 Microsoft has been obsessed with giant displays for years. If you've ever seen older future vision videos that they've produced, you would have seen giant displays hanging on walls with people interacting with them, collaboration, that kind of stuff. Well the future has well and truly arrived. This is Surface Hub 2. At first this looks like a beautifully designed TV on wheels but it's what's inside and out that counts and it kind of puts this beyond what a TV does right now and even the conference room TVs that you might use at your workplace. So let's start with the hardware. Compared to the original 55 inch model, Microsoft has now opted for a 50 inch display with a 3 by 2 aspect ratio instead of the 16 by 9 before. This display runs at greater than 4k resolution thanks to the aspect ratio and it has integrated speakers and tiny 15.5 millimeter bezels. The whole unit is 60% thinner than before and Microsoft is using extra gorilla glass with a matte finish to bring down some of that glare that you might get off of the usual TV that's in a conference room. You'll notice this display is mounted on a stand which Microsoft has developed with Steelcase. It allows this display to be moved around room to room and they've also carefully designed the 4k camera on the top so that if you move it around you smash it into the wall it like snaps back so that it doesn't completely crash off at the top of the device. There's even an optional battery that you can slot into the base of the stand that will give you around about two hours on battery life. So let's dig into exactly what you can do with all this hardware. Like the Surface Hub before this display runs Windows 10 team. It's designed to run Microsoft's universal Windows apps and that means apps like Word, Whiteboard, Microsoft Teams and many others will run just fine on here. Microsoft has done some special work on the screen bonding to make the pen experience a little better and it will instantly pair as soon as you touch the display. You can even snap it to the side of the display just like a Surface Pro. Because of the combination of touch, stylus input and the 3 by 2 aspect ratio you can get some pretty interesting software experiences here. The idea is to increase collaboration for meeting rooms or to allow workers to wheel this to locations where meetings might not typically be held. Microsoft is shipping this right now with its regular sort of modified version of Windows 10 but next year it plans to release a processor cartridge that you'll just simply slot into the back of the device. This processor cartridge has the CPU, RAM and the GPU inside and next year's particular cartridge for the upgrade will include a more powerful GPU at least. That cartridge will also enable some of the more interesting software experiences that Microsoft isn't enabling just yet. One of those big ones is a screen rotation, we've seen that before and there's also the ability to tile up to four of these side by side. For businesses that want something a little bit bigger, Microsoft is even announcing an 85 inch version of the Surface Hub 2 in a 16 by 9 aspect ratio but the company isn't showing that new model just yet. Businesses in the US will be able to start placing orders today and those will be fulfilled and delivered in June this year. Pricing for the 50 inch model starts at $9,000. Microsoft is also going to send it as a monitor for a slightly less and the stand is sold separately for $1449. The battery pack I mentioned earlier on is around about $1400 as well. Microsoft hasn't announced its 2x processor cartridge pricing just yet. When you add that all up, it's a staggering nearly $12,000 for this device if you want everything. The future certainly doesn't come cheap. Okay that was a quick look at the Surface Hub 2. If you want to see more devices like this or anything else, check out The Verge's YouTube channel at youtube.com for The Verge or theverge.com
 Microsoft has been obsessed with giant displays for years. If you've ever seen
 older future vision videos that they've produced, you would have seen giant
 displays hanging on walls with people interacting with them, collaboration, that
 kind of stuff. Well the future has well and truly arrived. This is Surface Hub 2.
 At first this looks like a beautifully designed TV on wheels but it's
 what's inside and out that counts and it kind of puts this beyond what a TV does
 right now and even the conference room TVs that you might use at your workplace.
 So let's start with the hardware. Compared to the original 55 inch model,
 Microsoft has now opted for a 50 inch display with a 3 by 2 aspect ratio
 instead of the 16 by 9 before. This display runs at greater than 4k
 resolution thanks to the aspect ratio and it has integrated speakers and tiny
 15.5 millimeter bezels. The whole unit is 60% thinner than before and Microsoft is
 using extra gorilla glass with a matte finish to bring down some of that glare
 that you might get off of the usual TV that's in a conference room. You'll
 notice this display is mounted on a stand which Microsoft has developed with
 Steelcase. It allows this display to be moved around room to room and they've
 also carefully designed the 4k camera on the top so that if you move it around you
 smash it into the wall it like snaps back so that it doesn't completely crash off
 at the top of the device. There's even an optional battery that you can slot into
 the base of the stand that will give you around about two hours on battery life.
 So let's dig into exactly what you can do with all this hardware. Like the
 Surface Hub before this display runs Windows 10 team. It's designed to run
 Microsoft's universal Windows apps and that means apps like Word, Whiteboard,
 Microsoft Teams and many others will run just fine on here. Microsoft has done
 some special work on the screen bonding to make the pen experience a little
 better and it will instantly pair as soon as you touch the display. You can
 even snap it to the side of the display just like a Surface Pro. Because of the
 combination of touch, stylus input and the 3 by 2 aspect ratio you can get some
 pretty interesting software experiences here. The idea is to increase
 collaboration for meeting rooms or to allow workers to wheel this to locations
 where meetings might not typically be held. Microsoft is shipping this right
 now with its regular sort of modified version of Windows 10 but next year it
 plans to release a processor cartridge that you'll just simply slot into the
 back of the device. This processor cartridge has the CPU, RAM and the GPU
 inside and next year's particular cartridge for the upgrade will include a
 more powerful GPU at least. That cartridge will also enable some of the
 more interesting software experiences that Microsoft isn't enabling just yet.
 One of those big ones is a screen rotation, we've seen that before and there's
 also the ability to tile up to four of these side by side. For businesses that
 want something a little bit bigger, Microsoft is even announcing an 85 inch
 version of the Surface Hub 2 in a 16 by 9 aspect ratio but the company isn't
 showing that new model just yet. Businesses in the US will be able to
 start placing orders today and those will be fulfilled and delivered in June
 this year. Pricing for the 50 inch model starts at $9,000. Microsoft is also
 going to send it as a monitor for a slightly less and the stand is sold
 separately for $1449. The battery pack I mentioned earlier on is around about
 $1400 as well. Microsoft hasn't announced its 2x processor cartridge
 pricing just yet. When you add that all up, it's a staggering nearly $12,000 for
 this device if you want everything. The future certainly doesn't come cheap.
 Okay that was a quick look at the Surface Hub 2. If you want to see more
 devices like this or anything else, check out The Verge's YouTube channel at
 youtube.com for The Verge or theverge.com