HP surprises with new Win10 Elite X3 phone

Windows phones have never really gotten anywhere in the consumer market, limited only to a very small niche of users. But that doesn’t really seem to matter to HP as the company has unveiled a new high-end smartphone called the Elite X3 that runs on Windows 10 and is designed to take the place of your smartphone, laptop, and desktop PC.

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HP plans to accomplish this by designing the Elite X3 around Continuum, a feature of Windows 10 that lets Windows-based smartphones act like a full Windows computer by plugging it into a larger display or dock. So along with the Elite X3, HP is also selling a pair of accessories specifically to accommodate the use of Continuum.

The first is a small Desk Dock which features a slew of ports including two regular USB ports, one USB Type-C port, a DisplayPort, and an Ethernet port, which can turn the Elite X3 into a full desktop computer. The second is what HP is calling the Mobile Extender, a laptop-looking accessory that is pretty much a display, a keyboard, and a battery, which turns into a full Windows laptop when wirelessly connected to the Elite X3.

One big hurdle that HP needs to cross with the Elite X3 though is its inability to run full desktop software so HP is building its own suit of software that will allow the Elite X3 to run full desktop software from the cloud. Whether that solution will work well, if at all, is still unknown but it’s definitely a good start to bridging the gap between mobile and desktop Windows 10 and extend the use of Continuum.

To accommodate HP’s plan for the Elite X3, the company definitely had to equip its latest smartphone with some pretty hefty hardware. The Elite X3 features a 6-inch Quad HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, support for up to a 2TB microSD card, an iris scanner on the front of the device as well as a fingerprint sensor on the back, and a larger 4150mAh battery.

HP says there’s no price or released date for the Elite X3 or its accessories yet and the reason for its unveiling at MWC 2016 is so that it could start connecting and working with partners on the virtual apps the new device will use with Continuum.