HP Will Offer a Gold Version of Elite x3

Some support documentation for the upcoming Windows 10 Mobile-based Elite x3 smart phone doesn’t provide too much in the way of new information, beyond one cute touch: it will come in a gold version too.

What that means is that there will be two color schemes: graphite/chrome, and gold/gold. But that latter option will not be available in all countries, leading me to guess it’s aimed at China for the most part.

Also new is the addition of HP’s new premium corporate logo, which will adorn all Elite, Spectre and Envy products going forward. (It first appeared on the HP Spectre laptop I’m now reviewing.) This wasn’t new to me—it was on the Elite x3 I played around with back in June—but it was easy enough to predict.

The documentation also notes that the fingerprint reader will not be functional until a post-1607 update, but HP said that would probably be the case at the device’s February unveiling. The update will arrive over-the-air (OTA) sometime in the Fall, HP says.

Beyond that, there’s nothing new. The HP Elite x3 is still a very high-end smart phone with its nearly 6-inch screen, Snapdragon 820 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of internal storage. It’s still very much only targeting businesses that will buy the product in volume with a subscription-based service plan. And it still does absolutely nothing to solve the Windows phone app gap, meaning that its users will need to make do with complex remote desktop services that will deliver Windows desktop applications to the device while it’s docked to a keyboard, mouse, and display.

The HP Elite x3 might also correctly be seen as a prototype for the coming Microsoft Surface phone. Assuming that device does ship publicly, I expect it to be very similar to the x3.

Thanks to everyone who tipped me off to this documentation.

Update: Windows Central notes that “he HP Elite X3 Windows 10 Mobile phone might not work on Verizon’s network.” We’ve known since February that the Elite x3 will not work with Verizon. –Paul