Two new patents surface related to Microsoft's rumored Centaurus foldable device

by Alan Friedman / Aug 31, 2019, 6:43 PM

Two new patents surface related to Microsoft's rumored Centaurus foldable device

On October 2nd, Microsoft will hold its next Surface event and there is speculation that the software giant will unveil a foldable Windows 10 powered device with two screens. Remember the foldable Andromeda device that appeared in patents and renders last year? Microsoft reportedly put the project on hold last summer and that was the last we heard of it until this past March when a new patent related to the project was published. The patent revealed a hinge for the foldable that would allow the screens to rotate 360 degrees.

Today, a report out of Germany discusses two new U.S. patents (1,2) that were published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, via Windows United) that are related to the foldable device. One of the patents once again discusses the hinge and again we learn that it will allow the screens to move in a 360-degree arc while supporting different positions that the dual screens can be opened in. The Andromeda device was supposedly going to provide users with five pre-set positions including closed, concave, convex, tent mode, and full. Certain applications were to run on the device depending on the orientation of the screens, and we could see something similar for the new device. For example, in tent mode, an alarm clock might appear while in convex mode one screen could show a virtual QWERTY keyboard to mimic the look of a laptop computer. The second patent mentions the use of a magnetic closure that would use magnets mounted inside multiple sides of the device. This could be part of the technology that will be used by the tablet to determine the positioning of the two screens.

The Centaurus device might come with five pre-set screen positions

The new Microsoft foldable is reportedly codenamed "Centaurus." Unlike Andromeda, which was looked at as a possible smartphone-to-tablet foldable (and even thought to be the long-awaited Surface Phone), the new device is a tablet and is said to resemble the company's Surface Go slate with slightly rounded corners. The Centaurus device supposedly runs Microsoft's multiple platform version of Windows called Windows Core OS; the latter will drive smartphones, tablets, headsets desktop PCs and more.

The October 2nd event should introduce the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 tablet along with some other new Surface devices. A few days ago, we passed along some rumored specs for the next version of the company's premium Windows-powered slate.

Illustrations from two Microsoft patents related to its foldable Windows device

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8 Comments

1. technut

Posts: 205; Member since: Aug 03, 2012

If this comes to fruition it's a huge opportunity for Microsoft, I hope they don't screw it up.

posted on Aug 31, 2019, 7:06 PM 1

2. gadgetpower

Posts: 283; Member since: Aug 23, 2019

They need to support it with better apps and integration with other devices.

posted on Aug 31, 2019, 7:24 PM 4

9. Crispin_Gatieza

Posts: 3166; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

Windows 10 is a desktop OS, it doesn’t get much better than that.

posted on Sep 01, 2019, 3:28 PM 0

3. shawman

Posts: 79; Member since: Sep 18, 2012

if I am not wrong they will use Intel lakefield which will have 1 icelake core and 4 atom cores. insanely low standby battery consumption and will support Android apps as well. So may be 2 in 1 which will run Android Apps and also full windows apps.

posted on Aug 31, 2019, 9:19 PM 2

4. dumpster666

Posts: 99; Member since: Mar 07, 2019

it will be more overpriced than apple, like all of their hardware devices.

posted on Sep 01, 2019, 1:30 AM 1

5. Plutonium239

Posts: 1243; Member since: Mar 17, 2015

Surface devices have a much better build quality than any Apple hardware anyway. There are no comparable devices that run osx anyway so you can't really compare price points between the surface line of products and an apple line of products.

posted on Sep 01, 2019, 6:50 AM 1

10. VariableCheapskate

Posts: 196; Member since: May 29, 2019

The difference is more students would main a Surface due to the Enterprise and Workspace integration. Apple's Ecosystem is much more optimized towards commercial production studios focusing on high budget or high resource projects.