Microsoft unveils new Lumia 950 and 950 XL with Windows 10 desktop modes

Weep, Ubuntu Phone

Microsoft has announced two new Lumia flagship phones - the 5.2in Lumia 950 and the 5.7in 950 XL. Both feature Windows 10 "desktop-like" functionality.

Announced at a Microsoft "devices event" in New York today, both devices include 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, USB-C for fast charging and data transfer, as well as Qi wireless charging.

The Lumia 950 has an Octa-core processor, and the the 950 XL a Hexa-core.

But the big news for the enterprise is that the phones run full versions of Windows 10.

The functionality requires a "Microsoft Display Dock" to work, which allows the USB-C connection to transfer the display from the phone to a monitor, and the outputted display comes fully equipped with a Windows 10-style taskbar and multitasking capability.

While docked, the phone still retains full functionality separate to the desktop environment.

The phone's use of what Microsoft is dubbing Continuum - a packaged delivery of the Universal Apps plan first laid out by the firm a couple of years ago as Windows 10 was in development - feels like it's genuinely starring to deliver on Microsoft's promises of device agnostic Windows use.

While it still remains to be seen exactly which Windows 10 features will migrate from a phone into a "desktop-like" experience, functionality such as graphic design and the Microsoft Office environment - demonstrated today - are certainly possible, and even this level of cloud-based continuity between phone and office could be a boon for CIOs such as Yodel's Adam Gerrard, who Computing interviewed only yesterday as the company prepares to go all-in with Windows 10 devices.

Whatever, the new Lumias have gone where the ill-fated Ubuntu Phone couldn't, and could well usher in a world where phones and PCs start to overlap more readily.