The Acer Jade Primo is expected to be one of the first smartphones to support Windows 10’s Continuum feature, allowing you to turn your phone into a sort of desktop by connecting it to a docking station and hooking up a keyboard, mouse and display.
Acer made that announcement when the company introduced the phone in September. This week Acer confirmed that not only does the phone support Continuum, it’ll come with all the hardware you need to get started… except for a monitor.
The Acer Jade Primo will ship with a desktop dock, a keyboard and a mouse. In other words, Acer will sell it with the same accessories you might expect to get with a desktop computer… because you can use the Jade Primo like a desktop computer. Kind of.
Continuum for phones will let you interact with Windows apps on a big screen, but there are some limitations. First, only Windows Store apps will work: you can’t load up desktop versions of x86 apps like Photoshop, Steam, or iTunes.
Second, this isn’t quite the same Windows 10 environment you get on a desktop or notebook computer. All apps run in full-screen mode, so you can’t easily resize or reposition windows on the screen.
That said, Continuum for phones does provide you with a desktop, taskbar, and start menu. You can use keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste from one program to another. And you can continue to use your phone to take calls or run other apps while desktop-sized apps are running on your display.
The Acer Jade primo features a 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, a 21MP rear camera, and an 8MP front-facing camera.
Microsoft’s new Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL phones also support Continuum, but those phones will ship without a docking station. You’ll need to pay $100 extra for the dock, and that doesn’t include the cost of a keyboard and mouse.
via WMPowerUser and @Acer
Cutting-edge technology touted. Guaranteed ZERO ongoing support from Acer.
Why do they keep making half-way products??? Just make a full X86 PC in a smartphone format. Make it run the tile interface when it is used separately and run a standard desktop when it is docked. I am sure Microsoft can write a dialer app for Windows10. It won’t be the most powerful PC in the world but if it is the one you have with you…
x86 Windows 10 phones are coming probably Q1 or Q2 next year if I had to guess.
More like Q4 of next year… have to wait for Broxton to come out…
Right now Cherry Trail seems to have a overheating issue and that’s in large tablets, so would definitely not perform at peak in a small phone…
You’re probably right. If it was coming in the next few months, we’d probably have heard about it by now.
By far, the biggest issue I have with contnuum (or metro or Windows Phone) is that you are locked into using the Microsoft browser. At least on my PC I can run Firefox or Chrome. Same with my Android phone. But on my Windows phone I am stuck using IE- which crashes all of the time. Lacking a good web browser is a huge issue. And while I’m sure the browser on Win10 Phone will be improved- not getting the option of using a 3rd party browser makes it a no go for me and likely for any users. It also makes it likely that the ecosystem will remain limited.
That’s a good point. Is there any technical (or legal) reason preventing Firefox from releasing a Universal App edition of Firefox? I’m sure Google won’t, for political reasons…
IIRC, the issue is that any 3rd party browser has to utilize the browsing engine of IE (or whatever they call it.) At least that was the issue on Windows Phone. Maybe this changes with Win10 for Phone?
Talked with a dev the other day, they claimed there are no plans to make a universal app in the near future, just UI integration.
Who freaking cares! Edge is one of the most reliable and robust browsers out there. What really sucks about continuum is that you can only open one window at a time! What BS
Edge does not even support 3rd part extensions. It is zippy, but I’d hardly call it “robust.” In fact a lot of web sites don’t even support it (which is a problem if your work uses a web based interface that requires an extension.)
You certainly like to spread a lot of FUD… Clarification, Edge doesn’t presently support 3rd party Extensions but will support Extensions in a future update, it just didn’t get the feature at launch but will be updated over time just like Windows 10 itself… So, when ready, Extensions will be distributed through the Windows Store, like apps, which means there is already a system for developers to submit and update them.
The only question is whether it’ll be disabled on the Value phones that don’t have enough memory… MS is still considering the pros and cons of that because insufficient memory means the Extensions could negatively impact performance…
While not all the Extensions need to be specifically made for Edge as it can work with some from Firefox and Chrome… and MS is already in talks with developers, like the one who makes Ad Blocker, etc…
But hey, let’s miss the entire point of Windows 10 being a service OS that will be constantly updated and improved over time and pretend it will always be as limited and locked in place to what it was at launch…
My reply was in response to the statement that “Edge is one of the most robust browsers out there.” Maybe it will be some day when future features are available- but I don’t I agree that currently it can be described that way. In fact I’d say that IE is more “robust”, even if Edge has it beat in other regards. Do you disagree?
And I think it is silly to try and compare some future release in comparison to what other browsers currently offer, as those other browsers are also being continuously improved. If I am locked into one browser then I’m very concerned about it’s current feature set. If it is better in the future then maybe I’ll consider it at that point.
Okay, it’s fine to point out that Edge isn’t the most robust browser because that’s true but there’s no need to exaggerate and ignore that it has always been MS game plan to provide more features and capabilities over time… Extensions have been in the works since they were still calling it Spartan!
It also ignore that the other browsers didn’t get to where they are overnight and that they’ve pretty much all adopted a similar service model where they are continuously updated over time.
So no, it’s not silly… it’s just accepting what is actually being offered and not trying to suggest that will never happen as your statement suggested. Besides, it’s misinformation to present it the way you did because anyone who didn’t know any better would think from your statement that MS had no intentions of supporting Extensions.
What you should have emphasized is that it’s all still very much beta right now and that’s the downside of a service model that improves over time but like the benefits the other Browsers already enjoy, it gets there eventually… So argue people should wait but don’t try to argue that’s there’s nothing to wait for…
dream about the fantastic features to come in a possible far out future – like the apple apple fan community – the hard cold faced user reality and their needs is happening NOW – so its take it or leave it for paying users NOW. if a needed feature is not present – its lacking, what normally is called a no go argument. it is such simple a thing
What far off future? The first update that will update some features will come out before the end of this month and those in the Insider Program are already Beta Testing such enhancements, giving us a pretty good idea what will be out soon…
The comparison to Apple is clearly misplaced as Apple doesn’t beta test and they don’t project what they’re going to do while MS has been stating their plans up to years in advance…
Some of you simply seem to want to invent reasons to complain far beyond the legitimate complaints but that’s not doing you or anyone else any favors…
Chrome didn’t support extensions to start with either.
No, you can have more than one window… problem is it’s still in Beta and the full capabilities aren’t available yet.
There’s also the lack of apps that support Continuum, as the phone apps weren’t made for desktop usage and that leave Universal Apps which are very few right now…
So, until they get out of beta and get more apps Continuum isn’t going to show its full potential yet…
Yup, that is a dealbreaker. And it is a phone/tablet form so it is DRM locked so no fair repurposing the hardware to something more useful like Android or Ubuntu. That would be illegal besides the fact I don’t thing anybody has actually broken the current generation of Microsoft lockdown.
Even worse is it’s not even stuck on a good MS browser. IE11 is leaps and bounds better at rendering pages than Edge, plus it does it faster, even with the “legacy code” that “holds it back.” On Windows 10 Mobile, you’re stuck with Edge and can’t use IE, even though Edge is an alpha in every aspect.