Microsoft Continuum to make your Windows 10 phone into a PC

Originally announced alongside Windows 10, Continuum is moving from its core tablet functionality, bringing PC features to smartphones.

During the Build 2015 Microsoft announced Continuum for phones, a way to bring a full desktop from a Windows 10 desktop to any connected screen, using just an HDMI cable.

While no in-market devices currently support Continuum for phones, future devices will be able to project full apps, games and services from a small vertically-oriented smartphone to a landscape widescreen monitor.

Apps like Office 2016, which were created with Microsoft’s new Universal App developer tools, scale properly on the bigger screen, since the code base is identical between the real large screen version and the one running on a smartphone.

Motorola attempted to actuate this idea back in 2011 with its Atrix Lapdock, but the experience was slow, and the apps lacking. But Microsoft expects Windows 10 to be available to over a billion devices upon its release, both from new and existing hardware, so the developer potential is much more real.

Microsoft has also embedded mouse and keyboard drivers into these upcoming Windows 10 smartphones, so Bluetooth input devices will work with this new form factor.