• Windows Phone Area
• On September 25, 2015

Guidelines for hardware partners using Windows 10 Mobile

Microsoft is expected to announce the first Windows 10 Phones in less than two weeks in New York, but the company also hopes that many third-party OEMs will develop smartphones based on the new OS.

Microsoft has published hardware recommendations to OEMs for three types of phones – value phones, premium phones and value phablets.

The most interesting form factor of the three is the ‘Premium phone‘. According to Microsoft, a premium Windows 10 phone should have a screen between 4.5 and 5.5 inches, 2 or 4 GB of RAM, 32 or 64 GB of storage, support for Windows Hello facial recognition and Continuum. Microsoft thinks that the premium phones should be up to 7.5 mm thick and less than 160 grams.

The recommended specs of a Value Phone include a display between 3.5 and 5 inches, 1 GB of RAM, 4 or 8 Gigs of storage. A value phone is not expected to support Windows Hello and Continuum features.

The third recommended product is the Value Phablet, which is described as a 5.5 to 7 inch device, with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and support for Windows Hello. We have seen some 7-inch Windows devices in the past, but they were tablets running Windows 8.1. With Windows 10, the 7-inch devices can run Windows 10 Mobile, so they will be considered as ultra large phones.

Source: NPU