Microsoft recently made few recommendations to its hardware partners on what should be packed inside their next Windows 10 tablets and smartphones for better user experience. It seems like the tech firm does not treat all tablets as equal as they won’t be running the full power of Windows 10.
Microsoft categorizes tablets on screen sizes
Microsoft has categorized the tablets into – 7-inch tablets, 8-inch tablets and “Large Tablets.” Tablets ranging from 10.1 inches to 12.5 inches fall in the last category. Such a categorization hints that the company has no plans of making the Surface Pro 4 any larger than that, says SlashGear.
Recommended hardware varies widely for these tablets, but Microsoft is using screen size to club them together. For instance, Microsoft wants the owners of the 7-inch tablets to be able to use it in a somewhat desktop-like experience when they attach it to an external display and input devices. Therefore, it recommends running Windows 10 mobile with support for Continuum for Phones. This sort of puts the 7-inch tablets in the same position as Windows RT, limited to apps available on the Windows store only.
This could be the reason Microsoft is constantly asking developers to write Universal apps, but it will take time. Until then, users of 7-inch tablets will feel the lack of regular win32 apps whether they run on an Intel or ARM device, says SlashGear.
Windows 10 smartphones categorized on hardware inside
Microsoft has categorized smartphones as “Value Phones”, “Premium Phones”, and “Value Phablets.” It must be noted that there is no classification of “Premium Phablets.” The distinction here is not based on the screen size, but on the type of hardware used inside such as the CPU and amount of RAM.
For the smartphones, configurations vary much more than the tablets, and there is no one size fits all for them. Interestingly, the implementation of Continuum for Phones is recommended for the Premium Phones only. The Premium Phones and Value Phones get Windows Hello provided they have the required hardware.
Unlike Apple, Microsoft does not have the power to dictate the hardware, but it has tried to reveal what it has in mind, when it envisions how Windows 10 will be spread to consumers. Microsoft recommendations are not only for the OEMs, but also for the end-users, who now know that they can’t expect a full Windows 10 experience on a 7-inch Windows tablet. But, these are just recommendations, and Microsoft is not Apple, so OEMs are free to make their decisions.
