Surface 4 vs. Surface "Phone"

[sporosarcina]

The incoming W10 on ARM poses an interesting question. The new build would make an ARM powered Surface 3 successor (Surface 4) possible and very usable (WinRT the next generation), but at the same time the internals would be the same as any Surface "phone" device (in quotes because I know it won't be sold as a "phone"). So how does MS balance this. A Surface 4 sold at a low price point would make for a good argument against Chromebooks in education (especially with a pen), but then you have problems justifying the premium price your "phone" will demand for its smaller size.

I'm imagining something like a SD835 with 4GB RAM+ in each.

 

[xandros9]

Any phone is going to be a long way out still, full Windows will have a hell of a time trying to squeeze into a phone.

 

[Awhispersecho]

Any phone is going to be a long way out still, full Windows will have a hell of a time trying to squeeze into a phone.

This is the part I just don't get. If WOA is done at the end of this year, there is no reason they can't release it on a 5.5-6 inch phone. It's the same OS, the same UI. This is the biggest problem with MS. They say they can't do things and people just buy into it instead of realizing how rediculous their reasoning is. It's just like the whole "there is no point in releasing a new phone until we have a new OS" statement. That was a bunch of crap and yet, everyone repeated it as if it made sense. If WOA is available for 8-10 inch screens, it's available and doable on a 6 inch screen. It's that simple.

 

[Drael646464]

This is the part I just don't get. If WOA is done at the end of this year, there is no reason they can't release it on a 5.5-6 inch phone. It's the same OS, the same UI. This is the biggest problem with MS. They say they can't do things and people just buy into it instead of realizing how rediculous their reasoning is. It's just like the whole "there is no point in releasing a new phone until we have a new OS" statement. That was a bunch of crap and yet, everyone repeated it as if it made sense. If WOA is available for 8-10 inch screens, it's available and doable on a 6 inch screen. It's that simple.

I think they'd want to condense elements of the tablet mode though. Things are pretty squishy already on 8 inch sometimes. Definitely they'll want to tweak it a little. There's no rush to release it on mobile yet, they'll want to focus on tablets so they can get UWPs strong first.

 

[Drael646464]

The incoming W10 on ARM poses an interesting question. The new build would make an ARM powered Surface 3 successor (Surface 4) possible and very usable (WinRT the next generation), but at the same time the internals would be the same as any Surface "phone" device (in quotes because I know it won't be sold as a "phone"). So how does MS balance this. A Surface 4 sold at a low price point would make for a good argument against Chromebooks in education (especially with a pen), but then you have problems justifying the premium price your "phone" will demand for its smaller size.

I'm imagining something like a SD835 with 4GB RAM+ in each.

Not sure I fully understand all of this.

But yes, I believe they'll release a separate strain of surface. A regular surface pro with regular windows 10, intel, performance based, premium, and a much cheaper ARM version.