• Windows Phone Area
• On July 8, 2017

ARM64 build of Andromeda OS tested on a new mobile-type device

It was February, when we first told you about Project Andromeda – the evolution of Windows 10 Mobile that adapts to the device in real time thanks to Windows 10’s Composable Shell (CShell). According to our sources (read more here), the new mobile experience should be unveiled to the masses along with a top-secret device codenamed Andromeda, and this device will run an ARM64 build of the new OS with Composable shell. Furthermore, an ARM32 WoW layer in Andromeda OS for ARM will allow users to run modernized Win32 apps from the Store, significantly boosting the Windows 10 Mobile’s Continuum feature.

The Andromeda device (you can also call it the ‘Surface Phone‘, although it may not look like a phone), will be the flagman for Microsoft’s new mobile ambitions, supposedly not competing with traditional smartphone manufacturers, but instead creating a new market category.

Yesterday, new information about Microsoft’s Andromeda device popped up, revealed by Brad Sams during a podcast. Brad Sams has heard from two independent sources within Microsoft that the new mobile device is actively under testing, but the software is still ‘extremely buggy’.

Alex Kipman, known with the development of HoloLens, is said to be working on the Andromeda device, and the device is running an ARM64 build of Andromeda OS (Windows 10 with CShell). The device will be expensive, according to B.Sams, who explains that it will be ‘a hallmark of the Surface family of devices’, being the ‘hero’ device to attract OEMs into the new market niche.

Microsoft is not likely to offer the Windows Insiders the ability to test Windows 10 with Composable Shell for ARM devices. The company will probably remain tight-lipped about its renewed mobile ambitious until the official presentation of the device sometime in late 2017 or 2018.