After opening pre-orders early last month and announcing a delay in shipment in mid-July, Microsoft has finally revealed that its giant "conference tablet" called Surface Hub will not ship until January 1, 2016.
The tech giant debuted this conferencing tool, or should we say "wall computer," during its Windows 10-related event back in January. In April, it once again highlighted the Surface Hub during a developer conference and invited software developers to begin specific application development. Microsoft enticed interested researchers with a $25,000 research grant.
On July 1, the company opened pre-orders for its massive 55- and 84-inch touchscreen Surface Hub. It was mentioned that these wide-surfaced computers are designed to make workplace collaboration & conferencing a more efficient and productive experience.
However, days afterwards the company revealed in an official blog post that it was postponing shipments. Now, it has become apparent just how long that delay will be. The same blog post was recently updated to announce that the Surface Hub will start shipping on the first day of 2016.
Microsoft earlier explained that the decision to delay the device was made because of overwhelming demand. The company clarified that rescheduling the rollout at a later date would provide it more time to increase production, and scale its logistics channels properly with its partners. That way, the company will be able to provide a smoother launch for its customers.
For a quick overview, both models of the upcoming Surface Hub will be packed with the following specs and features:
- Custom Windows 10 'out of the box' OS
- Two Surface Pens
- Microsoft All-in-One media keyboard
- Two front-facing cameras
- Dual front-facing speakers and microphone
- Ethernet port
- Bluetooth module
- Wi-Fi adapter
- 1 USB 3.0 port
- 2 USB 2.0 ports
- Miracast support
- NFC
On the other hand, the main difference lies with the models' chipset. The smaller 55-inch Surface Hub is going to be powered by Intel's Core i5 processor, a display resolution of 1080p, 128 GB of SSD memory and 8GB RAM.
The 84-inch model, aside from its heftier size, is apparently a more powerful version of its tinier sibling. It will be equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor, a screen resolution of 3840x2160, and it will be armed with NVIDIA's Quadro K2200 GPU for better graphics performance.
Though the specifications of these large-screen conference tools are impressive, buyers should really prepared their pockets as the 55-inch model is priced at $6,999. The 84-inch version, meanwhile, will require them to shell out $19,999.
