Back in May 2018 Microsoft announced the Surface Hub 2, a thinner and lighter version of the first oversized touch-enabled display. Now the company details the device further and announces a pair of variants, the 2S and 2X.
The Hub 2 remains more or less identical as to the device seen a few months ago. Designed as a "traditional" collaboration board for huddle spaces and meeting rooms, it has a 4K resolution 50.5-inch multi-touch display integrated with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Whiteboard, Office 365, Windows 10 and the cloud. It carries 4K cameras able to rotate with the display when switched from landscape to portrait modes (and back), while integrated audio and a far-field mic array provide audio.
Meanwhile the Hub 2S, as Microsoft puts it, features a "lighter, thinner, more vibrant design" as well as improved AV capabilities. Customers can deploy it in either on-premise or hybrid environments, and it offers a new Whiteboard app with intelligent ink, built-in Bing search, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams and image stacks, among other applications. Customers can also share and sync Whiteboards across Windows 10, iOS and Android devices.
Things become more interesting when the 2X comes into play. The internals powering the Hub 2S reside in a removable processor cartridge slotted inside "an easily accessible hardware chassis." Such a modular form factor allows customers to easily upgrade the 2S to 2X, a more powerful Microsoft 356-powered version set for a 2020 launch.
The Surface Hub 2S ships on Q2 2019.
