Microsoft Is Suddenly Making Truly Compelling Devices

I don't know what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is doing, but he appears to be getting results from his hardware division.

The company this morning introduced a slew of devices that will go on sale in time for the holidays. There are two flagship smartphones, the Lumia 950 and 950XL, and a budget model, the 550; the Surface Pro 4, an updated version of the surprisingly popular Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrid, as well as a completely unexpected laptop called the Surface Book; and HoloLens, which Microsoft discussed in greater detail than it had before, revealing the price ($3,000) and release window (Q1 2016) for the developer kit. Still no word on when we might expect a consumer version, however.

Let's walk through what Microsoft announced.

Microsoft's Lumia 950 and 950 XL are the company's two flagship smartphones heading into the holidays. Think of them like the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus: the 950 XL is a little bigger and is probably better suited for people who want their phone to also effectively double as a tablet. I used both models at the event, and found them both to be altogether excellent, with sharp OLED displays that can always show "glanceable" information like how many emails you have and when's your next meeting, and a sturdy build quality that's been a Lumia calling card going back to when Nokia still made them.

The smartphones can also be unlocked by pointing them at your face like you were taking a selfie with a feature Microsoft calls Windows Hello. Microsoft is encouraging developers to create so-called universal apps that run on both Windows 10 for computers and Windows 10 for smartphones with minimal programming tweaks, but you do get the feeling that these smartphones would be an even easier sell if you could somehow slap Android on them.

Some critics snickered when Microsoft introduced the Surface hybrid laptop/tablet in late 2012… and then both Apple and Google this year introduced the iPad Pro and Pixel C, both of which look an awful lot like the Surface. ("We have competitors who are chasing it, which is pretty cool," said Panos Panay, who heads Microsoft's devices division.) New this time around for the Surface is a larger display (12.3 inches versus 12 inches last year) and a digital pen that Microsoft says does not need to be recharged, and can last about a year before needing to be replaced. The TypeCover keyboard is much improved as well, based on my time spent with it at the event, with individual keys that are more comfortably spaced apart than before.

This was entirely unexpected, and Panos Panay blew many attendees' minds when he first showed it off. The Surface Book is Microsoft's attempt to shake up the Windows laptop market in much the same way the Surface Pro shook up the Windows tablet and two-in-one market. Like the Surface Pro, the Surface Book's 13.5-inch display can be fully detached from the keyboard, letting it be used more like a clipboard than a laptop. Unlike the Surface Pro 4, the Surface Book has a discrete GPU (made by Nvidia), making it better suited to graphics-intensive tasks rendering video in Adobe Premiere or playing

Gears of War

.

Lastly, a brief mention of HoloLens is in order. Announced at the beginning of the year, HoloLens is Microsoft's attempt to carve out an entirely new form of computing—augmented reality—all for itself. When worn, the entirely self-contained unit can display what amounts to holograms, overlaying them on top of the wearer's surroundings. At the event this morning, Microsoft demonstrated a prototype game called Project X Ray wherein holographic robots smashed through a living room wall, letting the player, wearing the HoloLens, to shoot them, Halo-style, to beat back the invasion. This was not available to test out at the event, but you can rest assured that Motherboard will do its best to get a unit in the office as soon as possible!