Microsoft's Surface range of touchscreen computers is getting a whole lot bigger. Literally. The Surface Hub is an all-in-one system built for bringing OneNote, Skype for Business, Office, and Universal Windows Apps into the conference room, making it a single integrated device for workplace communication and collaboration.

Surface Hub was first shown off in January, though rather overshadowed by the simultaneous reveal of Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality headset. It's nonetheless an impressive piece of hardware—or rather, two different impressive pieces of hardware—in its own right. Surface Hubs are giant touchscreen PCs designed to go into conference rooms and other collaborative workspaces. They're built around using OneNote for digital whiteboarding and include dual 1080p cameras for video conferencing using the built-in Skype for Business (formerly Lync).

While these are the two major applications, they run a special version of Windows 10 and, as such, will have access to Universal Windows Apps, too. The operating system includes customizations to aid with whiteboarding and similar tasks. With one button, a screenshot of an app can be put into OneNote so that it can subsequently be annotated and shared. The OneNote data from a meeting is saved automatically and shared with meeting attendees, putting an end to the days of whiteboards covered in notes and "please leave" scrawled in one corner.

There will be two versions of Surface Hub. The big one sports an 84-inch 120Hz 3840×2160 screen and packs in a 4th generation Intel Core i7 CPU (the exact model is unspecified), paired with Nvidia Quadro K2200 graphics. The smaller system has a 55-inch 120Hz 1920×1080 screen and uses a Core i5 (again unspecified) and integrated graphics. Both screens support 100-point multitouch with active pen input. Both also have a 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4, and NFC.

The Surface Hubs don't just replace the whiteboard and the video conferencing system; they also replace the projector. Both devices work as Miracast receivers, and, further, they have both HDMI and VGA inputs. Those inputs can put their picture into a window, so don't have to interrupt the use of the other software on the Hub.

The price? They'll go on sale on July 1 in 24 countries, including the US, UK and most of Europe, with the 84-inch version coming in at $19,999 and the 55-inch unit for $6,999. Shipping will start in September. Pricing for the UK and Europe hasn't yet been announced.

This makes them quite a bit more expensive than Microsoft's other hardware. However, Redmond reckons that compared to what a company would normally spend to fit out a conference room with video communications, electronic whiteboarding, and a projector, the price is very competitive. For an 8- to 12-person conference room, Microsoft claims that companies will typically spend $38 to $54 thousand to achieve a similar range of functions to those provided by Surface Hub.

Microsoft has sold hardware in the conference room before. Its RoundTable 360-degree camera was designed to give remote meeting participants a view of everyone around a conference table, switching between participants to track whoever was speaking. The technology was sold to Polycom in 2009. With Surface Hub, the company is trying to get back into that space—and beyond, with Microsoft envisaging Surface Hubs being used in a range of semi-formal meeting places wherever teams may want to share ideas and work around a single (large) screen. The firm has lofty ambitions, too, with Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president, Microsoft Devices, saying "Just as the PC revolutionized productivity for individuals, Surface Hub will transform the way groups of people work together."

Whether it will succeed is harder to say. Many of us no doubt can see the appeal of such a device; neatly integrated whiteboarding and video conferencing, easy projection without wires, and all done in such a way that remote attendees can participate on a fairly equal footing with local ones are all good things to have. But the world of the conference room is also the world where the VGA port continues to reign supreme. Is this a space that's willing to embrace high-tech solutions to "revolutionize productivity?" We're not so sure.