We keep learning more and more details about Windows 10X, a platform that draws its juice from Windows 10, but tailor made for dual screen devices, foldables and more. While using a device like the upcoming Microsoft Surface Neo you will be able to view apps on a single screen, that goes across displays. Now there’s also a touch strip like the MacBook Pro one.
You probably know that the Surface Neo has an attachable magnetic keyboard, that does leave a bit of room for the touchscreen at the bottom. Well that strip is turned into the… Wonder Bar. It’s a feature from Windows 10X and it came to light when MS released the developer tools and emulator for Windows 10X recently. The Wonder Bar expands the laptop format and productivity, by “hosting system provided input accelerators and a virtual trackpad for precision mouse input”.
It also reminds me of the ZenBook Pro Duo from ASUS with its usable secondary screen above the keyboard. It seems that the Wonder Bar can be activated by switching to a virtual keyboard with Wonder Bar support, not just the physical one. It can show emojis, GIFs, text suggestions, watching videos, menus and options. It can show media playback controls, smaller apps like the Windows Calculator and I’m sure that Photoshop tools could also appear there.
Now it’s up to developers to further integrate the Wonder Bar into their apps. Basically it mimics the MacBook Pro Touch Bar, but with a twist. Between this Wonder Bar and the fresh leak of the Surface Duo, things are starting to look a bit better than the underwhelming prototypes from October.
