At the beginning of the year, Microsoft announced that new tablets with a display smaller than eight inches would be outfitted with a version of Windows 10 that would be more akin to Windows Phone than the full desktop operating system.

Today, WinBeta has published a series of screenshots showing just what the truncated version looks like on a smaller sized tablet.

Windows 10 small tablets

The site has posted a series of screenshots and hands-on impressions from an early build of Windows 10 for small tablets. WinBeta notes that because this is such an early build, there are a number of UI elements that are unfinished, including the Start Screen, which will be polished ahead of the official release later this year.

Windows 10 for small tablets will run the new universal Windows apps, which are also compatible on Windows Phone, as well as PCs. It will not run desktop PC apps (the kind of software you’ve been running on notebooks, desktops, and even some tablets for decades).

Want a tablet that supports both desktop and universal apps? Get one with an 8 inch or larger screen.

The new universal Windows 10 apps scale to a variety of screen sizes, which transfers over to the tablet experience, as well. WinBeta notes that these new apps feature a more tab ( … ) that allows for easy navigation while keeping the screen clear of clutter.

While the small tablet version of Windows 10 only supports universal Windows apps, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for productivity: Tablets will come with a free version of Microsoft Office and you’ll be able to connect a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth.

You can visit WinBeta to see more screenshots of Windows 10 for small tablets.

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15 replies on “Check out Windows 10 on a small tablet screen”

  1. Yep, Windows 10 is fucked. How in the world Belfiore and Aul haven’t been fired is mind boggling. It’s like they want to fail.

  2. Hmmm as always Mirosucks style to play cheat with their customers in order to extort their money.
    First they release buggy products with high price, then they purposely don’t want to fix it, instead they release new version that requires $$$ to get it.

    Like that Microsoft can earn twice, see Microsoft are so damn freakin’ smart to run their business.

    After read this article, i can think that this so called Outfitted Windows is actually Windows RT reborn !

    Luckily nowaday people got option to run other OS like Android, IOS, chrome, Linux ,etc.

    If not because of my office compulsory requirement to use latest Microsoft products, i already ditched away my “pain in the ass SUCK BIG TIME” Windows 8.1 Pro Notebook and switch back my old NB with beloved Windows 7 Pro

    Yes Win 8.1 is looking beautiful but really not practical to use for work. I need fast and convenience to use function/menu not only beautiful screen.

    1. Regarding those other OS – if you hate windows 8 over 7, the difference between them is far less than the difference between 7 and Linux (and finding and installing the version that has a start-like menu is more effort than downloading a utility to stick it back on 8) or Chrome (which launches things by clicking on icons too). And if you hate this windows for small tablets, android and ios aren’t any different. I preferred 2000 over XP, but I didn’t spend 5 years trolling everywhere about it.

      I happily use win 8 for work, I’m not sure why a “menu” is so fundamental to this. Don’t worry, the MS that you hate will be giving back your start menu, and giving it away for free in a few months. The claim they need $$$ to fix was never true (updates have always been free), but with OS upgrades and many services now going free, it’s an even more laughable claim.

  3. I know a bunch of Grand parents that still use it for the calculator.

  4. What… happened to the colors? Why cant they unify metro mode?

  5. this is the worst decision ever… just because I like small tablets doesn’t mean i should lose the ability to run real MS software

    1. This is for 7″ and smaller tablets… that primarily run on ARM… while even Intel is primarily selling phone SoCs at this size range that don’t support running the full desktop anyway…

      But this won’t effect those upgrading to Windows 10 on existing Bay Trail devices and most OEMs will just stick to 8″ and larger for full Windows devices…

  6. Windows 8 on 8″ tablet isnt as usable as it could be neither in Modern nor in Desktop modes, why couldnt they make modern UI as user friendly for touch as they did with Windows Phone 8.1?!

    1. WP never needed to work in tablet mode, only phone mode… But Windows 10 mobile will and that will have the optimization… They’re just dropping RT…

  7. This isn’t entirely true. There is a version of Windows 10 for Small Tablets but it isn’t a hard and fast rule. People who currently have 7 inch Windows 8 tablet will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 in full. OEMs will have a choice between real Windows 10 and Windows 10 for Small Tablets.

  8. While I think this entire Windows 10 boondoggle is just a way to once again push a Windows RT-like experience on people…this is really what should have happened in the first place when RT was still a thing. The capability for “Universal apps” was already there between RT and Win8, this is just painting the cart a different color. Hopefully it’ll actually catch on this time.

    1. Yep, just another name for RT. They are just trying to create some sort of fake differentiation from their phone OS so that an uninformed consumer will assume their small tablet can run full Windows. When they called it RT, people figured out real quick that running normal Windows apps was not supported. People will learn that again soon enough, but this gives MS a bit of a temprorary smokescreen again.

      Just have their smallest tablets run the phone version. Is it really that complicated where you need 3 different systems (Phone, small tablet and regular?)

    2. This effectively *is* Windows RT, which to avoid confusion should have been named “Windows WinRT Only.” Keep in mind that so-called “universal apps” are WinRT fart applets. All they did was bring WinRT on NT to WinPhone 10 and require that fart apps be written with multiple UIs for all of the supported platforms in order to be accepted into the Store.

  9. Uh, since this is from back in March and MS made no mention of a second version of their mobile version that I think this is just a early preview of the tablet mode for Windows 10 Mobile… Remember, it’s suppose to cover phones to small tablets!

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