Hands on with the engineering handset that helped build Windows 10 Mobile

Dorsum when Windows 10 Mobile kickoff started development, fans were super excited for what the hereafter held for Windows 10 in your pocket. Believe it or not, Microsoft had high hopes for Windows 10 on phones when information technology first started working on the platform. Unfortunately, due to developers not adopting UWP fast enough, and Microsoft'due south rather underwhelming hardware offerings with Windows 10 Mobile, the company concluded upwards abandoning the platform, killing any future plans for Windows 10 on smartphones.

The underwhelming Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 Forty were a existent shame, if but because internally, Microsoft was edifice the platform out with support for much more what the Lumia 950 serial offered. When Windows x Mobile development first kicked off, the Lumia 950 didn't exist, so instead Microsoft used an applied science handset called the "RX-130," an odd Frankenstein of a smartphone that incorporated dissimilar components from different Lumia handsets, and even had features that the Lumia 950 didn't.

The RX-130 has been briefly spotted in a few on-phase demos that Microsoft did back in 2022 when demoing new Windows x Mobile features in development, but outside of that, not much is known about the Frankenstein handset. We've managed to get out hands on an RX-130 handset, and it's not pretty.

The RX-130: What is it?

The handset, known as the RX-130 or "Hapanero" is an applied science device that Microsoft used to build and test Windows Telephone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile builds throughout development earlier the Lumia 950 existed. It's not a device that Microsoft e'er intended to sell, and was primarily built just for employees who needed to exam and debug OS builds and features that existing Windows Phone devices didn't back up at the time. Since it wasn't intended for public consumption, the design is a piffling ... crude.

The device features the face up of a Lumia 1520 housed in a custom body, bright orange volume, lock and camera buttons, the battery from a Lumia 830, a fingerprint reader, and the camera from a Lumia 950 XL. The display is a half dozen-inch 2K LCD panel, with 4GB RAM and a Snapdragon 810 on the inside powering everything. It's a Lumia 1520 with a Lumia 830 battery and the camera and specifications from a Lumia 950 Forty. See what I mean when I refer to information technology as the "Frankenstein" telephone?

This is the device Microsoft used to build out features similar Continuum, USB-OTG support, Windows Hello, support for the Snapdragon 810, and fifty-fifty pen back up before the Lumia 950 was bachelor. Although the Lumia 950 technically existed internally throughout 2022, almost engineers likely wouldn't take been allowed admission to those prototypes until way later into the development of the device. This is where the RX-130 came in.

The rear-facing fingerprint sensor isn't something we ever saw launch on a Lumia handset, which is a shame. The RX-130 too had support for pens, which when loaded with the right software would work much like pen back up on a normal Windows PC. In fact, early Lumia 950 prototypes besides featured pen support, but this was pulled toward the cease of development, equally were many other features.

In fact, Microsoft as well used the RX-130 to build and examination support for Windows 10 Mobile on the ARM64 compages. The Snapdragon 810 supports ARM64, and so did Windows 10 Mobile, however, Microsoft never released a handset with Windows 10 Mobile running in ARM64. Interestingly, someone was recently able to become full Windows 10 on ARM running on an RX-130, because the processor supports information technology.

The RX-130 is an interesting await into what Microsoft was anticipating Windows 10 Mobile to be. The technology image has all the bells and whistles, many of which never actually fabricated it into a aircraft product. Unfortunately, the Lumia 950 launched with an underwhelming choice of features, and Microsoft's inability to commit to Windows 10 Mobile after 2022 was the final smash in the coffin for fans of Windows in your pocket.

Hopefully, Microsoft gives its adjacent attempt at Windows 10 on mobile devices a proper chance. With rumors of Andromeda launching as shortly every bit this year, it shouldn't be long before Microsoft launches its adjacent attempt.