Microsoft Reveals New Band 2, Lumia Phones, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book

[MacRumors]

At a media event today, Microsoft announced a handful of new products and several updates to existing products coming from the company in 2015 and beyond. Topics for today's event included the Microsoft Band 2, Lumia 950 and 950 XL smartphones, Microsoft Surface Pro 4, and the all-new Surface Book.

The company started off by going into detail about the Microsoft Band 2, the second version of last year's wearable device. Microsoft said it took in a great amount of customer feedback in designing and implementing the new Band, which includes a new curved screen with durable Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and an improved touch display. New Cortana integration lets users speak to the Band in order to send texts and make reminders, and the device also includes a barometer that measures elevation for everything from hiking to climbing stairs.

The company's Microsoft Health app fuels the Band and lets users dig deeply into the data on everything from calorie burns to estimated recovery time for particularly intense workouts. The Band even includes an extensive golf measurement feature that can interpret the stroke of a swing and includes a score card that the company says is like "having your own personal caddy" on your wrist. Third-party partnerships with companies like Uber and Facebook are also incoming for the Microsoft Band 2, which will be available on October 30 for $249.

Microsoft then announced the Lumia 950 and 950 XL which are the newest iterations of the Lumia smartphone line, with 5.2-inch and 5.5-inch displays, respectively. Each of the new phones include a new feature called Glance Screen which showcases important pieces of information when a user pulls the phone out of his or her pocket, without the need to interact with the device directly and without using battery life. The Lumia 950 line also includes a 20-megapixel camera, Triple LED RGB natural flash, optical image stabilization, and a dedicated camera button on the side of the phone.


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Article Link: Microsoft Reveals New Band 2, Lumia Phones, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book

 

[mellomike]

The Surface Book looks great, only problem is... it runs Windows..

 

[iLoveiTunes]

Wow... Impressive stuff Microsoft.
Kudos !

 

[SSD-GUY]

Dat gap when the SurfaceBook is closed tho'.

 

[d0minick]

That surface book is amazing. Microsoft really capturing the excitement. Hope Apple hits back!

I'm in the market for a new laptop. My 2010MBP has to give out sometime... right?

 

[sunapple]

Surface Book is the device that can push Apple to the land of hybrids. This is the future.

 

[thekeyring]

Far more interesting than the two Nexus phones Google announced.

 

[captain cadet]

Was the big thing with the original Microsoft band that to use speech you needed a Windows Phone or wait until Cortanna came to Android or IOS - yet were still waiting for it!

 

[The Robot Cow]

I'm really impressed with the Surface Pro 4. I'm even considering selling my Air 2 to get one. It seems to do things out of the box what i wish my iPad did.
Good job Microsoft.

 

[Crosscreek]

MS claims Surface Book is more powerful than MacBook Pro which maybe true until next generation processors are introduced in an upgraded MacBook Pro.

 

[shanson27]

But still Windows

 

[GubbyMan]

Lumia 950 XL is 5.7". Not 5.5" as stated in the article.

 

[chriscrk]

Great that they're going strong on competition. Hopefully it pushes Apple to make even better things and the consumer wins

 

[alexgowers]

YAWN, seriously they ape'd the macbook pro so close then totally ruined it with that awful hinge and hinge gap! The major downside of all this MS tech is windows, which stinks so bad, especially on a phone. They really are gonna feel so much pain on all these products as they fail to sell in any meaningful numbers at any meaningful prices. MS should just sell office and be done with it.

 

[Jett0516]

Out of all the names in this world...they had to use "book"

smh

 

[Tubamajuba]

I love my MacBook, but I also love that Microsoft is helping to push laptops forward- it's not just good competition for Apple; it's good competition for HP, Dell, Lenovo, and other PC manufacturers as well.

Microsoft introduced some fantastic hardware today!

 

[Serban]

So Surface book has laptop performance only with the keyboard attached ?! no thank you, the gap and the closing mechanism still aren't perfect. If you want a laptop you will buy a macbook pro, or for gamers an alieware for that price, if you want a tablet you buy an ipad air/pro, if you want a hybrid buy the surface pro 4
So the idea of Surface book is dead from the start

 

[Nalmond92]

That surface book looks hideous though...

 

[cclloyd]

The Surface Pen...

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

They're going to get beat up on that claim about the fastest laptop anywhere.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

What's boxy, weighs too much, costs $1.5K to $3K, has an armadillo hinge and doesn't know whether it wants to a tablet or a laptop?

 

[Crosscreek]

Hardware is not as important as a stable OS. I'll take OS X over Windows anytime.

 

[Popeye206]

Interesting things. Good to see MS waking up after the Balmer years of floundering. For some reason the detachable screen for laptops does not excite me at all. I guess I'm just too accustomed to using a laptop for real work and a tablet for play.

 

[urkel]

Interesting things. Good to see MS waking up after the Balmer years of floundering. For some reason the detachable screen for laptops does not excite me at all. I guess I'm just too accustomed to using a laptop for real work and a tablet for play.

Wait until you actually try one.

It really does seem gimmicky to detach a screen but (of the OS is tweaked to handle it) then it's a huge convenience.

Apple already has a solid desktop OS and a passable tablet OS so it really wouldn't take much for Apple to evolve the MacBook.

 

[Dwalls90]

Competition is important. This is great.