If Microsoft can't deliver Windows 10X, what should it do with Surface Neo?

Surface Neo Source: Zac Bowden | Windows Central

Contempo reports are suggesting that Windows 10X is not happening anytime shortly. Afterward being delayed in 2022 with the visitor promising a shift in strategy to single-screened PCs, Microsoft now appears to have put the whole thing on concord. That ways the Surface Neo is Os-less, and that's non practiced.

We've not had an official update nigh Windows 10X or Surface Neo in over a yr, which gives the impression that Microsoft doesn't actually know what to do with Windows 10X now that Sunday Valley for Windows ten desktop is in the works. As a refresher, Sun Valley is a UI effort that aims to reinvigorate Windows Desktop with a modernistic interface, new features, and better functioning beyond PC and tablet form factors.

Windows 10X was a promising thought; a modern version of Windows that is more secure, with faster Windows Updates, a modern and fresh desktop UI, and a smaller footprint in size and lower performance requirements. On newspaper, it'south the best version of Windows yet, but in exercise, information technology's non the best version of "Windows" at all. Windows 10X is a version of Windows without native support for the majority of Windows applications.

Surface Neo Twopane Source: Microsoft

Windows applications are made up of generally legacy Win32 apps, with a small number of apps adopting Microsoft's modern universal Windows 10 app platform. It's the universal app platform that runs "natively" on Windows 10X, with Win32 apps being delegated to running in a virtualized container. This is more secure, but information technology comes at the cost of app performance every bit to get those apps running, the Os needs to essentially spin up full Windows x in the background.

Microsoft has been considering shipping Windows 10X without Win32 virtualization support at launch because running those apps on a depression-finish PC is untenable. Only even then, we don't know if Microsoft will actually ship Windows 10X at this indicate. A lot has changed in the concluding yr, and Sun Valley has taken precedent internally as the virtually important thing for Windows today.

Ship the Surface Neo with Windows ten (not 10X)

Surface Neo Source: Microsoft

So, if Windows 10X doesn't ship, what volition Microsoft do with Surface Neo or the OEM partners who were edifice dual-screen/foldable PCs with Windows 10X in mind? I think the answer is obvious, and there's already precedent for this; ship it with another operating system. This is the story of Surface Duo, which was starting time envisioned as a Windows device but shipped every bit an Android device.

I'k not saying Microsoft should transport Surface Neo with Android — that's the last thing I want to see happen. Nobody wants Microsoft to make an Android PC/tablet hybrid like the Neo, equally Android is notoriously bad on those kind of form factors. Microsoft's fourth dimension would be better spent improving the tablet experience on Windows 10 instead.

With Sun Valley, I have a feeling that Microsoft is taking touch and pen experiences seriously once more. This is good news for a device like Surface Neo, which puts those input types front and eye. The only event stopping Surface Neo from shipping with Windows 10 right at present is the static and sometime Windows interface that isn't adaptable to the many postures that Surface Neo introduces.

Microsoft could fix this with Sun Valley past introducing a modern interface that tin adapt to the Surface Neo's three main postures: book mode, laptop manner, and tablet fashion. Windows 10 already supports dual-screens, which with some tweaks, could work nicely with the book posture.

Windows 10 also already has a tablet mode, which isn't great, but assuming Sun Valley fixes top complaints, that effect is partially solved. But Windows x is missing a dedicated laptop mode for the Surface Neo and indeed other foldable PCs. It'south 1 of the reasons why Lenovo'southward Yoga X1 Fold isn't great to use, after shipping with full Windows that doesn't have a "laptop" manner.

Windows 10X Source: Microsoft

Microsoft would demand to introduce a mode that could recognize when a foldable device was being used in the laptop posture. On Windows 10X, the Bone shifts the desktop UI to i side and places the virtual keyboard and trackpad on the other. Interestingly, Microsoft has already introduced the Windows 10X bear upon keyboard on the desktop in the latest Insider builds, which fifty-fifty includes the "Wunderbar."

A virtual trackpad is already built into Windows desktop too. All Microsoft needs to exercise is combine those and marshal them correctly on one half of the display, when a user initiates the laptop posture, and you've got yourself a working laptop mode for a device like Surface Neo or the Lenovo X1 Fold. That's oversimplifying the work required to make this happen, only the plumbing for something similar this seems to already be in place.

Fourth dimension will tell

Microsoft employee with Surface Neo Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Key

All in all, I don't know what Microsoft is going to do with Surface Neo. Maybe Microsoft will eventually send it with Windows 10X if the OS is ever accounted prepare, but the Surface Neo's hardware is aging fast, and the longer the company waits, the harder a sell the Surface Neo (as announced) will be. People were already complaining nigh the bezels in 2022, and past the time it ships, it volition have been years.

If Microsoft wants to relieve what they accept regarding the hardware, it needs to launch ASAP, and that could happen if they just ship it with the Lord's day Valley release of Windows 10. The other benefits of Windows Core Bone (WCOS) such as faster Windows updates are things that Surface Neo will but have to miss out on, but that's improve than not having a hazard to use the hardware at all.

I think (hope) that with Sun Valley, Windows x desktop will exist in a much improve position to ship on a device like Surface Neo. Only what are your thoughts? Should Microsoft transport it with Windows 10 desktop, sit on it until Windows 10X is set up, or if Windows 10X never ships, outright cancel information technology? Allow us know in the comments.

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