Windows 10 news recap: New devices, but no new builds

Welcome back to the Windows 10 news recap. This week kicked off with Microsoft announcing a number of new Windows 10 devices. First up, was the Surface Pro 4, the next version of the ever-popular Surface Pro line. It features a full array of 6^th generation Intel Core m3, i5, and i7 processor, with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB of RAM configurations, as well as up to a 1TB of storage. The new Surface Pro 4 is thinner, down from 9.1mm to 8.4mm. Panay brags that the only reason the Surface team didn’t make it thinner was because they had to fit a full-sized USB port. Which highly suggests that in the future, when USB-C is more common, we will see even thinner Surface Pro devices.
Microsoft also announced the Surface Book, which is essentially a Surface laptop of sorts. Microsoft is touting the Surface Book as “the fastest 13-inch laptop anywhere on the planet” and, portentously, as the “Ultimate Laptop.” Panay took some time to describe all of the feeds and speeds with subdued wit, and many people were excited that Microsoft had produced a laptop machine but a little perplexed at the same time. This seemed to be the ultimate example of Microsoft reinventing a category to, perhaps, show their OEMs how great Windows 10 devices can be designed and built.
There were also new Windows 10 Mobile devices, the Lumia 950, 950 XL and 550. As far as the specifications are concerned, the Lumia 950 rocks a 5.2-inch display sporting a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor. There’s 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot which supports up to 200GB of additional storage and ships with Windows 10 Mobile out of the box. There’s a 20MP PureView camera for photos and videos, as well as a 5MP front-facing camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery to make sure you don’t run out of juice at important times.
The bigger Lumia 950 XL carries most of the traits of the Lumia 950, but has some noticeable changes when it comes to hardware. The handset boasts a bigger 5.7-inch display sporting a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. The phablet also comes with a slightly powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and Adreno 430 GPU compared to Adreno 418 in the Lumia 950. Furthermore, there’s a bigger 3,340 mAh battery to make sure you get a decent battery time.
Also this week, Microsoft announced that internally, the company was having a few issues with new builds, which ultimately meant there would be no new builds this past week. In response to a question from Twitter user Mark Siepel,, Gabe revealed that the newest mobile build is “in the final ring”; but a PC build seemingly delayed because of “a challenging bug” that they still need time working on. Overall, optimists can revel in the fact that we may get a new mobile build very soon in the next days, while pessimists will have to while away the hours, knowing that there is no happy dance today.
So that’s all for this week. What was your favorite story? Let us know below.