Hardware

Everything You Need To Know From Microsoft’s Massive Hardware Event

Comment

[tc_aol_on code=”519135958″]

Microsoft this morning announced a grip of new hardware, including Surface products, high-end smartphones, a wearable, Windows 10 for the Xbox One and its first laptop.

The laptop, called the Surface Book, stunned in an event marked largely by products Microsoft watchers were expecting.

TechCrunch presumes that you did not wake up early in the morning to watch a livestream of the event, so we’ve collected all the important bits and pieces here for your easy digestion.

Microsoft kicked off the event by announcing Windows 10 now operates on 110 million PCs. Microsoft wants the operating system on one billion devices in the next few years, and that puts Microsoft 11 percent of the way toward its goal.

Also up top was some welcome news for Windows 10 users: Facebook is building several ‘universal’ apps for the platform. The move should improve the social functionality of all Windows 10 hardware.

Surface Book

The surprise hit of the day was the Surface Book, which Microsoft considers a laptop. Although the Surface line was designed to have some in-lap functionality, the Surface Book should offer more than the company’s past hybrid tablets. The Surface Book may not look like its predecessors, but there’s a twist. The damn thing comes apart into two pieces so you can use it as a stand-alone tablet.

[tc_aol_on code=”519135756″]

The convertible laptop sports a 13.5-inch display, a trackpad made of glass, a backlit keyboard and a machined magnesium body. The Surface Book has the latest generation of the Intel Core processor and an Nvidia GPU with GDDR5 memory. Microsoft claims its the fastest laptop of its size ever made, and has 12-hour battery life, 267 ppi pixel density display and a keyboard that is said to be very quiet.

The Surface Book starts at $1,499 and is available to pre-order on October 7.

Surface Pro 4

By far the most anticipated device before the event, the Surface Pro 4 is real, up for pre-order tomorrow, and is essentially a strong iterative improvement on its predecessor. That’s not shade — the Surface Pro 3 sold well for a reason. Microsoft noted at the top of its show that Surface now generates around $3.5 billion in yearly revenue, up from nothing just a few years ago.

The Pro 4 stands out for keeping a similar design to the Pro 3 but fitting a larger screen into the space. That means less bezel, of course.

[tc_aol_on code=”519135558″]

The Surface Pro 4 will have to face off against similar products from both Apple and Google.

Microsoft says the Pro 4 is its thinnest Surface Pro to date. The 12.3 inch screen has 267 PPI and supports over 5 million pixels. Microsoft revamped its stylus and Type cover. The stylus will now contain a year’s worth of battery life and snap to the edge of the device. The Type cover will have a chiclet-style keyboard.

The device will retail for $899 and be available on Oct. 26.

Lumia 950 And Lumia 950 XL

The media called this one some time ago, but it was still edifying to see Microsoft trot out new phone hardware. Keep in mind that it was only so long ago that the Redmond-based software giant had to endure an embarrassing multi-billion dollar writedown related to its smartphone business.

The phone and phablet are exclusive to AT&T in the U.S. Both come with octacore and hexacore processors as well as liquid cooling technology. The phone features a 5.2-inch display, while the XL phablet has a 5.7-inch display. Their OLED displays have a pixel density of 564 ppi and 518 ppi respectively. Both have 20-megapixel cameras with natural flash and can shoot 4K video. They come with 32GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot and a new USB Type-C connector.

Both will ship in November. The 950 retails at $549, and the XL sells for $649.

HoloLens

Microsoft’s augmented reality project HoloLens picked a decent whack of stage time during the event. Microsoft faced the challenge of demoing it to an audience that didn’t have their own devices to track along, but the company made some news all the same.

Microsoft showcased new live games for HoloLens on Tuesday, including a shooting game that projects robots on your living room walls. The real potential for the HoloLens lies in the projects third party developers create.

However you still can’t buy one. The Hololens developer kit will set you back $3,000 and won’t be available until the first quarter of calendar 2016.

Band 2

Microsoft surprised many last year when it released its first smart watch, the Band. Microsoft’s Band 2 is a sleeker and smarter iteration of its predecessor.

The Band 2 is more sensitive to touch and features thicker gorilla glass. It’s able to sense changes in elevation, and has an improved set of health tracking tools.

It’s available for pre-order today for $249 and will retail on October 30.

Xbox One <3 Windows 10

Microsoft will bring its Xbox One gaming console under the aegis of Windows 10 this year, so you don’t have much longer to wait for that code to drop.

This means you’ll be able to play your XBox 360 games on the XBox One. The company also announced limited edition consoles inspired by hot games like Halo5.

Windows 10 Hardware Event

More TechCrunch

On the heels of OpenAI announcing the latest iteration of its GPT large language model, its biggest rival in generative AI in the U.S. announced an expansion of its own.…

Anthropic is expanding to Europe and raising more money

If you’re looking for a Starliner mission recap, you’ll have to wait a little longer, because the mission has officially been delayed.

TechCrunch Space: You rock(et) my world, moms

Apple devoted a full event to iPad last Tuesday, roughly a month out from WWDC. From the invite artwork to the polarizing ad spot, Apple was clear — the event…

Apple iPad Pro M4 vs. iPad Air M2: Reviewing which is right for most

Terri Burns, a former partner at GV, is venturing into a new chapter of her career by launching her own venture firm called Type Capital. 

GV’s youngest partner has launched her own firm

The decision to go monochrome was probably a smart one, considering the candy-colored alternatives that seem to want to dazzle and comfort you.

ChatGPT’s new face is a black hole

Apple and Google announced on Monday that iPhone and Android users will start seeing alerts when it’s possible that an unknown Bluetooth device is being used to track them. The…

Apple and Google agree on standard to alert people when unknown Bluetooth devices may be tracking them

The company is describing the event as “a chance to demo some ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates.”

OpenAI’s ChatGPT announcement: Watch here

A human safety operator will be behind the wheel during this phase of testing, according to the company.

GM’s Cruise ramps up robotaxi testing in Phoenix

OpenAI announced a new flagship generative AI model on Monday that they call GPT-4o — the “o” stands for “omni,” referring to the model’s ability to handle text, speech, and…

OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT

Featured Article

The women in AI making a difference

As a part of a multi-part series, TechCrunch is highlighting women innovators — from academics to policymakers —in the field of AI.

5 hours ago
The women in AI making a difference

The expansion of Polar Semiconductor’s facility would enable the company to double its U.S. production capacity of sensor and power chips within two years.

White House proposes up to $120M to help fund Polar Semiconductor’s chip facility expansion

In 2021, Google kicked off work on Project Starline, a corporate-focused teleconferencing platform that uses 3D imaging, cameras and a custom-designed screen to let people converse with someone as if…

Google’s 3D video conferencing platform, Project Starline, is coming in 2025 with help from HP

Over the weekend, Instagram announced it is expanding its creator marketplace to 10 new countries — this marketplace connects brands with creators to foster collaboration. The new regions include South…

Instagram expands its creator marketplace to 10 new countries

You can expect plenty of AI, but probably not a lot of hardware.

Google I/O 2024: What to expect

The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday and will offer glimpses into the latest versions of Android, Wear OS and Android TV.

Google I/O 2024: How to watch

Four-year-old Mexican BNPL startup Aplazo facilitates fractionated payments to offline and online merchants even when the buyer doesn’t have a credit card.

Aplazo is using buy now, pay later as a stepping stone to financial ubiquity in Mexico

We received countless submissions to speak at this year’s Disrupt 2024. After carefully sifting through all the applications, we’ve narrowed it down to 19 session finalists. Now we need your…

Vote for your Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice favs

Co-founder and CEO Bowie Cheung, who previously worked at Uber Eats, said the company now has 200 customers.

Healthy growth helps B2B food e-commerce startup Pepper nab $30 million led by ICONIQ Growth

Booking.com has been designated a gatekeeper under the EU’s DMA, meaning the firm will be regulated under the bloc’s market fairness framework.

Booking.com latest to fall under EU market power rules

Featured Article

‘Got that boomer!’: How cybercriminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

Estate is an invite-only website that has helped hundreds of attackers make thousands of phone calls aimed at stealing account passcodes, according to its leaked database.

10 hours ago
‘Got that boomer!’: How cybercriminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

Squarespace is being taken private in an all-cash deal that values the company on an equity basis at $6.6 billion.

Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal

AI-powered tools like OpenAI’s Whisper have enabled many apps to make transcription an integral part of their feature set for personal note-taking, and the space has quickly flourished as a…

Buy Me a Coffee’s founder has built an AI-powered voice note app

Airtel, India’s second-largest telco, is partnering with Google Cloud to develop and deliver cloud and GenAI solutions to Indian businesses.

Google partners with Airtel to offer cloud and GenAI products to Indian businesses

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to…

Women in AI: Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick wants to pass more AI legislation

We took the pulse of emerging fund managers about what it’s been like for them during these post-ZERP, venture-capital-winter years.

A reckoning is coming for emerging venture funds, and that, VCs say, is a good thing

It’s been a busy weekend for union organizing efforts at U.S. Apple stores, with the union at one store voting to authorize a strike, while workers at another store voted…

Workers at a Maryland Apple store authorize strike

Alora Baby is not just aiming to manufacture baby cribs in an environmentally friendly way but is attempting to overhaul the whole lifecycle of a product

Alora Baby aims to push baby gear away from the ‘landfill economy’

Bumble founder and executive chair Whitney Wolfe Herd raised eyebrows this week with her comments about how AI might change the dating experience. During an onstage interview, Bloomberg’s Emily Chang…

Go on, let bots date other bots

Welcome to Week in Review: TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. This week Apple unveiled new iPad models at its Let Loose event, including a new 13-inch display for…

Why Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is so misguided

The U.K. AI Safety Institute, the U.K.’s recently established AI safety body, has released a toolset designed to “strengthen AI safety” by making it easier for industry, research organizations and…

UK agency releases tools to test AI model safety