Windows on smartphones ended up meeting a terrible fate. It started out strong with Windows Mobile in the year 2000, launching as "Pocket PC 2000." It was the OS of choice for PDAs and other mobile devices before being superseded by Windows Phone, a proper Windows-based competitor to iOS and Android. Windows Phone was yet again superseded by Windows 10 Mobile in 2015 in an attempt to streamline Microsoft's software experience across platforms. Unfortunately, though, it ended up meeting its terrible fate soon after as iOS and Android both outdid Microsoft's operating system in market dominance. But for a company called Emperion, the Windows dream may not be over yet.

The company took to Twitter to tease the Emperion Nebulus, a smartphone that runs Windows 10 on ARM---not Windows 10 Mobile, which is effectively dead and gone as of a month ago, but rather the full-fledged Windows 10 operating system for ARM-based SoCs. Windows 10 on ARM aims to provide the same features and reliability we have on x86 and x64-based systems right now, but it is not optimized for phones nor is it meant to be used in a mobile device. It's not even able to make phone calls as-is which, to be honest, defeats the point of a phone.

It will have Emperion's own UI on top which we're guessing will help with the task of optimizing it for a phone. The phone is also, oddly, touted to be able to run Android apps without requiring to switch to another operating system. We're not quite sure how that would work given that Android and Windows 10 are both wildly different beasts and Emperion also says that it doesn't involve emulation, so we shall see.

In a similar fashion to Continuum on Windows 10 Mobile, the Emperion Nebulus will be able to switch to a desktop mode with USB-C or wireless, and it is likely that it will roll out into a full-fledged desktop experience since it's already running full Windows 10---so far so good here. The device is using an overclocked Snapdragon 845 processor which is an odd choice in 2020 given how there's already a Snapdragon 865 out that's two generations older, but it may also point to the fact that it's probably been in development for quite a while. Windows 10 on ARM laptops often had either the Snapdragon 850 or the Snapdragon 8cx which are both made for laptops specifically.

Overall, though, it seems like a pretty interesting device. Windows 10 on ARM has been booted a couple of times on Android phones, but it's often nothing more than a cool experiment as, again, it's not an operating system that is adapted to phones.

Via: Windows Central