Microsoft Studio is the company's first premium 2-in-1 PC

There was a lot of news coming out of Microsoft today including a shift into catering to the creative market. Microsoft focused on various software and OS updates but the big news was the company's firm focus on creating its own hardware. While the Surface Pro 4 from last year remained generally unchanged (although the pricing went down in certain markets), the Surface Book has been refreshed with twice the performance, 16 hours of battery life and a price of CAD $at $3,129 ERP.

The biggest news was the Surface Studio, Microsoft's take on the 2-in-1 computer and its answer to Apple's 5K iMac. Featuring a floating display that Microsoft says is the thinnest at 12.5mm thin, connected to a mini-desktop.

Click to read more ...

Huawei reveals its PC ambitions with the MateBook 12-inch hybrid

Don't look now but there's another Microsoft Surface clone coming to market and this one is from a very unexpected source. Huawei just took the wraps off its 12-inch MateBook Hybrid PC which features a tablet-first convertible that can emulate a notebook thanks to a kickstand and a slim keyboard case and yes, it also has a stylus accessory because it wouldn't be a very good Surface clone if it did not offer pen input. The 12-inch display weighs in with a 2160 by 1440 resolution and the keyboard/case/kickstand is included in the package.

At 1.4 pounds, the MateBook is one of the lightest such devices in terms of weight. CPUs range from Intel Core M3, M5 and M7 processors and storage goes from 128GB to 512GB, you can also get 4Gb or 8GB of RAM depending on the configuration. 

Canadian availability and pricing is questionable at this time but we should hear more from Huawei in the coming weeks.

CES 2016: Dell turns heads with latest enterprise 2-in-1 releases

Dell's made waves with its innovative XPS 13 Ultrabook and now hopes to follow that impressive notebook with a sleek new 2-in-1 geared for enterprise and business users. Built for the mobile elite professional, the Dell Latitude 12 7000 Series 2-in-1 is one of the lightest 12.5-inch 2-in-1s available. If it looks familiar, that is because it is Dell's take on Microsoft's Surface, which seems to be a trend most PC makers are following this year.

The Latitude 12 7000 Series features 6th generation Intel Core M processor (2.2GHz to 3.1 GHz), SSD PCIe storage, and USB Type-C docking connectivity for power, video, audio, and data. The device also features 4GB or 8GB of memory.It will be available beginning early February 2016 on Dell.ca in Canada starting at $1,429 CDN