Microsoft's HD-500 ("Display Dock"), the Magic Sauce Behind Continuum

Propietary hardware will be required for now; price not announced; device support will be limited initially to new modelS

Continuum is arguably the most compelling Windows 10 feature in the smartphone space.  The premise is elegant and simple.  Connect a Windows 10 smartphone like a Lumia or compatible third party handset to a monitor and your phone behaves like a PC, outputting to the bigscreen the kind of interface you'd usually see on a Windows 10 laptop or desktop.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) first teased at the feature late last year, demoed it in January, and officially announced it back in April at its BUILD conference, but details were a little on the light side.  At its press event today, which featured the launch of the new high end Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL Windows 10 devices, the software giant filled in most of the blanks on precisely how this will work.

For now, to leverage Continuum you will need to buy a proprietary accessory from Microsoft dubbed the Display Dock adapter.  Based on the Microsoft Store listing, the hub also is known by a duller numeric name, the HD-500.



 


<sub>The HD-500 ensures 60 frames per second (FPS) at a maximum resolution of full high definition (FHD) (1,920 x 1,080 pixels).  The fine print reveal that WUXGA (Wide Ultra eXtended Graphics Array) (aka "1200p; 1,920 x 1,200 pixels) is also supported.

On the input side (the front of the box) is a single type-C (USB 3.1) connector, which both charges the attached smartphone and powers it.  The box will only be compatible with the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL devices, for now, by the sound of it, but more compatible Lumias and third party devices should crop up moving ahead.</sub>









 The rear of the hub features a pair of USB 2.0 ports that might typically be used to support a combo of keyboard and USB mouse (wired or wireless).  The rear also contains native DisplayPort and HDMI outputs.  Older monitors can be supported via a compatible adapter.

The display output requires that the monitor support either DisplayPort or HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface).  The monitor must also support either HDCP 1.3 or 1.4 security layer protocols (HDCP: High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).  The box performs HDMI conversion (if necessary).





The charger pulls in 3 amps, and outputs to charge the device 2 amps and up to 5 volts.  That's enough to support basic quick charging (which reportedly has been licensed from Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) who made the chips in Microsoft's new devices) and basically twice the standard USB 3.0 charge of up to 5 V, 0.9 amps.



Microsoft's box is easy to carry in hand, purse, pocket, etc. with at 64.1 x 64.1 x 25.6 mm (2.52 x 2.52 x 1.00 in.).  It weighs in at 230 g (8.11 oz.), or about as much as one-and-a-half smartphones.