Today Microsoft announced a slew of new devices and some news about Hololens:
- Hololens developer kits will go on sale first quarter of next year and cost $3000.
- Microsoft has two new phones, the Lumia 950 and 950XL. The initial price will be $549 and $659. These phone have 6 or 8 cores respectively, and support Continuum and Hello. Continuum means that when you dock the devices via a special new dock and connect a keyboard, mouse, and display, you have a full blown desktop computer. Windows Hello means that they do face recognition to log you in.
- There’s also a new lower end Lumia for under $150.
- There’s a new Surface, the Surface 4 Pro. It’s amazingly thin and the screen has 6 million pixels, at 267 pixels per inch. The keyboard is improved and the stylus is too, plus the stylus clings magnetically. Prices start at $899.
- But wait, there’s more! In a jaw dropping example of showmanship, Panos Panay revealed the Surface Book, a laptop with a removable screen that is even more impressive than the Surface 4. Using a new kind of hinge and something called muscle wire, it’s billed as the best laptop ever, and watching his presentation, you want to believe it. Prices start at $1499.
- The new version of the Microsoft Band now has 11 sensors, detects altitude (sensor #11 is a barometer) and sell for $249.
It’s October now, and the retail industry’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just under two months away. I can’t wait to see what these devices will cost then.
I have a Surface RT and a Lumia 925. Both are getting old in internet years. But what to replace when?
The Surface RT won’t run Windows 10, but is still great for watching movies and reading ebooks and comics.
There’s nothing wrong with my Lumia 925, but it can’t replace my laptop. And I sometimes wish it had more storage.
My work laptop, a Dell Latitude, has a warranty that expires Feb 19 of next year. I’d love to be able to replace it with a Surface Book.
For now, I will wait and see.
–Michael
PS, I like the Verge’s coverage of the announcement event.