The Microsoft Surface Hub, the all-in-one team collaboration device, smart whiteboard, and conferencing system, finally started shipping to customers in March, despite being officially launched at the start of 2015. Despite the delays and increase in final price, the Surface Hub has proven more popular with customers than originally expected. As of July, the Surface Hub had been shipped to more than 500 customers worldwide.

While the Surface Hub has proven a success for Microsoft, it is not the only company offering large all-in-one touchscreen computers for enterprises. InFocus Corp., which previously offered 80-inch and 85-inch models, now has a 70-inch Mondopad Ultra that competes directly with the Surface Hub in terms of price, faster processor and larger storage.

We look at how InFocus’ 70-inch Mondopad Ultra, due out next month, compares with Microsoft’s 55-inch and 84-inch Surface Hub.

Display

The 70-inch Mondopad Ultra has a 4K screen, 3840 x 2160 pixels, like the Surface Hub 84-inch version. The smaller and cheaper 55-inch Surface Hub only offers enterprises a full HD screen.

Where the Surface Hub comes out ahead of the Mondopad Ultra is in terms of multi-touch capabilities. The Mondopad Ultra’s touchscreen offers 16-point touch capability, which is much lower than the 100-point touch capability offered by the Surface Hub.

With the Surface Hub, you can project your phone, laptop, or tablet’s screen to the Surface Hub wirelessly using Miracast. It will require that you have Windows 8 or later installed on your device. The Mondopad Ultra, on the other hand, supports wireless projection from Windows 7, 8 and 10 devices, as well as Apple OSX and iOS devices and Chrome devices.

Processor and graphics

In terms of performance, the Mondopad Ultra comes with the faster 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700T processor, compared to the 4th Generation Intel Core i7 found in the 84-inch model and the fourth-generation Intel Core i5 in the smaller version.

Although InFocus didn’t specify whether the Mondopad Ultra will come with a discrete GPU, the Surface Hub has integrated Intel HD 4600 in its 55-inch model and Nvidia’s Quadro K2200 discrete GPU in its larger 84-inch model.

Storage and memory

Both the Mondopad Ultra and the Surface Hub offer 8GB of memory, but InFocus’ device beats Microsoft’s when it comes to storage, offering 256GB, compared with 128GB.

Connectivity

Both the Surface Hub and the Mondopad Ultra offers similar connectivity features and ports. The Mondopad Ultra comes with HDMI, USB Type-A, USB-B, RJ45/LAN, DisplayPort 1.2 out, RS232 in, Component, VGA, 3.5mm audio in, RCA stereo in and RCA stereo audio out.

Operating system

When it comes to operating systems, the Mondopad Ultra comes with Windows 10 Pro. However, the Surface Hub ships with a custom version of Windows 10, which includes unique apps, editing, annotation and collaboration features.

Price and availability

The 55-inch Surface Hub costs $8,999, while the larger 84-inch model with 4K screen comes in at a hefty $21,999. The 70-inch Mondopad Ultra falls between the two with a price of $13,999. However, the Surface Hub does ship with two Surface Hub Pens. It is not clear whether the Mondopad Ultra includes stylus’ or if businesses will have to buy them separately. The Mondopad Ultra will start shipping next month.

At this stage, the Surface Hub is shipping in 24 select markets only, including the U.S., U.K, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Germany.

Sources: InFocus; PCWorld

Images via InFocus