I would totally buy a Microsoft Android phone. This looks far more robust than most phones, and I've already switch to using Microsoft's launcher and app suite on Android anyway.
Curious to know when we can get some more details about the Ryzen for Surface processor announced. It's a strong vote of confidence in the chip that they're putting it in the new 15in workhorse laptop.
That makes a lot of sense. I'm more curious because reviews for the 3xxx series Ryzen mobile chips are scarce, even more so for premium devices. I'm interested to see how these stack up to the Intel offerings.
Yea I would too and hopefully they forked Android and ripped out googles tracking nonsense..I mean if they don't it's ok because I use adguard and that blocks It all anyways but I'd rather it not be there.
I also like the concept of the phone I just hope they use a nice powerful SOC and like 12 gigs of fast ram
You're pretty much boned by some gleeful creeper no matter what you do these days. Either Google is stalking you or Microsoft is mining your crap or any of a bunch of other competing companies are salivating over getting their filthy mitts on anything they can about you in order. It might all be in the name of selling pointless sh!t to you for now, but as that data lingers on for years, who knows what else will happen to it. I pity the dumb sheep that are buying up voice-activated, internet connected junk like Nest or Alexa in the name of not having to get their lazy butts off the recliner to adjust things manually.
But will it come with - removable battery - headphone jack - SD card slot ?
I've been reliably informed by the Internet that if it doesn't have at least those three items, it's an automatic won't-buy by the entire world population...
Nice strawman you've made there. I suspect it was one person who believes everyone believes that, or, you know, you making it up/falling for a troll.
Although, yes, all those features would be nice. Hell, most should be encouraged as they would make our devices less disposable, which, if you haven't noticed, might be something we need to do...
I feel like it's very practical if productivity is more important than using it like a phone. I would absolutely go for something like this if my job involved a bit more travel.
Looking at the current design it would seem that you would be holding it in that position the minority of the time. Or if you chose to buy it you don't really be looking to use the phone in that way much.
"Currently the prototype devices are said to be running Android 9 Pie with a Snapdragon 855 SoC – although these specifications are sure to change until the device’s actual launch."
Half joke. It's a fat enough device to be fitting a jack in with absolutely no issue, and removing it is simply greed. I don't really need such a device, but if I do, I might tolerate 2 C ports, add another and forget about the jack.
So does the mention of the Surface Neo in the article mean there are more articles coming covering the rest of the lineup? This launch is very weird, seems like nobody is really covering it. Where are the tech specs? Where are the image galleries? Or did they only invite Youtubers this time?
That's not the "weirdest" part. The eroding irrelevance of Intel to anything below the datacenter was on full display here. QC and AMD get full billing, lot's of talk about how great their specs are, and how willing they both are to add silicon, like an NPU.
But Intel will, one day, deliver Lakefield (apparently with *one* large core at a time when iPhones get two, and iPad Pro's get four large cores), and if Intel is one day going to add an inference NPU to its cores, it hasn't said anything yet.
Feels like MS (at least the part of MS that cares about Surface) has a feeling for the way the wind is blowing. I wonder if they've already discussed with AMD and TSMC the extent to which those two can deliver something like Lakefield -- small physical volume, het cores? Size/packaging-wise I suspect it's fine; the real problem is that AMD doesn't have a great small core, at least not right now.
AMD doesn't have a really small core. But Zen is supposed to pair down really well into a small core mostly by getting rid of L3. Super efficient and even more on N7 and at least with Apple you are seeing ARM cores battling AMD and Intel for size. So a Semi-custom turned retail embedded Ryzen setup with 4 ULW l3 cacheless Zen cores with like a Vega 3 level GPU would probably fit the bill for any real request for small cores.
The Pro X seems like the Surface that MS wants to make. The other Surface products they unveiled today seem like compatibility fall backs while the Pro X tests the possibility of gradually weaning the ecosystem off of x86 (it may not); they also appease users who need every last ounce of power or app compatibility.
Really Funny how people are attracted to this Pile of shit.
Allow me to fill the gap
First of all this is M$ we are talking, I wonder all the people who are cheering are enjoying their Windows 10 installation which constantly updates and breaks things so that they get Enterprise get stable releases. And how the latest fiasco of removing Local Account option from the Installation.
Next they blasted Win7 and 8.1 with Telemetry crap and bloatware on Win10 pre-installed like Candy Crush and ruining Windows permanently with As A Service model, esp enforcing Office platform to 365 subscription removed offering of a Standalone Office 2013/2016 type installs and forcing Click to Install office 2019 which works only on Win10.
Then let us take a look back at history, the death of Windows Phone, guess how the developers never showed interest when Nadella came to power ? Chevron Unlock, I don't know if the AT people know the Regedit and .cab extension execution on Windows Phone making it truly powerful pocket computer back in the day, that guy destoryed the developers who are doing that hacks by sending C&D lawyers to their homes and brought the whole site down and restarted by making a 99USD fee for development and removed options to hack and run Registry edit etc, google "Chevron Unlock XDA"
And how Surface lags and throttles all the time and battery issues to the goddamn garbage pricing, plus UEFI needing certification from Linux flavors. They have an Internal policy of "Embrace and Extinguish" and this perfectly suits with WSL agenda they have, the CEO wants to take all the OS installations on Enterprise from Linux to this WSL Windows by making the Kernel and Hypervisor and Containerization.
UEFI Class III has Flash Write Protection and disable CSM by ruining the BIOS controls this is already in place with all the BGA trash on the Notebook market no more CSM options so no more Win7, low level firmware to ship their Spyware tracking (LinkedIs is their own, they support NSA data collection program) and their Edge is now Chrome backed essentially killing options of Firefox by joining hands with the bigger enemy creating a tighter grip on the Internet. and Computing Hardware.
Their Win10X which is supposed to run on Custom Intel chip will be a castrated OS which can only run UWP garbage or run x86 in a container which won't have any controls on the Low level HW of the Computer, they killed USB3.0 drivers for Win7 and bribed Intel/AMD to run the new HW only on 10 and enforcing all the people to run their spyware junk with perpetual unstable OS by removing options.
The Chip will be custom like the AMD one and you won't control anything or tune it's performance, I suspect the ARM flavor won't have any kernel source or even if it has expect a custom Bootloader with ton of UEFI and million other Fuses that Qualcomm provides to enable a perfect chastised product.
And here we are people/normies are losing their mind. Sad that these revelations won't be popular as all are subverted.
Finally coming to HW, this doesn't have an SD slot for Expansion or running an OS on a Sideloader device like Switch or HTC HD2, or extra space for contingency storage, enforcing OneDrive bs. This one doesn't have a 3.5mm jack nor any Media consuming features except the shitty Surface Wireless buds which need another bloatware app (Bose app had some spyware issues, and all BT sets have this BS apps system to use and offer inferior sound massively low quality just for no wires, esp the Drivers they use and the Bitrate they have, even Sony true wireless junk doesn't have their own LDAC, forget AptX which is max 320kbps and AptXHD at sub 550Kbps without using BLE) It's a joke when all these companies are emulating Apple in building their own walls for Orwellian bsand draconian drama from BGA HW, (Oh the SSD on the new Pro X is a proprietary junk from the looks of it.) But yeah the Sheep are too much invested in these junk vs the last bastion left, DIY PC market.
It's okay to criticize Microsoft, but unfortunatly the alternative doesn't look much better either. Don't forget these devices are made for the average Joe and not for power users. 99% of Surface customers don't care about any of this.
funny, because they also announced Windows10X (that's Windows Ten Ten) will also be available holiday season 2020 (which is code for 4th quarter 2020.. or 2021 if it gets delayed). With this device coming out at the same time and using Android...it certainly sends a mixed message.
Thanks Andrei! I actually like the design, at least it doesn't try to be a seamless folding something with a soft, scratch-magnet screen retailing for $ 2000. I take the hinge and the gap for a clamshell dual screen instead any day. Here's to hope that Xiaomi or another Chinese manufacturer took notes and pictures, and comes out with one like this for about $ 300. Knowing MS, theirs will be $ 1000 and up, and start with 2 GB of RAM and minimal storage.
I know we are all excited MS is returning to the phone business and the Courier is becoming a reality, but this looks like a product with a very niche market. It doesn't look like it has a main camera (only a front camera). So it's probably not going to replace a phone. It's probably designed to more of a productivity device. I'm really not sure who this is for. At least for me the Surface Neo is a lot more interesting.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
58 Comments
Back to Article
gijames1225 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
I would totally buy a Microsoft Android phone. This looks far more robust than most phones, and I've already switch to using Microsoft's launcher and app suite on Android anyway.Curious to know when we can get some more details about the Ryzen for Surface processor announced. It's a strong vote of confidence in the chip that they're putting it in the new 15in workhorse laptop.
Gemuk - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Weren't they supposed to be 1) 3750U: 3700U with the full 11CUs enabled and 2) 3550U: 3500U with 9CU?Gemuk - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Ah, they seem to be named 3780U and 3580U insteadgijames1225 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
That makes a lot of sense. I'm more curious because reviews for the 3xxx series Ryzen mobile chips are scarce, even more so for premium devices. I'm interested to see how these stack up to the Intel offerings.d0x360 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Yea I would too and hopefully they forked Android and ripped out googles tracking nonsense..I mean if they don't it's ok because I use adguard and that blocks It all anyways but I'd rather it not be there.I also like the concept of the phone I just hope they use a nice powerful SOC and like 12 gigs of fast ram
mkozakewich - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
No chance of that. Their PCs still come with 4 GB to start.boozed - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
...and replace it with their own tracking nonsense?PeachNCream - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
You're pretty much boned by some gleeful creeper no matter what you do these days. Either Google is stalking you or Microsoft is mining your crap or any of a bunch of other competing companies are salivating over getting their filthy mitts on anything they can about you in order. It might all be in the name of selling pointless sh!t to you for now, but as that data lingers on for years, who knows what else will happen to it. I pity the dumb sheep that are buying up voice-activated, internet connected junk like Nest or Alexa in the name of not having to get their lazy butts off the recliner to adjust things manually.name99 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
But will it come with- removable battery
- headphone jack
- SD card slot
?
I've been reliably informed by the Internet that if it doesn't have at least those three items, it's an automatic won't-buy by the entire world population...
name99 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Oh god, I also forgot the mandatory fingerprint reader, not this new-fangled camera ID crap!Tams80 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Nice strawman you've made there. I suspect it was one person who believes everyone believes that, or, you know, you making it up/falling for a troll.Although, yes, all those features would be nice. Hell, most should be encouraged as they would make our devices less disposable, which, if you haven't noticed, might be something we need to do...
name99 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Tell me, traveler. Do they have jokes in the strange land where you come from?crimsonson - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
I wish I could up vote you.The Garden Variety - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
That makes two of us.PeachNCream - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
Three.nikon133 - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
Four... I would up-vote earlier, but i was laughing too hard to typeabrowne1993 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
We have jokes, but they're supposed to be funny.Tams80 - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
And what was the joke exactly? Seriously, there are multiple jokes that your nebulous joke could be.Quantumz0d - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
What a shameless Flamebait lol. Do these companies pay people to actually do this feat of doing less is good BS ?0ldman79 - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
For a lot of us not having those three makes it a non-starter, so yeah.Gemuk - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Not sure about the practicality and ergonomics because of how wide it is. That's easily 85mm+ across for each side.jordanclock - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
I feel like it's very practical if productivity is more important than using it like a phone. I would absolutely go for something like this if my job involved a bit more travel.s.yu - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
It'd better support Surface Pen.Tams80 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
I'd prefer Wacom EMR, but yeah, any stylus support would be welcome.prisonerX - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Looking at the current design it would seem that you would be holding it in that position the minority of the time. Or if you chose to buy it you don't really be looking to use the phone in that way much.Chaitanya - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
This is very interesting development. Also I hope MS goes with Android One for faster updates to Os.CU - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Looks like MS will release the Courier after all. Just 10 years later.KPOM - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Too bad Bill Gates nixed that idea back then.coburn_c - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
damn you beat me to itdezonio2 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Too bad that by the time this is released, the hardware will be almost 2 generations old...sorten - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
"Currently the prototype devices are said to be running Android 9 Pie with a Snapdragon 855 SoC – although these specifications are sure to change until the device’s actual launch."TristanSDX - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Let they add support for UWP apps, to their Android cloneprisonerX - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Please for the love of god no.skavi - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
why aren't they curving the screen inward at the middle edges to eliminate the gap? Didn't they have a patent to that effect?extide - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Microsoft selling a consumer linux device, the times have changed eh.PeachNCream - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
It is an odd day to see Microsoft hocking anything running a Linux kernel.slayernine - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
*THROWS MONEY AT SCREEN*GreenReaper - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
*screens clamp together like a mouth to chew it up*s.yu - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Headphone jack?imaheadcase - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Thats a joke right? lols.yu - Friday, October 4, 2019 - link
Half joke. It's a fat enough device to be fitting a jack in with absolutely no issue, and removing it is simply greed.I don't really need such a device, but if I do, I might tolerate 2 C ports, add another and forget about the jack.
GreenReaper - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
"If you bought this, you may be interested in the Surface Ear . . ."s.yu - Friday, October 4, 2019 - link
Nope, sticking with my CIEMs, and the PHA55BT if necessary.Valantar - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
So does the mention of the Surface Neo in the article mean there are more articles coming covering the rest of the lineup? This launch is very weird, seems like nobody is really covering it. Where are the tech specs? Where are the image galleries? Or did they only invite Youtubers this time?name99 - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
That's not the "weirdest" part. The eroding irrelevance of Intel to anything below the datacenter was on full display here.QC and AMD get full billing, lot's of talk about how great their specs are, and how willing they both are to add silicon, like an NPU.
But Intel will, one day, deliver Lakefield (apparently with *one* large core at a time when iPhones get two, and iPad Pro's get four large cores), and if Intel is one day going to add an inference NPU to its cores, it hasn't said anything yet.
Feels like MS (at least the part of MS that cares about Surface) has a feeling for the way the wind is blowing.
I wonder if they've already discussed with AMD and TSMC the extent to which those two can deliver something like Lakefield -- small physical volume, het cores? Size/packaging-wise I suspect it's fine; the real problem is that AMD doesn't have a great small core, at least not right now.
Topweasel - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
AMD doesn't have a really small core. But Zen is supposed to pair down really well into a small core mostly by getting rid of L3. Super efficient and even more on N7 and at least with Apple you are seeing ARM cores battling AMD and Intel for size. So a Semi-custom turned retail embedded Ryzen setup with 4 ULW l3 cacheless Zen cores with like a Vega 3 level GPU would probably fit the bill for any real request for small cores.Raqia - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
The Pro X seems like the Surface that MS wants to make. The other Surface products they unveiled today seem like compatibility fall backs while the Pro X tests the possibility of gradually weaning the ecosystem off of x86 (it may not); they also appease users who need every last ounce of power or app compatibility.coburn_c - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Holy crap they finally made the Courier. Only a decade behind schedule!Quantumz0d - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Really Funny how people are attracted to this Pile of shit.Allow me to fill the gap
First of all this is M$ we are talking, I wonder all the people who are cheering are enjoying their Windows 10 installation which constantly updates and breaks things so that they get Enterprise get stable releases. And how the latest fiasco of removing Local Account option from the Installation.
Next they blasted Win7 and 8.1 with Telemetry crap and bloatware on Win10 pre-installed like Candy Crush and ruining Windows permanently with As A Service model, esp enforcing Office platform to 365 subscription removed offering of a Standalone Office 2013/2016 type installs and forcing Click to Install office 2019 which works only on Win10.
Then let us take a look back at history, the death of Windows Phone, guess how the developers never showed interest when Nadella came to power ? Chevron Unlock, I don't know if the AT people know the Regedit and .cab extension execution on Windows Phone making it truly powerful pocket computer back in the day, that guy destoryed the developers who are doing that hacks by sending C&D lawyers to their homes and brought the whole site down and restarted by making a 99USD fee for development and removed options to hack and run Registry edit etc, google "Chevron Unlock XDA"
And how Surface lags and throttles all the time and battery issues to the goddamn garbage pricing, plus UEFI needing certification from Linux flavors. They have an Internal policy of "Embrace and Extinguish" and this perfectly suits with WSL agenda they have, the CEO wants to take all the OS installations on Enterprise from Linux to this WSL Windows by making the Kernel and Hypervisor and Containerization.
Quantumz0d - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
UEFI Class III has Flash Write Protection and disable CSM by ruining the BIOS controls this is already in place with all the BGA trash on the Notebook market no more CSM options so no more Win7, low level firmware to ship their Spyware tracking (LinkedIs is their own, they support NSA data collection program) and their Edge is now Chrome backed essentially killing options of Firefox by joining hands with the bigger enemy creating a tighter grip on the Internet. and Computing Hardware.
Their Win10X which is supposed to run on Custom Intel chip will be a castrated OS which can only run UWP garbage or run x86 in a container which won't have any controls on the Low level HW of the Computer, they killed USB3.0 drivers for Win7 and bribed Intel/AMD to run the new HW only on 10 and enforcing all the people to run their spyware junk with perpetual unstable OS by removing options.
The Chip will be custom like the AMD one and you won't control anything or tune it's performance, I suspect the ARM flavor won't have any kernel source or even if it has expect a custom Bootloader with ton of UEFI and million other Fuses that Qualcomm provides to enable a perfect chastised product.
And here we are people/normies are losing their mind. Sad that these revelations won't be popular as all are subverted.
Finally coming to HW, this doesn't have an SD slot for Expansion or running an OS on a Sideloader device like Switch or HTC HD2, or extra space for contingency storage, enforcing OneDrive bs. This one doesn't have a 3.5mm jack nor any Media consuming features except the shitty Surface Wireless buds which need another bloatware app (Bose app had some spyware issues, and all BT sets have this BS apps system to use and offer inferior sound massively low quality just for no wires, esp the Drivers they use and the Bitrate they have, even Sony true wireless junk doesn't have their own LDAC, forget AptX which is max 320kbps and AptXHD at sub 550Kbps without using BLE) It's a joke when all these companies are emulating Apple in building their own walls for Orwellian bsand draconian drama from BGA HW, (Oh the SSD on the new Pro X is a proprietary junk from the looks of it.) But yeah the Sheep are too much invested in these junk vs the last bastion left, DIY PC market.
5080 - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
It's okay to criticize Microsoft, but unfortunatly the alternative doesn't look much better either. Don't forget these devices are made for the average Joe and not for power users. 99% of Surface customers don't care about any of this.HardwareDufus - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
funny, because they also announced Windows10X (that's Windows Ten Ten) will also be available holiday season 2020 (which is code for 4th quarter 2020.. or 2021 if it gets delayed). With this device coming out at the same time and using Android...it certainly sends a mixed message.wr3zzz - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
It certainly will be too heavy as a phone. More interesting if it runs Windows.eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Thanks Andrei! I actually like the design, at least it doesn't try to be a seamless folding something with a soft, scratch-magnet screen retailing for $ 2000. I take the hinge and the gap for a clamshell dual screen instead any day. Here's to hope that Xiaomi or another Chinese manufacturer took notes and pictures, and comes out with one like this for about $ 300. Knowing MS, theirs will be $ 1000 and up, and start with 2 GB of RAM and minimal storage.s.yu - Friday, October 4, 2019 - link
My previous phone from 2015 had 3GB of RAM...they need to stop insulting peoples' intelligence.ET - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
This has a real coolness factor for me, but price would probably be too high (for something that I don't really need).Would be interesting to see what kind of OS updates Microsoft provides for Android devices over time.
alexvoda - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
I know we are all excited MS is returning to the phone business and the Courier is becoming a reality, but this looks like a product with a very niche market. It doesn't look like it has a main camera (only a front camera). So it's probably not going to replace a phone. It's probably designed to more of a productivity device. I'm really not sure who this is for. At least for me the Surface Neo is a lot more interesting.boozed - Thursday, October 3, 2019 - link
I suppose Microsoft no longer considers Linux to be a cancer?