Items tagged with Surface
A video has surfaced claimed to be from Microsoft talking about why the Surface line of computers lack some of the features that many customers simply expect these days. Specifically, the video talks about why the Surface line lacks upgradeable RAM and Thunderbolt 3 ports. The video claims that the Surface line lacks removable RAM because if removed from the device, it would pose a security risk. According to the person on the video, removable RAM could be frozen in liquid nitrogen, placed into a cheap reader, and data inside the memory could be read, including BitLocker recovery keys. The person on the video says that Microsoft has seen that done before. However, having our RAM frozen in liquid...
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On this latest episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, Marco, Dave, and Chris discuss AMD's new Radeon RX 5600 XT mid-range gaming GPU, talk of AMD's upcoming "Big Navi" graphics offering, NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000 series rumors, our impressions of Microsoft's Snapdragon-powered Surface Pro X versus the Surface Pro 7, drop hints of our next giveaway, and more... Show Notes: 03:35 - Microsoft Surface Pro X And Pro 7 Review: Snapdragon And x86 Experience 17:38 - AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Zen 2 APU Delivers Strong Performance In Lenovo Laptop Benchmark Leak 18:13 - AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Benchmarks Reveal Desktop-Class Performance Punch For Laptops 27:35 - AMD...
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Microsoft Surface Pro X (left) and Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (right) - Similar But Very Different Beasts Microsoft's Surface Pro line of convertible tablets has long been one of the standards by which premium Windows hybrid convertibles are judged. The Surface Pro family has been around for years, but these latest tablet 2-in-1 devices come with a twist. First is the tried-and-true Surface Pro 7 with an Intel Core processor and a surprising amount of power for the form factor. However, the Surface Pro is now available with an Arm 64 system-on-a-chip (SoC) and platform from Qualcomm, to boost battery life and expand connectivity with Gigabit LTE, while still providing respectable performance. We're...
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On this episode of HotHardware's 2.5 Geeks Marco, Dave, Brittany, and Chris chat about Marco's killer 32-core Threadripper build, Microsoft's Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro X, Surface Laptop 3, all the Surfaces from the recent launch in NY, the hot new OnePlus 7T, which company's AI should you trust with your data, how Epic was slapped with a lawsuit for making Fortnite too addictive, hints at our killer Falcon Northwest gaming rig give-away and more... Show Notes: 03:45 - The Killer 32-Core AMD Threadripper Build You'll Love To Hate 15:48 - Microsoft Unveils Surface Neo Dual Display Foldable PC Powered By Intel Lakefield Foveros Tech 20:10 - Check Out Microsoft's Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro...
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Microsoft files for a lot of patents, and some of the tech that is seen in the patent apps never ends up getting used in production products. A new patent has turned up, and this one is quite a bit different from some of the others we have seen. This patent appears to be for a Surface hinge and was filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing hinting that this patent could be licensed to other companies. The patent has to do with a new liquid-filled hinge design for a flexible OLED device. After the massive failure that was the original launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, keeping debris from getting under the screen of a folding device via the hinge is a big deal. The patent describes how a hinge would...
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We now have an official date for Microsoft's Surface event, and it will be held just over a month from now on October 2nd in New York City. Although the invite that Microsoft sent out to the press makes no mention of what devices will be on the docket during the event, we have a pretty good idea about what might be shown off. For starters, Microsoft has been hinting at and teasing a dual-screen Surface device for what seems like forever. Surface Chief Panos Panay has called it his pet project, and the device is being developed under the codename Centaurus. The Surface team reportedly showed off working prototypes of Centaurus to Microsoft employees earlier this year, and it could be...
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Qualcomm first gave us a taste of its new PC-centric Snapdragon 8cx SoC back in late December, and touted its performance chops with benchmarks against an Intel Core i5 (Kaby Lake-R) processor late last month. We’re now getting word that Microsoft may be eying the Snapdragon 8cx design as an option for future Surface devices. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard about an ARM SoC being destined for a Surface product. The Surface Go was rumored to use an ARM processor until Intel made Microsoft an offer that it couldn’t refuse. According to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans, the company has been working closely with Qualcomm...
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There have been rumors floating around of a dual-screen Surface device from Microsoft from well over a year. It's a rumor that just won't die, and even Surface chief Panos Panay has hinted at the possibility of the device with tweets and commentary on the form-factor. Today, there's a new report claiming that a dual-screen Surface device is indeed on the way and that it will have dual 9-inch displays with a 4:3 aspect ratio (keeping in line with other Surface hardware). This information comes from Jeff Lin, who serves as the Associate Director of Consumer Electronics for HIS Markit. According to Lin, the dual-screen Surface device, which has allegedly been developed under...
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Microsoft files a lot of patent applications, and of course many of them won't result in products that actually arrive to market. One patent application seen last month that is expected to result in a new product, however, was for the Surface Pro 7. On occasion, the patents do tip some future devices and give us a glimpse of the tech we may be using years down the road. Today, A new Microsoft patent has surfaced titled "Dynamic Interaction Adaptation of a Digital Inking Device." Sounds juicy and it is. The patent is for a next-gen Surface Pen that is fitted with an OLED display on one side of its barrel. The patent application was filed in late 2017 but was published by the USPTO earlier this...
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Rumors of a dual screen Surface device just refuse to die. We have been hearing about such a thing for the past couple of years in some form or another, and according to the latest chatter, Microsoft has been showing off a prototype internally, which hints that an actual release might finally be imminent. If nothing else, the timing is certainly interesting. Last week at Computex, Intel trotted out its dual-screen Honeycomb Glacier gaming PC concept. It does not appear that Intel will assemble and sell a first-party dual-screen system, and instead considers it a blueprint for its hardware partners to follow. It's already started to happen—ASUS is the first out of the gate with its ZenBook...
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In Microsoft's FY19 Q2 earnings release the company reported a strong end to 2018 with significant double-digit increases in both its revenue and operating income. Several aspects of Microsoft's business contributed to these increases, but the lions share of the growth was contributed by its Azure business. In a year-over-year look into Microsoft's Azure business, Q4 2018 revenue showed an uptick of 74% over the same time period in 2017. Cloud services in general appear to have performed quite well for Microsoft, and its Chief Financial Officer said that commercial cloud services experienced a 48% growth in revenue that contributed to $9.0 billion to the company's total revenue for the quarter....
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Tech journalist and author Brad Sams has published a book called "Beneath A Surface" which chronicles what Microsoft went through to bring the Surface line of products to market. Inside the book are some interesting claims about the future of Surface devices that would mark a big change for Microsoft. The biggest bombshell in the book is that Sams claims Microsoft and Intel are at odds with each other with Microsoft unhappy about the massive delays in the rollout of 10nm processors. While the 10nm chips are delayed, Microsoft has flatly denied that its 10nm process is dead despite some rumors claiming it was. Sams claims that Microsoft is unhappy enough with things at Intel that it is considering...
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Microsoft has an idea for a hinged Surface device with dual screens that was seen in patent drawings back in July. This device would go a long way towards giving users more screen space while maintaining a portable form factor. This week a new patent application has surfaced, and that it gives us another glimpse at what Microsoft is cooking up for its hinged, dual-screen device. The device would have a hinge in the center covered with a flexible display across the two sections of the machine; the hinge looks similar to what Microsoft is using for the Surface Book. Patent drawings show the device has features like a bezel and a camera inside that give it some smartphone-like components, blurring...
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There's some big news in the latest round of PC shipment numbers that are coming from Gartner and IDC. Although the firms use differing tracking methods, both show that Lenovo has regained its spot as the world’s top-selling PC vendor for the third quarter. According to Gartner, overall global PC sales rose just 0.1 percent year-over-year to 67.2 million. On the global stage, Lenovo was the top performer, showing a 10.7 percent increase YoY to 15.8 million units shipped. Hewlett-Packard was in second place with 14.6 million units (6.2 percent YoY increase), while Dell sat in third place with 10.7 million units (5.3 percent increase YoY). Apple actually posted an 8.5 percent decline...
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We've seen patent drawings, we've seen renders based on those drawings, and we've heard plenty of inside information coming out of Redmond with regards to a dual-screen Surface device. Codenamed Andromeda, the device is supposed to truly bring a full Windows 10 experience into a foldable form-factor that can fit into your pocket. In an interview with The Verge, Panay said that there needs to be a market for such a device, and that Microsoft is working on the feasibility of bringing it to production. “It’s absolutely my baby,” said Panay. “We will invent and we will create when products are right. We can’t bring new categories into the...
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Microsoft launched a program back in August 2017r called Surface Plus that allowed consumers to lease a Surface device with a 0% interest payment plan. One of the coolest things about the Surface Plus plan was that it allowed you to pay all 24 months of payments and keep the device or you could give it back to Microsoft in good working order in 18 months and upgrade to a new device. It sounded like a good deal for lots of people wanting an expensive Surface device without needing to shell out big money and then be stuck with a machine that was obsolete. If you have been thinking about trying it out, you have waited too long. Microsoft has quietly announced that it has decided to end the Surface...
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The rumor refuses to die is that Microsoft is building a dual-screen Surface device of some sort, a second coming of the ill-fated Courier that was first reported in 2008 and cancelled two years later. Like the Courier, the new Surface device (codenamed Adromeda) would feature a pair of touchscreens in book-like orientation. But is it real? Yet another patent filing suggests it is at least being considered. Microsoft has applied for several patents related to this mystery device. One of the newly discovered ones references "three-way video calling on hinged multi-screen device." It was actually filed a little over a year ago, on June 20, 2017, but was published more recently on July 3, 2018....
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It seems as though many enthusiasts have Andromeda fever. And by Andromeda, we mean Microsoft's supposed upcoming ARM-powered dual-screen Surface device. Andromeda has been rumored for quite some time, and Surface Chief Panos Panay even fueled the rumormill with a cryptic tweet late last month. However, enthusiasts also know that Microsoft is prone to cancelling projects -- ahem, Courier -- which has sparked some to even file petitions urging the company to spare Andromeda. A new insider report suggests that Andromeda has [thankfully] not been canceled, but that the project is getting a major overhaul before its eventual release. "At this time, the software and hardware...
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In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, Marco, Chris, and Dave chat about what's new with Intel's seriously fast Optane memory, the Monster 32-Core Threadripper that's inbound, Corsair's swank K70 RGB and Strafe RGB MK.2 mechanical keyboards, Microsoft's Surface GO tablet, Intel's Core i7-8086K anniversary chip, and Cooler Master's Pay-It-Forward PC Master Race gaming rig giveaway system that we want to build! Show Notes: 03:25 - Intel Optane Memory Update: Making Hard Drives Perform Like Fast SSDs 13:29 - Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 And Strafe RGB MK.2 Gaming Keyboards Review: Killer Decks 24:48 - Microsoft Unveils Surface Go 10-Inch Tablet Starting At $399, Fanless And Light...
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Well, that escalated quickly. Just this morning, we learned that Microsoft's new entry-level Surface tablet would debut this Friday. However, we're now getting official word from Microsoft about an upcoming Surface device -- its first official confirmation to date about the tablet. The tweet includes an image of the current family of Surface devices: the Surface Pro, Surface Book 2, Surface Studio and Surface Laptop. All of the devices have July 10th listed on the lock screen along with a time of 6:00 PST. That leads us to believe that Microsoft plans to announce the devices at an event tomorrow at around 9AM EST. As for the previous report which indicated at date of July 13th; it's...
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Excitement is building for a new dual screen mobile device that hasn’t even been announced yet. We’re of course talking about Microsoft’s Andromeda, which has been rumored for months, and even recently was teased by Surface Chief Panos Panay. However, this is Microsoft we’re talking about; which means that Andromeda could find itself on the chopping block at any moment despite promise in the mobile sector. That was the fate that befell Microsoft’s Courier dual-screen tablet concept (and the Surface Mini) and enthusiasts don’t want the same fate for Andromeda. As a result, some have taken to creating petitions to save Andromeda. Zachary...
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Microsoft is in the midst of refreshing its Surface hardware family for 2019, and one of the rumors going around is that the Surface team is working on a dual-screen device codenamed Andromeda. In the wake of these rumors, some unofficial renders have started appearing on the web, showing what Andromeda could possibly look like. The newest batch of renders are particularly intriguing, as they show how the dual-screen gadget could approach both gaming and productivity chores. David Breyer (@D_Breyer), a "designer at heart," posted the first set of renders last December, saying they were based on the latest patent filings. In a new batch of renders, he depicts the dual-screen gadget being used...
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