Isn't the HP Elite X3 the surface phone? It meets all the rumours almost perfectly

[J Dubbs]

It seems like from what I've read and heard that the Elite X3 meets pretty much every rumour that's been going around about the surface phone.
Are we looking past it still hoping for a magic phone from microsoft to suddenly bring all our windows phone dreams true?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

It seems like from what I've read and heard that the Elite X3 meets pretty much every rumour that's been going around about the surface phone.
Are we looking past it still hoping for a magic phone from microsoft to suddenly bring all our windows phone dreams true?

you could be right but I guess people want something that does impress nearly everyone - something that it beyond expectations. The HP phone is meant for enterprise sector so ordinary consumers might not get it. That is one reason people keep looking for the surface phone as that has to be available for all and not just a restricted market

 

[Danobe]

Does the Elite X3 have proper pen input?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Does the Elite X3 have proper pen input?

it hasn't been released so we can't say for sure though there is some news about the new office mobile apps getting inking support - what would you use for inking if not a pen? So I guess it could work - I tried sometime back using the surface pen to control things on my 1020 and it worked quite well

 

[Danobe]

it hasn't been released so we can't say for sure though there is some news about the new office mobile apps getting inking support - what would you use for inking if not a pen? So I guess it could work - I tried sometime back using the surface pen to control things on my 1020 and it worked quite well

There's a difference between a mobile app from one company getting a new feature and a particular phone from another company having the hardware to support it. Have HP even talked about pen input?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

There's a difference between a mobile app from one company getting a new feature and a particular phone from another company having the hardware to support it. Have HP even talked about pen input?

so far searching online I've found nothing on this

 

[Danobe]

Ah, bummer. I wouldn't mind having a pen back. No pen works on the 950, and it would be great for browsing, using onenote and so on instead of using my big fingers. Oh, well, maybe a surface phone will come out in three years.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Ah, bummer. I wouldn't mind having a pen back. No pen works on the 950, and it would be great for browsing, using onenote and so on instead of using my big fingers. Oh, well, maybe a surface phone will come out in three years.

most reports have pegged the surface phone to release next year - so a considerably shorter time. Some have said around April

 

[Bobvfr]

Not 100% true that no pen works, try one of those cheap sponge tipped styli, I can navigate around my 950XL with ease, although it didn't work with drawing in OneNote.

 

[Danobe]

Not 100% true that no pen works, try one of those cheap sponge tipped styli, I can navigate around my 950XL with ease, although it didn't work with drawing in OneNote.

True, one of those "penned fingers" for want of a better word will probably work. But the reason I want a pen is for precision, so I'd prefer a slightly thinner one - a digitizer pen, in other words.

 

[ven07]

Eh no!!!! I want a pretty pretty thang with the MS logo embedded on the back and "Microsoft" written on the top front part of the device! :winktongue:

 

[anthonyng]

Not 100% true that no pen works, try one of those cheap sponge tipped styli, I can navigate around my 950XL with ease, although it didn't work with drawing in OneNote.

I was a little bit choked that onenote on a s7 edge could draw with finger but I couldn't on my 950xl, teared up just a little but fought it and held it back! lol

 

[J Dubbs]

I hope they do bring a surface phone out for the non-enterprise sector. I miss my windows phone

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Would we have said the current crop of detachables are the new surface tablets and surface pros? We can't say that since there is already a series of devices with actual surface labelling

 

[ven07]

I hope they do bring a surface phone out for the non-enterprise sector. I miss my windows phone

Time for you to become enterprise.. Do not ask what your fiefdom can do for you......

I was a little bit choked that onenote on a s7 edge could draw with finger but I couldn't on my 950xl, teared up just a little but fought it and held it back! lol

I understand the pain...

 

[Krystianpants]

Not really. The Surface phone or whatever they call it won't be released till 2017 when redstone 2 is ready and the tech is better. The HP elite X3 is based on the 950xl reference design. Much like Surface pro 3-4 were the reference designs for the current 2-in-1's released by OEMs. MS will produce a new reference design as the tech becomes better. A lot of it relies on windows 10 feature set as well which will happen on Redstone 2. So after the new reference HP may release another one. But apparently there will be some new devices announced in the fall from MS and different OEMs. Unlikely a new phone will be announced because they just haven't been focusing on mobile. And if they do, I don't think it will be the big one as it is highly dependent on feature set of Redstone 2. Band 3 is definitely going to be announced. OEMs will likely announce new phones. My guess is that there will be some new phones from OEMs similar to the hp elite X3.

 

[Vittorio Vaselli]

How do you know about this fall announcements?

 

[Greywolf1967]

Not 100% true that no pen works, try one of those cheap sponge tipped styli, I can navigate around my 950XL with ease, although it didn't work with drawing in OneNote.

For me this is getting a bit old now, but I guess I will have to shout from many roof tops.......Use of a Pen is not limited to hardware with a digitizer!!!!!!

Yes if you are doing fine detail work in drawing a digitizer based pen is key, however for the rest of us there is "Active Stylus".

The ones that are mainly marketed towards iPad/iOS as mine is Adonit Jot Script. It put my Acer W3 on par with Surface 3 ( not Pro ), and works OK on my Microsoft 640 XL......in Mobile 10 use of an active stylus would be made 100% better if Microsoft would add Calibration + Ink support.

Now seeing that the 950/950 XL have a better screen over the 640/640 XL an active stylus should work slightly better, however I have yet to test at my local Microsoft store.....I'm sure it will freak out the store service person when I whip a Pen out and make a note in Squid on my 640 XL, as most there don't know an Active stylus works on all Lumia phones.

 

[Danobe]

All fine, but does it do "hover" on the Lumia (950)? If so, you may have convinced me to try one out from, say, dell.

 

[Greywolf1967]

All fine, but does it do "hover" on the Lumia (950)? If so, you may have convinced me to try one out from, say, dell.

A few notes.........

Hover is a feature that is Digitizer dependent !!!! Yes my Jot Script is Bluetooth, but any features that would work on the iPad via bluetooth are not yet supported in Windows10 for mobile. Adonit is still just in the thinking stage for Windows support.

If you are going to buy an Active Stylus......do your homework !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not all active stylus are the same. The Dell which works with the Venue Pro I think has a digitizer layer ( however I am not 100% sure on that)

What I would say is stick to 3rd party Pens, if they support iPad/iPhone/iOS ( as iPad is non digitizer), it's a safe bet to work on all Lumias.