Microsoft unveiled a range of products which included a pair of new Windows 10 powered smartphones Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, along with the Surface Pro 4 and more on Oct. 6, Tuesday. Microsoft's flagship Lumia smartphones and the Surface Pro 4 are the clear contenders against Apple and Google's attempt to come out with their own Windows 10 notebook versions.
With the main event, Microsoft not only made the Windows 10 mobile operating system official, but also made a rather daring claim that its Surface Pro 4 runs 50 percent faster than the MacBook Air by Apple, USA Today reported.
Same as the MacBook Pro, Microsoft's Surface Book is a superior notebook that is primarily created for avid gamers and for people with serious creative inclination. On the other hand the Surface Pro 4 takes pride in its pen with an eraser which is missing with the Apple iPad Pro Pencil accessory.
The Surface Pro 4 also sports an easily detachable and portable 13.5-inch display, weighs only 1.6 pounds when detached, and boasts a battery life of 12-hours that competes with Apple's MacBook Pro claims. However, the main difference is the operating system, which is Windows 10 in case of Surface Pro and Mac OS X in case of MacBook Air.
On the contrary, Microsoft still stands a slim chance with its new Lumia phones. Apart from the fact that the Windows 10 flagship phones inherits some of the common Microsoft properties such as, OneDrive, Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft Windows Store and others, the market-share for Windows enabled phones globally is even lower than 3% and hence, still needs to catch up with the popularity of Android and iOS.
According to The Verge, while the Lumia 950 runs on a Snapdragon Processor (with a liquid cooling feature), offers a 5.2-inch screen, 20-megapixel PureView rear camera and the Windows Hello feature that allows the user to unlock the phone just by flashing their faces to the screen, the Lumia 950 XL on the other hand boasts a huge screen size of 5.7-inch with all other similar features except the processor.
Both the flagship phones are due for release in November with the Lumia 950 tagged at $549 and the Lumia 950 XL at $649.