“Today, I want to share a bit more detail about the growing Surface family of products and Surface with Windows 8 Pro, specifically around pricing. In January, Surface with Windows 8 Pro will be available in two versions and pricing will start at $899.” Stefan Constantine noted on Twitter: “For the price of a Surface Pro ($899), you could buy a Nexus 4 ($349), Nexus 7 ($299), and a Chromebook ($249). Do the math.” No matter how hard people are going to shout the Surface Pro is an ultrabook competitor, people will compare it to an iPad.
Appears to be a reboot of what M$ attempted in the first place before the iPad was born. It definitely is a familiar pricing scheme. Only time will tell if it’s a justifiable pricing scheme. The main question that I have with this setup is, Will I be able to come within any ballpark of productivity with W8 Pro Surface Tab? If so, it just might be a winner.
Riiight… I can have 3 devices that I can basically use for ‘fun’ stuff… No, it’s not possible for me to do any work with android/iOS and Surface Pro would be quite handy to have fun outdor and do some work as well (maybe even with two displays, etc)!
I wish it was more expensive than $900. The more expensive the sooner the death. A quick painless death is always preferred to a long agonizing death. The Kin is a good example of a painless death.
I guess that means a month or two until the surface rt price drop. they can’t be so close.
surface pro will be the most awesome netbook ever. type cover + 11″ intel ivy bridge tablet = most expensive toy you can hold in one hand.
I’m really interested to see where these form factors and screen sizes end up in a year or two. I for one am skeptical there is a big market for $1000 11″ laptops.
If you attach external keyboard, mouse and display, then it should be possible to turn this little fellow to full blown workstation – good for coding, and then just pick it up and go. Better than current laptops, as I’ve used a laptop for my work machine for several years now.
The non-magnetized cover however seems to be a problem as it does not want to stay put
I hope Microsoft’s marketing team is able to get people to compare it more to ultrabooks than the iPad, ’cause it’s way more capable and useful than an iPad.
However, Microsoft has traditionally done bad marketing to consumers, so I’m not holding my breath.
I really want to like this device but, for all intents and purposes, it’s a laptop with a touchscreen. Microsoft (with HP and others) tried this before and it was not a success so I struggle to understand why Microsoft thinks it will be a success this time around.
It’s essentially priced to compete with a Macbook Air. It’s perhaps going to be a bit more expensive then an air if you include the type cover.
But, realistically, it won’t be as good as an air as a laptop, it won’t be as portable as iPad or a Nexus 7, it’s WAY more expensive then most tablets.
I don’t get why you would buy this thing. It’s only for diehard Windows fans. Otherwise your going to buy a tablet from Apple or Google et al.
Major difference this time around is a tablet specific OS.
You’re missing the point of usability. Same basic specs and price as an Air but with touchscreen. Way more usability as a “real” computer than an Android tablet or iPad.
Edited 2012-11-29 19:32 UTC
A touch screen is more usable than a keyboard?
Point taken. But it is definitely more convienient.
Not knocking the price as the existing i5 tablets are >$1k. The only things that don’t work for me is that it has a fan and probably mediocre battery life.
However, comparing it to a Nexus 4 + Nexus 7 + Chromebook is an obvious troll. None of these are close to being considered full featured computers and the ARM processor is still 3-4 years behind Intel on everything except battery life.
Yeah, battery life is totally a non-issue for mobile devices…
Actually, the Chromebook beats Intel (Atom) for most things in addition to battery life. Then again, that’s Atom.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=samsung_exynos5_…
Nice comparing Samsung’s latest to Atoms released in 2008 (single core at that!) and 2010. Even so it barely bests the D525 in some tests. The i3, also from 2010 and now 2 generations behind beats it in every category.
Fact is, ARM isnt the magic processor people make it out to be.
A tablet to handle all those corner cases that DOSBOX on Android can’t deal with!
according to the verge, Microsoft is saying that the battery lasts 4 hours. I guess it’s 4 hours when new. After 2 years you can still use it to press those papers on your desk so that the wind doesn’t blow them.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3707716/microsoft-surface-pro-ha…
Hmm. doesn’t seem very desirable to me…maybe, just before I drop off this mortal coil, a few more years and such devices will be both powerful, cheap and last long enough for me to consider. Not yet, for sure.
Both for people who are bad at math. >$1k for an 11″ tablet with a keyboard. I could buy a PC, buy internet access, run it as an RDP target, buy a Nexus10 and bt keyboard, and have a better tablet and a better PC, with full use of Windows on both whenever I want … and pay for my internet access for a couple of years to boot. Oh joy.
http://eee.asus.com/en/transformer-infinity/specification/
Alright, less processor. But much, much better battery life.
And phone OS and apps. You really cant compare the two as they have different markets. I don’t see a lot of Android tablet or iPad buyers being interested in something like this. However, I would really consider one for serious work as a laptop alternative.
Well, it never even crossed my mind to put the surface pro in the same league as ultrabooks. I mean an i5 with unknown speed (probably low, for heat and battery considerations), unknown memory (if it’s below 4G then that’s it), unknown ssd (if it’s below 256G then that’s it), and the small screen size (while 10.6 is quite OK for a tablet, and the resolution is nice, there’s no way one could use that for anything besides tablet functions, unless you hook it up to a monitor, but then it’s not portable anymore, is it), crappy keyboard (I’ve read quite a lot of dissatisifed comments about the Surface keyboard).
All in all, for ultrabook-level functionality, I’d prefer my xps13 over a Surface Pro any day (or one of the gazillion other ultrabooks that are better ultrabooks than any tablet posing as one).
Im actually looking forward to the product, but I have to agree with you on a few points. From what I read they have only disclosed a 64GB and 128GB model (don’t know CPU clockspeed or memory)…
If Microsoft wants to compete with Apple on pricing, THAT is where they can do so… on the storage. Apple easily charges 4-5 times market value on SSD storage space and memory upgrades when you go above the base models.
Microsft should have a model of this thing with at least a 256GB SSD (preferably also 512MB) and at least 16GB of memory as an option. If they actually priced it at reasonable market value over the base model they would be extremely price competitive with the higher end Airs – it would give them favorable comparisons on high end of the product spectrum.
ps. As for the screen. I have an 11″ Air – basically the same size screen as this thing will have. I use it for work (web developer) and I find the screen quite usable. Of course it is nicer plugged into a big monitor (which I do at my desk at work), the point is it is extremely lite and when I need it traveling I can manage quite well with the small screen. I don’t know how great the Surface Pro will be, but I’d take my Air over any 13″ ultrabook – they seem absolutely huge in comparison.
If the Surface Pro (exact same product) was called the MacPad, had a somewhat more industrial design with the Apple logo on the back, and ran OSX, those exact same people would be tripping over each other to buy one.
Just saying…