If you were hoping that this new Surface Book would be a complete overhaul, you’ll have to keep waiting. It is quite truly a midlife cycle spec refresh and nothing more. Most people will probably be just fine with one of the less expensive Surface Books, which haven’t been updated, but if you want to pony up to the top of the line, that top is slightly higher than before.
The question now is do you plunk down $3,000 for this ultimate Surface Book, or do you wait for the inevitable Surface Book 2 that will likely come next year? If you have a Surface Book already, it doesn’t make much sense to upgrade this soon into its lifespan. And there is certainly a good argument to be made to wait for the Microsoft’s next revision, which will likely have Intel’s seventh-generation processor.
But if you can’t wait, and you’re looking for the ultimate Windows laptop, it’s hard to look past Microsoft’s latest Surface Book.
I doubt Microsoft sells a lot of these Surface Books – in fact, I think they’re only available in like 3 countries – but they probably serve more as a halo device for the Surface Pro. Still, looks like a really nice, if a very, very expensive, laptop.
I applaud Microsoft for their new, more innovative direction, and I hope it continues. But it’s going to be a cold day in you-know-where before I lock myself into their ecosystem that tightly.
Where I live the top of the line model costs $6,000 of our local money which probably prices it way out of most people’s budgets.
It looks to me like they want to sell these to Mac using designers, all the ads have Photoshop running, but all the Mac using designers I know (and I used to work in the design industry) are religious fanatics, so they’ve got no chance.
Well they are certainly coming at the right time when Apple is alienating its own pro users with their non-existent or badly received hardware updates.
Not really, macbook’s sales are doing just fine: http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/apple-macbook-pro-sales
This is what techies and nerds don’t get; they’re no longer the barometer of the tech market. The “professional” tech market no longer refers to technology professionals.
For a techslut like myself, current Apple’s computer offerings are a bit appalling. But for other professionals the specs are not that relevant anymore, because frankly… computers are at the point they’re good enough computational-wise. So many people are focusing on the ecosystem and looks, specially at the upper end of things, that Apple is targeting.
I’m not saying their sales are going down or that the majority of apple users won’t buy their new hardware.
I’m saying the professionals (and I do not mean techies, but graphics artists etc.) are currently getting alienated by Apple and if there was any time for Microsoft to try reach into this market, this is the perfect time.
I also don’t think it’s only the specs that are less than impressive, but the whole package, including software, that especially pro users are increasingly unhappy with.
You got that right. Unfortunately, what alternatives do we have? Windows 10? I’d laugh, but it’s not a funny joke. MacOS might be floundering, but at least it stays afloat most of the time and doesn’t jack with my settings every time there’s a minor update. If I have to set my browser back to Firefox one more time after Microsoft decides that I should be using Edge, I’m putting my Windows machine back to 7! I’ve had more than enough of this farce.
But that is the thing; just because you’re a professional in a field does not mean you can speak for other professionals in different fields.
In the old days, computers had a learning curve and were not a commodity, so there was a bit of a correlation between what computer professionals wanted and the wants of the computing marketplace. But that has not been the case for a while, and that’s why I think many tech nerds are continually misreading Apple.
I don’t like the current macbook because I’m not a fan of the keyboard or the processor. But I have a friend who is an illustrator who will most definitively order one, because she does not give that much of a shit about the “feel” of the keyboard or that the processor is 5% slower than the competition, because as far as she’s concerned she loves the screen… and OSX for her is nicer to work with (a fairly subjective metric) and has invested in a specific workflow. My wife is in the same boat; she prefers the entire experience of the apple product; from the looks, that her iphone, ipad, and macbook just all work together, and the fact that she can just go to the apple store if she needs any help with anything whenever I’m out travelling.
Apple is selling not just a laptop, but for many of their customers is a vertically integrated experience. And many people don’t care about the details, they just want something that works, that fits with their lifestyle, and what not.
That’s why microsoft is desperately trying to copy apple’s approach to the consumer market; from trying to do their own HW, to open MS stores, etc.
It’s abundantly clear to me I’m not Apple’s target market. But I’m not in denial that techsluts like myself represent an ever shrinking percentage of the overall market. So our opinions will be less relevant, and increasingly out of sync, with the overall direction of the consumer market.
LOL. The main criticism of the new MacBook Pro is that Apple threw all of that overboard: they now need a dongle even for connecting to their iPhone.
Yes, Apple is still a fashion accessory, but fashions change. The MacBook Pro hasn’t. It just hasn’t been updated for ages, so it sells well.
I suggest the real market for these devices are executives who want bragging rights.
Some people just like expensive stuff. I was in the local computer shop earlier today. A man bought a high end graphics card even though he admitted to the salesman that he wasn’t a gamer or power user.
Surface is the “showcase” line of Windows software, and I don’t think they want to directly compete on hardware against their partners, like Dell, HP, and others.
They can set a target for PC expectations, and then other OEMs will come up with “surface killers”, or “budget surface alternatives” with much less crap compared to what they did before. I see this as a similar initiative to the “ultrabook” effort, where they also get some small piece of the pie due to high prices.
13.5 inches of screen real estate is big nowadays?
I must be getting old …
I’m still rocking a 17 inch slab, but hey … i can do actual work on it without going blind.
What microsoft are using the line for is to showcase ideas and form factors for others to follow.
Indeed the 17″ is already being covered by Dell
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/dell-makes-a…
Saying that… a 17″ tablet?!?
edit: HTML links are playing up again in comments
Edited 2016-11-11 12:15 UTC
Heh, no, a 17 inch laptop.
17 inch tablet would be quite derpy, though, hilarious.
Did they get rid of the stupid fn key lock behavior? I’d never consider one as long as that stupid design persists.