Microsoft has made a quiet change to its hardware certification guidelines for Windows 8 tablet devices, adjusting the minimum resolution to 1024×768. This change now allows Microsoft’s partners to build new devices for 7-inch and 8-inch form factors.
“The new guidelines relax the minimum resolution for Windows 8 devices to 1024 x 768 at a depth of 32 bits. That’s a significant change from the current guidelines, which require a minimum resolution of 1366 x 768 for a device to be certified with the Windows 8 logo,” a report on ZDNet stated.
Microsoft has made this change out of the blue and it is effective immediately, but no official word on when any 7-inch or 8-inch devices will ship. Another thing to note is that Windows 8’s Snap View feature is not supported on resolutions of 1024×768, however, Windows Blue is set to fix that problem.
This change is a part of Microsoft master plan to offer “a set of experiences that are complete, that are compelling, and they are consistent across a whole range of form factors and devices … whether that’s 4-inch, 5-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch, 13-inch,” according to Microsoft CFO Peter Klein.
