

The camera is equipped with a 20-megapixel sensor with a new generation of optical stabilization, a separate start button and a triple LED flash. Like all flagships of this year, both new products shoot video in 4K. Inside - 32 GB of memory expandable with memory cards. The universal port has received the USB Type C standard, which supports fast charging. Thanks to this, it gains half of its capacity in just half an hour.

Fully flagship internals complement the new Microsoft Display Dock. On the one hand, you connect a smartphone, on the other, a screen, mouse, keyboard and you get an almost full-fledged computer with an interface very similar to Windows Hello from Windows 10. At the same time, smartphones connected in this way can independently work simultaneously in mobile and desktop modes.

These phones really do start to act as a PC.

Sales are slated to start in November with a price tag of $ 549 for the Lumia 950 and $ 649 for the Lumia 950 XL.

Microsoft Surface 4

This is the perfect tablet for Windows-bound users. Top specs, a functional stylus, a more comfortable keyboard and touchpad in the Type Cover and even an external dock - this tablet has everything for productive work.

Sixth-generation Intel processors and 16GB of RAM are responsible for performance, and data can be stored on 1TB of internal storage. There is not much data on the touchscreen of the novelty. From the main: pixel density 267 ppi with a diagonal of 12.3 inches. The fourth generation Gorilla Glass covers the display with a thickness of only 0.4 millimeters. The thickness of Surface Pro 4 is a separate pride of the company's engineers and is only 8, 4 millimeters. This is the thinnest Surface.

The Type Cover has been significantly updated - it has become better in every sense, has got a fingerprint scanner and at the same time has not lost compatibility with the previous version of Surface. Another useful third-party accessory for Surface is a docking station with four USB 3.0 ports, two 4K DisplayPorts and Ethernet.

In addition, the Surface Pro 4, like its predecessor, comes with a magnetic stylus. It is now available in a variety of color options, with 1,024 pressure differentials and a virtual eraser on the back. The start of pre-orders of new items is scheduled for October 7, the Surface Pro 4 will be on sale on October 26. The price of the tablet without the Type Cover is $ 899.

One more thing …

After the announcement of mobile devices, the Surface Book, Microsoft's Ultimate laptop, was unveiled from the stage. The touch screen of the novelty received a diagonal of 13.5 inches with a pixel density of 267 ppi. It is the fastest and thinnest PC with a screen of its size. Inside are the latest generation Intel Core i7 processors, an NVIDIA graphics chip with GDDR5 memory developed by the Xbox team. Plus, a fast SSD and a battery that provides 12 hours of battery life.

Like its most obvious competitor, the MacBook Pro 13, the Surface Book is all metal with a large glass trackpad and an island-style backlit keyboard. At the same time, Microsoft's competitor, although more expensive, is twice as productive.

It would seem much cooler, but Microsoft announced another surprise: Surface Book is a transformer with a detachable display that easily turns into an incredibly productive tablet. The thickness of the novelty in this form is 7, 7 millimeters, and the weight is only 700 grams. It remains only to note that the price of the laptop starts at $ 1,500, and sales will begin on October 26th.

Microsoft HoloLens

Against the background of all these new products, the announcement of Project XRay for the previously announced Microsoft HoloLens went almost unnoticed. Completely independent virtual reality glasses without wires or additional connections are ideal for gaming, and the company has clearly demonstrated this.

Project XRay is the future of gaming with impressive holograms and an additional controller for interacting with the virtual world. The first developer kit will reach customers in the first quarter of 2016 for $ 3,000, with a full announcement scheduled for 2020.