Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2 has had quite an interesting rollout. After officially announcing the Surface Hub 2, Microsoft introduced two different versions of the device: the Hub 2S and the Hub 2X.
Back in April, Microsoft launched the Surface Hub 2S, while promising to launch the Hub 2X in 2020. The Surface Hub 2S essentially offered almost all the features like the 2X, albeit removing some of the core parts of the Surface Hub 2 hardware like the rotating display.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
[ad unit=’in_content_premium_block’]
And now, as it turns out, Microsoft may not actually ever ship the Surface Hub 2X. Brad Sams today reported on Petri.com that Microsoft has internally delayed the Surface Hub 2X, and it will not be shipping this year as originally planned.
Microsoft has also pulled the original Surface Hub 2 video and any other content related to the Hub 2X, further corroborating the report.
“We have an ongoing dialogue with our customers on Hub and are working to align the roadmap to best meet their needs. The top two priorities for Hub in 2020 are deploying the 85” device and rolling out an OS update that includes many top features customers have been requesting since Surface Hub 2S launched, including improving IT integration, deployment and management capabilities at no cost for all version 1 Hubs and Hub 2S devices. We’ll have more to share in the coming months,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.
It is not exactly clear why Microsoft is delaying the Surface Hub 2X, but apparently delays caused in the development of Windows Core OS has caused delayed in the developement of the Surface Hub 2X, pushing Microsoft to delay the product. It’s also a possibility that the Surface Hub 2X may not actually ever ship. So for now, Microsoft will push customers to buy the Surface Hub 2S as the 2X seems to have been delayed indefinitely.
proesterchen
<p>Turns out it's impossible to do what the promos showed: no-latency, no rubber banding rotation on a single display, much less a set of displays.</p><p><br></p><p>So it's delayed until time travel becomes available … or potential customers have forgotten the lofty promises. Whichever comes first.</p>
proesterchen
<blockquote><em><a href="#517219">In reply to bluvg:</a></em></blockquote><p>If you want to know why rotation is locked on these units, look no further than the demos at Ignite 2018.</p><p><br></p><p>It doesn't even hold up when people trained to present this product in its best light have to do the rotation in front of a live audience.</p><p><br></p><p>Any illusion of this working as in their faked demo videos would instantly shatter the moment the general public had a go at it.</p>
proesterchen
<blockquote><em><a href="#517262">In reply to Truffles:</a></em></blockquote><p>Every time I've seen the Surface Hub (then) 2 demoed on video, you can see how, despite the training of the person carrying out said demo, the rotation doesn't start at first, then jumps to a point that is behind the actual rotation of the display, leading to the image shown being off kilter, and finally jumping back into a locked position rather than smoothly transitioning.</p><p><br></p><p>All this while the rotation speed is kept intentionally low to minimize the effect.</p><p><br></p><p>And this isn't based on the team being asked to implement this being necessarily incompetent. It's simply physically impossible to do this perfectly.</p>
proesterchen
<blockquote><em><a href="#517221">In reply to YouWereWarned:</a></em></blockquote><p>Bezel-less is here, time travel, or even Windows being an RTOS as a first approximate step is not.</p>