Microsoft announces Surface Pro 4, Surface Book and new Lumia smartphones

MICROSOFT has just unveiled three new products: a tablet, laptop and phone. All of them are stacked with killer features.

AFTER a few bad years, Microsoft is back with a vengeance and 2015 will certainly be one year it will remember for a long time.

It launched a budget Surface tablet and launched Windows 10 both to some great success, and this morning at an event in New York, announced a new Surface Pro, three new smartphones and some other very interesting looking gadgets.

SURFACE PRO 4

When Microsoft first announced its Surface Pro in 2012, the world laughed, wondering why it betted so big on a tablet with a keyboard. But three years on and its two biggest rivals have made copycat devices, in Apple’s iPad Pro and Google’s Pixel C.

The new Surface Pro 4 will be Microsoft’s thinnest, lightest and most powerful Surface Pro 4 yet, 50 per cent more powerful than even a MacBook Air, the company says. The screen is now slightly bigger at 12.3-inches and, thanks to a higher resolution than ever before, it means every photo, video and web page looks amazingly sharp.

Finally a proper keyboard on the Surface Pro 4.

It’s more than just the inside that’s been improved too. The Surface Pen is now more fluid and responsive, while the attachable keyboard finally feels like a proper laptop keyboard, and includes a proper glass touchpad for the first time.

There’s a new front-facing camera that can log you in with your face, thanks to Microsoft’s new Windows Hello feature. And, if that’s not secure enough for you, there’s also a fingerprint reader.

There are more configurations than ever too, with different types of Intel processors, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage to play with. It will start at $1349 in Australia, with pre-orders beginning today, before being able to purchase on November 12, the same day Microsoft’s Sydney flagship store opens.

SURFACE BOOK

More impressive than the Surface Pro 4, though, is Microsoft’s first laptop. It’s called the Surface Book and can be used as a full laptop, while also capable of being detached to become a big tablet. It features a 13.5-inch touchscreen, a huge 12-hour battery life and a Microsoft-designed keyboard good enough to rival Apple’s MacBook. The highlight of it, though, is Microsoft’s crazy snake hinge which allows the screen to be turned around in just about any direction, and even be detached completely.

A gamechanger in high-end computing.

To be able to make it become a tablet, Microsoft has put all the hardware in the screen portion of the laptop itself, while making an optional graphics ship available for those who want it within the keyboard portion.

At its thickest point it is around the same size as Apple’s MacBook Pro, but Microsoft says it is twice as powerful. Of course, all that power will cost you, with the Surface Book starting at $2295 in its base Intel Core i5, 128GB storage and 8GB RAM variant. Like the Surface Pro 4, it goes on sale November 12.

NEW LUMIA SMARTPHONES

Despite having one of the best mobile operating systems around, Microsoft’s smartphones have always struggled in the iPhone era, mainly due to a lack of apps. But today, Microsoft launched three new phones in the Lumia 950, 950XL and 550, which alongside a new Windows 10 Mobile are hoped to change things.

Microsoft vice president for Surface Computing Panos Panay and the new Lumia 950.

The fact they run Windows 10 means that developers can make the same app that runs on a Windows computer or tablet run on a Windows phone. Hopefully this will fix the app problem.

The two flagship phones, the 950 and 950XL pack the same specs we’ve come to expect from flagship devices in 2015, with snappy processors, Quad-HD displays (5.2-inches for the 950, 5.7-inches for the 950XL), USB C and 32GB of storage. They’re also liquid cooled, which is ridiculously awesome for anyone who appreciates technology.

There’s a 20-megapixel camera on each of the devices, which if any of Microsoft/Nokia’s previous phones are to go by, should mean they can put out some great snaps. Unfortunately, Microsoft has used a plastic back, but it is detachable so you can swap out your battery and comes in black, white or cyan. Both phones come with big batteries, which hopefully will result in great battery life.

And from the back.

But the best feature of these is something we’ve heard a little bit about before called Continuum. Microsoft’s phones, when connected to a new display dock and monitor can turn themselves into real computers. Once connected, the screen will automatically scale up to what a standard Windows 10 computer would appear as. Because the apps are a universal experience, they will also be scaled up to how they would look on a normal desktop computer. For example, you could start a document with Word on your phone, dock it then use the desktop interface to better edit and add images to it. You will literally be carrying a computer in your pocket.

There’s no pricing announced for the devices yet, but Microsoft says they will be on sale in Australia before Christmas.

Also announced was the Lumia 550 budget phone, which features a 5-inch screen, quad-core processor and a 5-megapixel camera. It runs Windows 10 too, and should be priced around $200-$250.

HOLOLENS AND MICROSOFT BAND

Microsoft’s HoloLens is something we’ve heard of before, but the augmented reality headset blew everyone away at the demonstration this morning. Microsoft today showed off a robot shooter, where robots took over the users room and the user could bring up different sorts of guns or shields to fight them off. Microsoft says that the HoloLens is completely untethered, meaning you can wear the headset and run around your living room without it being cabled to a computer.

Are these glasses the future of video games?

While not a proper smartwatch, Microsoft has a new fitness wearable called the Microsoft Band. It’s the follow-up to the company’s 2014 wearable of the same name, but now has a few more smartwatch features for those who want a little bit more out of their FitBit. This includes Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri competitor and support for third-party apps such as Uber and Twitter. There’s no Australian pricing or release date for the Band, but it goes on sale in the US at the end of the month for $US$249.

Mostly into fitness but want some phone notifications? The Microsoft Band could be for you.