Microsoft just concluded their best press conference in years, announcing three new Lumia phones, two Surface devices and a redesigned fitness tracker. Best of all, they unveiled their first ever laptop, the Surface Book. Take a look!
Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL
As predicted, Microsoft unveiled three new Lumia smartphones today: a budget model, the Lumia 550, and two high-end models, the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. Let’s take them in order of size (and price).
The Lumia 950 and 950 XL are 5.2 and 5.7 inches, respectively. Both phones feature a 20-megapixel rear camera with triple LED flash (double LED is the current standard), 4K video and optical image stabilisation. Inside, you’ll find a hexa-core processor in the 950, and a faster octa-core processor in the 950 XL model. Both phones utilise liquid cooling, which is normally only found on high-end gaming desktop PCs.
Other futuristic features include USB-C connectors, fast charging, and face-based logins via Windows Hello. Continuum support is also present, allowing you to connect to the Microsoft Display Dock to turn your mobile into more of a full-scale PC (complete with displays, mice, keyboards and other USB or Bluetooth peripherals).
The Lumia 950 and 950 XL will debut for £450 and £550, respectively, with a November release date scheduled. You can find both phones SIM free at Mobile Fun:
We’ll also have a wide range of Lumia 950 / 950 XL cases and accessories, so stay tuned!
Lumia 550
At the tail end of Microsoft’s presentation, they mentioned their budget model. The Lumia 550 is a 4.7-inch device at an aggressive £129 price point that will suit budget-conscious consumers in Europe, as well as developing markets. Its internals are fairly minimal – a quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor, 8GB of storage and 5-megapixel camera – but it still manages to include a 4.7-inch display and Windows 10. The phone will be available from December, and will come SIM free to Mobile Fun:
Surface Pro 4
The Surface Pro 4 is a solid iteration on the Surface concept, delivering a slightly larger tablet with improved specifications, a better screen and all of the new Windows 10 features like Windows Hello. Microsoft are calling the Pro 4 the “thinnest, most powerful” Intel Core PC ever made, weighing just 786 grams yet containing powerful and efficient Intel sixth-generation processors.
The tablet also comes with the redesigned Surface Pen, which now has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, Cortana integration and attaches magnetically to the tablet’s body. An improved Type Cover accessory is also available, which is thinner and lighter than its predecessors.
The Surface Pro 4 should ship by the end of October, and should cost around £700 at its base configuration – 128GB space, a Core m3 processor and 4GB of RAM. Configurations exist with up to 512GB of solid state storage, i7 processors and 16GB of RAM.
We’ll have accessories for the Surface Pro 4, so stay tuned.
Surface Book
The Surface Book was the biggest surprise of the event, as Microsoft unveiled its first ever laptop. The Surface Book is gorgeous, a 13.5-inch laptop wrought from the same machined magnesium as the company’s Surface tablets.
The Book uses a unique “dynamic fulcrum” hinge, which flexes outwards as it closes. Best of all, you can disengage the hinge using a button on the keyboard, and you’re left with an insanely slim tablet that still retains excellent performance. You can even replace the top section backwards, and you’ll get a conveniently sloped writing surface which meshes well with the new stylus. You’ll want the Surface Book in its normal laptop mode a lot of the time too, as the redesigned keyboard and glass-topped trackpad were also singled out for praise several times during the reveal.
The optically-bonded display has a 3000 x 2000 resolution, which makes for a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s noticeably taller than the average 16:9 laptop display. The machine is high-end too, with options for Core i5 and i7 processors and a dedicated Nvidia graphics card.
The Surface Book will be available from the end of October, and begins at a lofty £1049 for the base model, going up to around £1900 for the best possible configuration.
Microsoft Band 2
The Microsoft Band 2 is a slick redesign of the original fitness tracker, with a new curved screen and an 11th activity metric: elevation change, courtesy of a built-in barometer. Microsoft also boasted of much improved integration with popular apps and services. The Band 2 supports Android, iOS and Windows devices, both mobile and PCs.
The new wearable will cost £199 on launch in the UK, making it a relatively high-end option most of interest to the truly sporty… there are much cheaper fitness trackers if you’re just trying to move a little more! The device ships by the end of October, so you have some time to decide!
Conclusion
Thanks for checking out our review! What do you think of Microsoft’s announcements? Let us know in the comments!
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