Mobile World Congress Breakout: HP Inc.'s New Windows 10 Elite x3 Is More Than A Smartphone

HP Elite x3 - Smarter Than A Smartphone

That's the battle cry from HP Inc. solution providers who are cheering the company's bid to redefine the commercial mobile computing landscape with a handheld device that looks like a smartphone, but eliminates the need to switch between a notebook and a laptop and a smartphone.

The power of the sleek Windows 10 mobile hand held device with a 5.96-inch display comes from its ability to pair with HP Mobile Extender and Desk Dock to deliver a next-generation mobile experience with seamless access to legacy Windows apps. "This is hard work," says HP Inc. Vice President of Mobility Michael Park of the Elite x3 development effort. "A lot of this stuff has never been done before. It was all driven from 'how do we create a next-gen computing experience that takes mobility and desktop productivity and puts it together.'"

Although the product is not yet priced and will not be available until the summer, partners are already lining up sales and services initiatives to wrap around the Elite x3.

The Pure Processing Power Of The Elite x3

The Elite x3 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor - the brains that open the door to combining a PC, tablet and smartphone experience – in a single device. The Snapdragon 820 has twice the processing power and half the power consumption of the previous generation Snapdragon.

The 820 includes an integrated graphics processor – the Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU along with the fastest memory available on the market – 4 GB LPDDR4 on board SDRAM.

The Elite x3 is designed for all-day use without a battery charge. The HP Elite x3 has a battery life of 4150 mAH compared with 2915 mAH for an iPhone 6 Plus.

"The Elite x3 has three times the processing power and three times the data transmission speed than just three years ago," said Park.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf praised HP for using the Snapdragon to "enable a PC like experience" on the Elite x3.

A Waterproof Military-Ready Device

HP has once again gone above and beyond to deliver a product that can be used in unusual industrial and commercial environments.

The Elite x3 can be "dumped under water up to one meter deep for 30 minutes and still operate," boasts Park. That's because the Elite x3 was designed to pass stringent IP 67 standards providing seals against liquid, dust and humidity. The product has passed military grade MIL-STD 810G testing.

The Mobile Extender- A Laptop Experience

The power of the Elite x3 comes when it is combined with accessories that allow it to break beyond traditional limitations of the smartphone. "We've built a world-class phablet and paired it with a set of accessories that create a PC experience," said Park.

HP Inc.'s Mobile Extender creates a laptop experience with a two pound 12.5-inch digital display with full keyboard that weighs just 1 kilogram. "This was designed for people that like to type," said Park. No data is stored on the sleek zero bezel Mobile Extender, which allows a full laptop experience on an airplane, in a conference room or in other on-the-go environments.

The HP Desk Dock- A Full PC Experience

HP Inc's Desk Dock opens the door to a full desktop experience for the handheld device. The dock is an engineering work-of-art, putting the power of a full dock with two USB-A connections and a next-generation USB-C connection, a port for a full 2K display, full HD with ability to run a 43-inch display, and even what may well be the first-ever Ethernet connection in a smartphone-like dock. The high speed Ethernet connection provides full network speeds for businesses.

The dock also includes Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 technology - four times faster than conventional handheld battery charging. "It uses the connection to super charge the phablet," said Park.

A More Secure Device And A Better Skype Experience

The Elite x3 features dual biometrics – an infrared eye scanner and a fingerprint reader that was designed in collaboration with Microsoft.

The product also features Qualcomm Trust Zones, a security model that is running in silicon and compliance with security certifications like PHIPS 140-2.

The product also includes high-quality audio, camera and noise-cancelling technology for a superior Skype experience, said Park. "That's a business requirement we built into this product," he said.

The product features an 8-megapixel Full HD front-facing camera and a 16-megapixel Full HD rear-facing camera.

I t's All About The Apps - HP Workspace

The genius of the Elite x3 lies in its ability to once and for all open up the 122,000 Windows legacy applications that have not been modernized for the Windows 10 mobile world. That's where HP's Workspace, an HP applications catalog, comes into play. HP bills Workspace as a instant gateway to x86 virtualized apps.

HP plans to pre-load Workspace on the product, opening the door for users to access those legacy corporate applications on the handheld device.

Workspace links to Microsoft Active Directory, authenticating user access to VDI apps so you don't have to enter your name and password every time you pull a legacy app, said Park.

A Vertical Market Commercial Game Changer

The Elite x3 includes a full-court vertical market applications offensive that has includes retail point-of-sale/merchandising capabilities such as credit card swiping and inventory and a specialized device for airline scanning and service, The x3 provides partners and customers the ability to add specialized jackets for vertical market applications.

The vertical market experience will be used for sales enablement and field training materials for partners when the product ships, said Park. "We want materials available for partners that will help drive the app transformation," he said.

Pairing The Elite x3 With Mobile Printers

HP Inc. is using the Elite x3 launch to highlight the company's latest mobile printers.

The HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile printer, which will be available in April at a price of $279, features a Wi-Fi direct wireless printing functionality.

The HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-In-One Printer, which will be available in the fall, provides printing-, scanning- and copying-on-the-go capabilities.

Working With Microsoft On Windows 10, Continuum And Universal Apps

With Windows, Microsoft Continuum and Universal App functionality, Park sees the Elite x3 powering a new generation of mobile centric apps beyond the access to legacy Windows applications.

With Microsoft Continuum, which provides Windows smartphones to connect to a bigger display or keyboard and mouse, the Elite x3 has also solved the perennial problem of how users can take advantage of legacy Windows applications on a handheld Windows device.

"The Elite x3 gives the traditional PC ecosystem a path to mobility that they can ride with HP and Microsoft because of the hardware we are building and the joint collaboration with Microsoft around Continuum and Windows Universal Apps around Windows 10," said Park.

The Salesforce.com Connection

The Elite x3 goes beyond Windows legacy apps with a partnership with cloud computing kingpin Salesforce.com that puts the Salesforce1 mobile app on every Elite x3.

Salesforce.com is building a Windows Universal CRM app that will work on the Elite x3, said Park. "They are the number one vendor in CRM," he said. "We are the number one vendor in commercial PCs. Microsoft is the number one vendor in the OS platform with office productivity. It made natural sense to combine, given how mobile CRM workers actually are going to converge here."

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, for his part, said the Elite x3 opens the door for every company to "empower its users with the tools to run their businesses anytime, anywhere and on any device."

A Call To Action For Solution Providers

Park is urging solution providers to leverage the Elite x3 product introduction to knock on customer doors and have a next-generation commercial mobility discussion.

"I want every PC reseller in the world to just go have a customer dialog about how they are thinking about mobility beyond BYOD," he says. "We all know mobility is more than just bring your own device. I would bet you half the customers would start engaging in a dialog that says, 'Here is my problem? How can you help me?'"