Windows 10 phones and tablets with desktop PC computing capabilities "coming soon"

Windows 10 is slowly treading towards its release, with a test version about to roll out in February to members of the Insider program. Now, we are still waiting for the Windows Phone 8.1 GDR 2 update, which was supposed to arrive a while ago, and is said to add support for more varied hardware, with varied, pixel-dense resolutions and more powerful CPUs. A lot of rumors are saying, however, that the GDR 2 update will not be coming, instead – its goodies will be integrated directly with Windows 10, and this makes sense, seeing as Microsoft has seemingly been spending a lot of time on the new version of its OS, and aims to roll it out for free.

We've also been puzzled by Redmond's inactivity on the flagship front – ever since the Nokia acquisition was complete, the company has been churning out low-end and entry-level Microsoft-branded smartphones, and there is no word, leak, or whisper on a high-class Windows flagship being in the pipeline. Well, apparently, Microsoft may be biding their time until the Windows 10 release, due to a very solid reason – according to a note about a Microsoft presentation that's going to happen on GDC 2015 (Game Developers Conference), Windows 10 smartphones and tablets with octa-core CPUs and “very powerful” GPUs will be reaching desktop PC capabilities.

Well, that's interesting – so Microsoft definitely has something up its sleeve – and this should provide for a very interesting presentation, if the powerful “computing capabilities” are presented on-stage. We're definitely ticking March 6th on our calendars. Full quote follows:


Source: GDC via NPU