If you feel like your office is lacking a certain mobility when it comes to collaboration, then Microsoft’s new Surface Hub 2S could be the answer.
First revealed back in April, the super-sized smart monitor is now available in the UK, and we got a chance to go hands-on at the recent Microsoft Future Decoded event in London.
What’s so striking about the new Surface Hub 2S though is that unlike its predecessors, the new device is built for portability - which seems odd to say for a 50-inch screen, but the device comes with the option of a rolling mount, giving you the option to wheel it wherever you please.
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“We’re thinking about the modern workplace, and how do we bring that software alive?” Ben Highfield, Surface product manager, told TechRadar Pro during our session at Future Decoded.
“We’ve talked about devices with touch and inking, making you feel engaged wherever you’re working - but Hub is really our way to enable teams to do that wherever they are.”
The ability to wheel the Surface Hub 2S anywhere you like makes it the ideal workplace collaboration tool. You could start with it by your desk, then wheel it into a private, small room to kick-start a project individually, before transferring to a large meeting room with a wider team to thrash out all the details.
Like its predecessors, the Surface Hub 2S allows for wide-scale collaboration, letting remote workers dial in, wherever they are in the world. Colleagues aren’t just passive bystanders to what’s being done on the device though, as those with the right software can make their own edits and suggestions in real-time, allowing your team unparallelled co-operation.
The Surface Hub 2S can be joined with a detachable, mobile webcam, the Surface Hub 2 Camera, which clips onto all sides of the device, and also comes with the Surface Hub 2 Pen, which lets you just pick up and start writing.
On the included Whiteboard app, ideas can be scribbled out quickly, edited, highlighted and much more - we saw a demo where a rough box drawn by the Surface Hub 2 Pen snapped into a table, allowing for actions and deliverables to be divided out.
With eight hyper-sensitive microphones, dual speakers and a dedicated subwoofer all built in, the Surface Hub 2S looks to get everyone involved in getting work done, and allowing people to work in a way they do best.
The Surface Hub 2S is available to buy now in the UK from £8,499.99, with the Steelcase Roam Mobile Stand costing an extra £1,350.
