Microsoft had a huge conference today where the company talked about all the devices it plans on releasing in the coming weeks, months, and years. Today was all about the new Microsoft under Satya Nadella, a Microsoft that isn’t afraid to innovate.
Microsoft HoloLens & Project X-Ray
The first thing Microsoft did was to highlight the company’s newest technology, HoloLens. The device is not yet matured, but we can see that Microsoft is focusing on making video games a huge part of the experience. We got the chance to see the first video game made exclusively for HoloLens, called, Project X-Ray.
As the demoed played out onstage, alien-like creatures began to break through the walls and attacks our hero. We like how HoloLens allows for a gun to be created on the player’s arm, and with that, he destroyed the aliens as they attempt to take over the Earth, we assume.
With voice recognition, players can command the game to change the weapon on their hand to something more powerful. The whole experience was a thing of beauty, and we can’t wait to try it out.
Developers will get the chance to do this in 2016, but it will cost them a whopping $3000.
The Microsoft Band Experience:
We knew the software giant was planning to launch a new Band device, but what we didn’t know is how awesome it would be. From what the company showcased and talked about, it would seem as if version 2 of Band is a significant enough improvement over the 2014 model.
The design is probably the most important here because it comes off more comfortable and smaller when compared to the Band of 2014.
The Microsoft Lumia Experience:
Hoping to purchase a new Lumia smartphone this holiday? Well, you can as Microsoft made sure to reveal the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950XL. Both the devices are packing Windows 10 Mobile, but the Lumia 950XL is the most impressive with its 5.7-inch, 2560×1440 resolution AMOLED display.
This handset also comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor along with liquid cooling.
As for the Lumia 950, it is packing a 5.2-inch display and a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor. Each device is powered by a 32GB internal storage, with support for SD cards up to 1TB. There’s also a 20-megapixel PureView camera on the back, and a 5-megapixel camera on the front for selfies and video calling.
Probably the main selling point of these Lumia handsets is Continuum. With this feature, users can plug the devices into a laptop or PC and use the smartphone as a full-fledged Windows 10 computer. This should be a blast to use when universal apps are larger in number and more useful than they are now.
The Microsoft Surface Experience:
No surprises here, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 4, but who would have though the company would also announce a Surface Book? We didn’t see that coming from a mile away.
The Surface Pro 4 is more impressive than the Surface Pro 3. It is more powerful and slimmer than the Surface Pro 3. While we understand that it should have been no problem for Microsoft to increase the performance, but how did the company managed to make it slimmer with the specifications inside? Simply amazing.
As for the Surface Book, it is a full-blown laptop that is also a tablet. The Surface Pro 4 is a tablet that wants to be a laptop, but this, this is the full package.
We have to wonder if Microsoft is losing faith in the Surface Pro design because the Surface Book is what the company should have launched a few years ago instead of the Surface Pro line.
All-in-all, everything Microsoft talked about today was great, and we can’t wait to see what the company has in store for us next time around.
