Microsoft's HoloLens is one of the most magical pieces of technology
I've ever seen. It could change the world. But if you bought one today,
for your own personal use, I guarantee you'd hate it. For over a year, journalists have written breathless descriptions
of the amazing things they've seen inside the HoloLens headset, but
they've never been able to give you the full picture. Microsoft planned
it that way. The first time I tried HoloLens,
I actually had to surrender my camera and phone, only to walk through a
set of scripted experiences in a secret bunker underneath Microsoft's
Redmond campus. It was exciting stuff. And still is, honestly. Have you seen our video yet? But this week, Microsoft let us see what it's actually like to use HoloLens for real. I spent 90 minutes with an actual $3,000 Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition
on my head, watching as computer-generated objects popped into
existence in my real world. I walked around an ordinary hotel suite,
with no Microsoft supervision, and saw what these holograms were capable
of. It made my mind swirl with the possibilities. It also made
me very, very glad that Microsoft has no intention of ever releasing the
current developer kit to regular, non-developer people. It's not even
close to ready.
The HoloLens developer kit already looks
like a consumer product, sure -- a futuristic one, anyhow. The headset
is composed of a pair of concentric circles that unfold like two rings
of a 3D solar system. The inner circle goes around your head, with a
bicycle-helmet-style ratcheting dial to tighten it down. The front is
supposed to stick to your forehead, while the back rests underneath the
back of your skull. Beneath a visor worthy of "Star Trek"
engineer Geordi La Forge are a pair of lenses that glint with rainbow
light. When you look through them, you can see additional objects appear
around you that don't exist at all. Things only you can see. Things as
small as a little CG bird perched on top of your television, or as big
as the surface of Mars suddenly appearing underneath your feet. You can
select apps from a Windows-like menu, but you can also just place them
in your real world.
They'll be there, waiting for you wherever you left them, whenever you put the headset on.
But you don't see these holograms all around you. They're
only in the center of your view. They only exist within a box, roughly
the size of a smartphone, held a few inches away from your head. Look
away, even a little bit, and they're gone (though, thanks to built-in 3D
speakers, you may still be able to hear them as you turn.) If
they're large, like a virtual person, maybe you only see the top of
them. Until you look down, their bottom half is invisible. Which means
there's no point in blowing up a virtual Web browser or virtual TV
screen to cover a wall, because you'd only be able to see a small chunk
of it at a time. It feels nothing like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive
virtual reality headsets, which completely surround you with worlds
that don't exist. HoloLens is more than that, but right now, it's also
much less. Then there's the matter of controlling the experience.
To activate, grab and resize virtual objects, you need to reach out and
bend your index finger in a very specific way to "airtap" them. Often as
not, I missed tapping what I meant to, or failed to tap it at all. You
can also just speak to the headset, issuing voice commands, but
Microsoft's Cortana personal assistant often had a tough time
recognizing me. I got pretty frustrated very quickly, and I'm generally fairly patient with technology.
Fitting the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition to my head.
James Martin/CNET
Another
problem I had was keeping the damn thing on my head with its amazing
holographic images centered in my field of view. I had to constantly
adjust it, cinch it ever tighter until it had my skull in a vice-like
grip before it would stay put. I later found out that it comes with a
pair of optional straps that go over the top of the head like a baseball
cap. I wish I'd used those from the beginning. While we're
talking caveats, you should also probably know that the HoloLens has a
meager 2 to 3 hours of battery life, and it won't work nearly as well
outdoors. In dim rooms, the holograms feel like they've got some
substance, but in bright light they'd appear ghostly.
But it's still amazing
Have you watched our video yet, the one at the top of this post? Regardless
of the technology's current limitations, it blows my mind that a
completely wireless headset can do what this one does. Microsoft's not trying to hide the HoloLens's current flaws. The company knows the technology isn't ready,
and it sounds like Microsoft won't set a price or release date for a
consumer version until it's a product that people will actually want to
use. The just-released Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset had two developer kits
before it became a real product. I spent plenty of time with each, and
they had lots of flaws as well. It was hard to wear the first one for
long without feeling sick. Both the software and the hardware needed
years to mature -- but the potential was there from day one. The HoloLens feels like it could have the same potential. I can't wait to see if it pans out.
Microsoft's HoloLens is one of the most magical pieces of technology
I've ever seen. It could change the world. But if you bought one today,
for your own personal use, I guarantee you'd hate it. For over a year, journalists have written breathless descriptions
of the amazing things they've seen inside the HoloLens headset, but
they've never been able to give you the full picture. Microsoft planned
it that way. The first time I tried HoloLens,
I actually had to surrender my camera and phone, only to walk through a
set of scripted experiences in a secret bunker underneath Microsoft's
Redmond campus. It was exciting stuff. And still is, honestly. Have you seen our video yet? But this week, Microsoft let us see what it's actually like to use HoloLens for real. I spent 90 minutes with an actual $3,000 Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition
on my head, watching as computer-generated objects popped into
existence in my real world. I walked around an ordinary hotel suite,
with no Microsoft supervision, and saw what these holograms were capable
of. It made my mind swirl with the possibilities. It also made
me very, very glad that Microsoft has no intention of ever releasing the
current developer kit to regular, non-developer people. It's not even
close to ready.
The HoloLens developer kit already looks
like a consumer product, sure -- a futuristic one, anyhow. The headset
is composed of a pair of concentric circles that unfold like two rings
of a 3D solar system. The inner circle goes around your head, with a
bicycle-helmet-style ratcheting dial to tighten it down. The front is
supposed to stick to your forehead, while the back rests underneath the
back of your skull. Beneath a visor worthy of "Star Trek"
engineer Geordi La Forge are a pair of lenses that glint with rainbow
light. When you look through them, you can see additional objects appear
around you that don't exist at all. Things only you can see. Things as
small as a little CG bird perched on top of your television, or as big
as the surface of Mars suddenly appearing underneath your feet. You can
select apps from a Windows-like menu, but you can also just place them
in your real world.
They'll be there, waiting for you wherever you left them, whenever you put the headset on.
But you don't see these holograms all around you. They're
only in the center of your view. They only exist within a box, roughly
the size of a smartphone, held a few inches away from your head. Look
away, even a little bit, and they're gone (though, thanks to built-in 3D
speakers, you may still be able to hear them as you turn.) If
they're large, like a virtual person, maybe you only see the top of
them. Until you look down, their bottom half is invisible. Which means
there's no point in blowing up a virtual Web browser or virtual TV
screen to cover a wall, because you'd only be able to see a small chunk
of it at a time. It feels nothing like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive
virtual reality headsets, which completely surround you with worlds
that don't exist. HoloLens is more than that, but right now, it's also
much less. Then there's the matter of controlling the experience.
To activate, grab and resize virtual objects, you need to reach out and
bend your index finger in a very specific way to "airtap" them. Often as
not, I missed tapping what I meant to, or failed to tap it at all. You
can also just speak to the headset, issuing voice commands, but
Microsoft's Cortana personal assistant often had a tough time
recognizing me. I got pretty frustrated very quickly, and I'm generally fairly patient with technology.
Fitting the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition to my head.
James Martin/CNET
Another
problem I had was keeping the damn thing on my head with its amazing
holographic images centered in my field of view. I had to constantly
adjust it, cinch it ever tighter until it had my skull in a vice-like
grip before it would stay put. I later found out that it comes with a
pair of optional straps that go over the top of the head like a baseball
cap. I wish I'd used those from the beginning. While we're
talking caveats, you should also probably know that the HoloLens has a
meager 2 to 3 hours of battery life, and it won't work nearly as well
outdoors. In dim rooms, the holograms feel like they've got some
substance, but in bright light they'd appear ghostly.
But it's still amazing
Have you watched our video yet, the one at the top of this post? Regardless
of the technology's current limitations, it blows my mind that a
completely wireless headset can do what this one does. Microsoft's not trying to hide the HoloLens's current flaws. The company knows the technology isn't ready,
and it sounds like Microsoft won't set a price or release date for a
consumer version until it's a product that people will actually want to
use. The just-released Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset had two developer kits
before it became a real product. I spent plenty of time with each, and
they had lots of flaws as well. It was hard to wear the first one for
long without feeling sick. Both the software and the hardware needed
years to mature -- but the potential was there from day one. The HoloLens feels like it could have the same potential. I can't wait to see if it pans out.
Picking the perfect portable
laptop can be a trying task for both head and heart (and wallet). Some
sentimental longtime favorites, such as the 13-inch MacBook Air, are still good general-purpose laptops, but with each year that goes by, the design gets older, and features fail to keep up with the times. Slick hybrids like the Lenovo Yoga 900 are powerful, slim, and play at the tablet game, too, but you'll pay for the privilege of folding the screen all the way back. Even the new Razer Blade Stealth manages to nail a lot of functionality for a decent price, but the gamer-centric design skews toward Call of Duty players. Shoppers
are stuck between choosing based on price, features, or design -- and
generally speaking, settling on two out of those three is the best one
can hope for. The Dell XPS 13
came close to nailing the perfect formula last year, with an
eye-catching barely there screen bezel, decent power, and a sub-$1,000
starting price in the US. But, that entry-level model skipped the touch
screen, a must-have feature for a premium Windows laptop (while the more
expensive touchscreen model also had less battery life).
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Despite this, the XPS 13 became one of our favorite 13-inch class laptops, and the recent 15-inch version (naturally called the XPS 15) impressed with its own large screen and minimal bezel. Rather
than continuing to try squeezing out features to hit a more mainstream
price, the latest version of the XPS 13 takes a more premium approach.
The processor is a current-gen Intel Core i7, paired with 8GB of RAM and
a big 256GB of solid-state storage. The touchscreen display has a very
high 3,200x1,800-pixel native resolution, and the same very narrow bezel
(Dell calls it the Infinity Display) that made last year's original
such a standout. Graphics get an upgrade, too, adding the Intel Iris
GPU, which isn't as good as having a discrete graphics card from Nvidia
or AMD, but is a big step up from standard laptop fare. Finally,
as if to drive home all the premium features and upgrades, the aluminum
outer shell is now gold-colored. And it's got a price to match, topping
out the XPS 13 line at $1,649 in the US.
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Yes, it's a premium price (for example, we've even seen some Oculus Rift-ready gaming desktops
for less), but the gold XPS 13 has a great design, a fantastic
keyboard, and even more than one year later, no one else has come close
to matching the striking no-bezel look. If it's just too expensive,
dropping the gold design, downgrading to a Core i5 CPU and losing the
Iris graphics gets you down to a much more reasonable $1,399
configuration.
Dell XPS 13 (Gold Edition)
Price as reviewed
$1,649
Display size/resolution
13-inch 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen
PC CPU
2.2Ghz Intel Core i7-6560U
PC memory
8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics
128MB Intel Iris Graphics 540
Storage
256GB SSD
Networking
802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Going for the gold
While the gold chassis
is a selling point, the look is actually rather muted in person. It's
gold-ish, rather than bright and in your face. It's also not the first
time we've seen this in a laptop, as gold hues are available as an
option in the Apple MacBook and LG Gram,
although it's still rare. Still, it's a nice break from the usual
silver/gray look of most laptops, just don't expect it to read as
especially bling-y. Color aside, this new update doesn't stray
much from the original. It's still a wedge-shaped laptop with a wide
touchpad and generous keyboard, with enough ports and connections to
keep most users happy. New is a USB-C port, used for data and video, but
not power (other systems such as the 12-inch Apple MacBook and Razer
Blade Stealth also use USB-C for power).
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Just
as it the original XPS 13 did, this system has a relatively small
footprint -- largely because there's no thick border around the display.
The end result is that the XPS 13 has smaller dimensions than a MacBook Air,
Lenovo Yoga 900 or Microsoft Surface Book, while weighing just about
the same, 2.8 pounds (1.27kg) in this case. That makes the XPS 13 feel a
little heavy when picked up, because you're packing the same weight
into a smaller volume of space. Plus, recent lightweight laptops such as
the Razer Blade Stealth and Lenovo LaVie have really spoiled me when it comes to laptop weight.
Picking the perfect portable
laptop can be a trying task for both head and heart (and wallet). Some
sentimental longtime favorites, such as the 13-inch MacBook Air, are still good general-purpose laptops, but with each year that goes by, the design gets older, and features fail to keep up with the times. Slick hybrids like the Lenovo Yoga 900 are powerful, slim, and play at the tablet game, too, but you'll pay for the privilege of folding the screen all the way back. Even the new Razer Blade Stealth manages to nail a lot of functionality for a decent price, but the gamer-centric design skews toward Call of Duty players. Shoppers
are stuck between choosing based on price, features, or design -- and
generally speaking, settling on two out of those three is the best one
can hope for. The Dell XPS 13
came close to nailing the perfect formula last year, with an
eye-catching barely there screen bezel, decent power, and a sub-$1,000
starting price in the US. But, that entry-level model skipped the touch
screen, a must-have feature for a premium Windows laptop (while the more
expensive touchscreen model also had less battery life).
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Despite this, the XPS 13 became one of our favorite 13-inch class laptops, and the recent 15-inch version (naturally called the XPS 15) impressed with its own large screen and minimal bezel. Rather
than continuing to try squeezing out features to hit a more mainstream
price, the latest version of the XPS 13 takes a more premium approach.
The processor is a current-gen Intel Core i7, paired with 8GB of RAM and
a big 256GB of solid-state storage. The touchscreen display has a very
high 3,200x1,800-pixel native resolution, and the same very narrow bezel
(Dell calls it the Infinity Display) that made last year's original
such a standout. Graphics get an upgrade, too, adding the Intel Iris
GPU, which isn't as good as having a discrete graphics card from Nvidia
or AMD, but is a big step up from standard laptop fare. Finally,
as if to drive home all the premium features and upgrades, the aluminum
outer shell is now gold-colored. And it's got a price to match, topping
out the XPS 13 line at $1,649 in the US.
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Yes, it's a premium price (for example, we've even seen some Oculus Rift-ready gaming desktops
for less), but the gold XPS 13 has a great design, a fantastic
keyboard, and even more than one year later, no one else has come close
to matching the striking no-bezel look. If it's just too expensive,
dropping the gold design, downgrading to a Core i5 CPU and losing the
Iris graphics gets you down to a much more reasonable $1,399
configuration.
Dell XPS 13 (Gold Edition)
Price as reviewed
$1,649
Display size/resolution
13-inch 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen
PC CPU
2.2Ghz Intel Core i7-6560U
PC memory
8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics
128MB Intel Iris Graphics 540
Storage
256GB SSD
Networking
802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Going for the gold
While the gold chassis
is a selling point, the look is actually rather muted in person. It's
gold-ish, rather than bright and in your face. It's also not the first
time we've seen this in a laptop, as gold hues are available as an
option in the Apple MacBook and LG Gram,
although it's still rare. Still, it's a nice break from the usual
silver/gray look of most laptops, just don't expect it to read as
especially bling-y. Color aside, this new update doesn't stray
much from the original. It's still a wedge-shaped laptop with a wide
touchpad and generous keyboard, with enough ports and connections to
keep most users happy. New is a USB-C port, used for data and video, but
not power (other systems such as the 12-inch Apple MacBook and Razer
Blade Stealth also use USB-C for power).
View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET
Just
as it the original XPS 13 did, this system has a relatively small
footprint -- largely because there's no thick border around the display.
The end result is that the XPS 13 has smaller dimensions than a MacBook Air,
Lenovo Yoga 900 or Microsoft Surface Book, while weighing just about
the same, 2.8 pounds (1.27kg) in this case. That makes the XPS 13 feel a
little heavy when picked up, because you're packing the same weight
into a smaller volume of space. Plus, recent lightweight laptops such as
the Razer Blade Stealth and Lenovo LaVie have really spoiled me when it comes to laptop weight.
