Microsoft unveiled a whole raft of major announcements at their WinHEC 2016 conference today, including Windows 10 on ARM, and new possibilities that have opened up for developers and hardware manufacturers. One major pillar of this new frontier — dubbed Project Evo — is low-cost mixed reality devices that Microsoft and its partners hope will propel holograms into the mainstream.

Project Evo encompasses tons of new hardware features for Windows, including Amazon Echo-like far-field speech communication for Cortana (which has implications for Home Hub), new biometric features for Windows Hello, spatial audio, and HDR support. These new features will also be available in a range of new Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), which Microsoft says will "raise the bar" for what people expect of a Windows PC. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more Microsoft is targeting the Chinese market heavily for HMDs, announcing that HoloLens for developers is currently traveling through the country's governmental approval process. Also, a leading China-based VR company known as 3Glasses will begin working with the mixed reality features of Windows 10's Creators Update, coming in mid-2017.

Microsoft also unveiled the PC specs that would be required for mixed reality HMD devices. Thankfully, they are very reasonable compared to the expectations set by full VR headsets like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The base minimum hardware requirements for holiday-2017 systems are as follows: CPU: Intel Mobile Core i5 (e.g. 7200U) Dual-Core with Hyperthreading equivalent

GPU: Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 620 (GT2) equivalent or greater DX12 API Capable GPU

RAM: 8GB+ Dual Channel required for integrated Graphics

HDMI: HDMI 1.4 with 2880x1440 @ 60 Hz

HDMI 2.0 or DP 1.3+ with 2880x1440 @ 90 Hz

HDD: 100GB+ SSD (Preferred) / HDD

USB: USB 3.0 Type-A or USB 3.1 Type-C Port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 for accessories In addition to 3Glasses, other companies including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are working on HMDs that will support the Windows 10 Creators Update, bringing holograms to the masses.