During the annual Microsoft Ignite shindig, being held in Orlando, the new Surface Hub was unveiled. And while it won’t be available until around the middle of next year, it promises to deliver some innovative new features.
In some ways, the Surface Hub is the forgotten child of the Surface family. While the Surface name first appeared as a desktop product, it quickly shifted to Microsoft’s mobile products with the Surface Pro, Surface Book Surface Laptop and recently released Surface Go garnering lots of attention and strong sales. The Surface Studio is the company’s expensive excursion into desktop computing but the Surface Hub is focussed on a different market – the meeting room and boardroom.
The first variant of the Surface Hub 2 will arrive in the second quarter of next year. Dubbed the Surface Hub 2S, it will feature a rotating 50.5-inch display that can be used in either portrait or landscape mode, depending on what you need. Multiple users can share the new Surface Hub as they can log in using their fingerprint and the new device will boast 4K cameras and an edge-to-edge display.
In 2020, Microsoft will release the second member of the Surface Hub 2 family. The Surface Hub 2X will look a lot like the 2S but will allow you to easily tile an array of Surface Hub devices into a multi-panel system. If you decide to buy the Surface Hub 2S when it’s released, a hardware upgrade, that will involve plugging in a CPU cartridge, will allow you to switch a Surface Hub 2S into a 2X.
That’s a pretty neat trick I think.
There’s no word on pricing but with competition for similar devices ramping up – Google Jamboard costs about half what Microsoft currently charges for the Surface Hub – which is a hefty $13,499 for the 55-inch version and $34,099 for the 84-inch model.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.