“Project Volterra” assessment: Microsoft’s $600 Arm PC that nearly doesn’t suck

Microsoft has launched two new techniques primarily based on Qualcomm’s Arm processors currently. The first, a 5G model of the Surface Pro 9, has principally been panned by reviewers, with software program compatibility being a serious ache level even after two generations of the Arm-powered Surface Pro X. The second is the $600 Windows Dev Kit 2023, previously recognized by the a lot cooler title “Project Volterra,” and it is supposed to assist resolve that software program drawback.

Microsoft has tried doing Arm Windows developer bins earlier than—particularly, the $219 ECS LIVA QC710 it started promoting a couple of 12 months in the past (it is now not on the market, at the least not by way of Microsoft’s retailer). But with its 4GB of reminiscence, 64GB of pokey storage, and underpowered Snapdragon 7c processor, utilizing it was like revisiting the unhealthy netbook days. Maybe you may get some fundamental searching executed on it. But precise work, even for somebody like me who primarily works with textual content and medium-resolution images all day? Nope.

The Dev Kit 2023 is almost thrice as costly, however the {hardware} is highly effective sufficient that it principally simply looks like a typical midrange mini-desktop in day-to-day use. Freed from the constraints of cruddy {hardware}, the machine makes it a lot simpler to judge Windows-on-Arm’s remaining software program limitations. For this assessment, we cannot be utilizing it as a developer field, however it does give us an excellent likelihood to judge the place the Windows-on-Arm challenge is correct now, each in {hardware} and software program—particularly relative to the Mac, the opposite {hardware} and software program ecosystem that’s making a a lot cleaner, wider-ranging, and extra swish transition from x86 software program to Arm.

A Surface in all however title

Microsoft is not promoting the Dev Kit as a Surface system, as a result of it is not meant to be a machine for on a regular basis PC customers. There’s loads of Surface in its DNA, nonetheless.

That begins with its design. It’s a substantial-feeling hunk of black plastic over a metallic body with a Microsoft emblem printed on the prime; it is smaller than a Mac mini (which, for those who’re not acquainted, has had the identical bodily dimensions for 12 years), but when Microsoft had got down to make a Surface-branded Mac mini clone, it in all probability would not look a lot completely different.

One motive the system is smaller is that it makes use of a 90 W exterior energy brick, whereas the Mac mini’s energy provide is contained in the enclosure. That flows from the best way Microsoft appears to have put collectively the Dev Kit—the Mac mini’s internals had been designed particularly for his or her enclosure, whereas the Dev Kit seems to be fairly actually a Surface Pro 9 with 5G motherboard with a case constructed round it. In that manner, it is much less just like the Mac mini and extra just like the Apple Silicon “Developer Transition Kit,” which tailored iPad Pro-ish innards for a Mac mini-shaped case.

The most blatant giveaway is a bunch of unused connectors which are seen on the top-right of the board if you take away the underside of the Dev Kit—these could be used to drive a show and different inner peripherals in a Surface system however go unused within the Dev Kit. The two USB-C ports (once more, a Surface holdover, with similar positioning and house between them) are the one ones constructed into the board, whereas the Ethernet port, USB-A ports, mini DisplayPort, and energy jack on the again are all constructed right into a separate board. (That it is a Surface Pro clone additionally implies that the Dev Kit has no headphone jack.) Firmware and driver updates pulled down from Windows Update are additionally Surface-branded.

The Dev Kit can connect with as much as three screens without delay utilizing its mini DisplayPort and USB-C ports, and as much as two of these will be 60 Hz 4K shows (refresh charges sooner than 60 Hz can be found at decrease resolutions, however 60 Hz does seem like the laborious cap at 4K). Microsoft says that the DisplayPort is the one you need to use for the first show, and it is the one one that can show a sign if you’re adjusting the field’s UEFI firmware settings, doubtless additionally a holdover from its Surface roots—the inner show in a Surface would doubtless be related with an inner embedded DisplayPort connector (eDP) that labored the identical manner.

The solely upgradeable element within the Dev Kit is the 512GB SSD, which is a brief M.2 2230 drive identical to those Microsoft makes use of in different Surfaces. A typical M.2 2280 SSD would positively match, although you’d have to determine learn how to maintain it in place your self since there is not any built-in standoff for it. The rationale for utilizing a brief little SSD within the first place might be the identical as for reusing a Surface motherboard—cheaper to reuse a factor than to design and pay for an entire completely different factor, particularly in what’s prone to be a low-volume product.