Sinofsky: Surface 'best tablet, best laptop' he's ever used
After a brief pause for recuperation after the Windows 8 launch, Microsoft's Windows supremo Steven Sinofsky went straight out and started on Surface and how it measures up to competition. "It's not just a tablet. It's actually the best tablet that I've ever used," he said. "It's also not just a laptop, but it's the best laptop …
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Of course he would say that and the skateboard thing isn't impressive. You can stand on an empty soda can without crushing it if you balance yourself right.
Try doing that with an iPad though. All crapple stuff breaks when dropped.
In 12 months time
I suspect that Windows, iOS and Android tablets will still be battling it out, because each offers something different that appeals to different people. There is plenty of room for everyone.
Re: In 12 months time
Probably one of the most reasonable comments leveled against the surface to date on the reg forums.
Re: In 12 months time
I'll be able to buy a Surface for a song, and install a decent OS on it.
In 12 months time
we will be shambling around the desolate ruins of our once glorious cities looking for whatever scraps of food remain and an old man is there, face to the sky screaming WHY???? WHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Re: In 12 months time
"Damn you, Windows 8!! You blew it all to hell!!"
Re: In 12 months time
According even to Gartner, Android devices will exceed windows devices by 2016 (including desktops). Android is the more open system, so this is a good thing.
Re: In 12 months time
" There is plenty of room for everyone." - but MS cannot survive on a modest share, it's entire business model depends on selling in huge numbers on huge margins. They are not able to complete on a level playing field where they cannot use their monopoly to strong arm OEMs.
And in other news....
"Romney best candidate" - Republican Party
"GM Cars safest, fastest" - GM CEO
"Obama best candidate" - Democratic Party
"Ford Cars safest, fastest" - Ford CEO
"Gnome 3 best yet" - Gnome devel team
"This post most insightful ever" - me.
Re: And in other news....
To be fair, he's probably right, it looks like an excellent tablet. The 'best laptop ever' claim is a bit more doubtful, but even that may be true --- it's just sadly covered by Metro crapola.
Re: 'best laptop ever'
Actually, Steve Sinofsky said the Surface was the best tablet and the best laptop he'd ever used.
Mr. Sinofsky needs to get out more.
We'd all be rail thin if...
PR people wrote everything we could read.
"The 10.6 inch Gorilla 2.0 glass is designed to be the perfect size to display the Windows OS ..."
How many times does someone have to practice saying things like this, before they can repress the urge to throw up?
This is almost as bad as Samsung's "made for humans". (Of course, what's the down-side? - I bought an S3 anyway)
Re: We'd all be rail thin if...
"How many times does someone have to practice saying things like this, before they can repress the urge to throw up?"
Simple. There's an app for that.
Red ring of death RED RING OF DEATH!
Enjoy your release day aids!
He would say that./
Bet he didn't point out that Surface tablets have an even crappier DPI than even the iPad Mini, and you need a second mortgage to get even the really rubbish one, let alone the not as rubbish one...
Re: He would say that./
The Surface screen is higher quality with lower reflectivity, deeper blacks, and the resolution is enhanced by Clear Type, so there is little to choose between them in terms of the display. Plus all iPad applications actually run at 1024x768 anyway so that they can support the older iPads and the iPad mini.
Re: He would say that./
"...all iPad applications actually run at 1024x768 anyway"
So confidently stated and yet so wrong:
http://appadvice.com/applists/show/apps-that-show-off-ipad-retina-display
But being a troll for MS, you wouldn't know about apps would you?
And as for ClearType magically giving the equivalent of 4x more pixels, you might want to look again:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25710/ClearType_dialled_back_in_Windows_8_s_Metro
Re: He would say that./
"enhanced by Clear Type"
Drink the marketing coolaid much?
Shame
10.6 inch screen and a poor resolution compared to full size iPad. The bar has been set high by apple when it comes to screens and android tablets are finally stepping up to the plate but this Microsoft effort is still born.
It looks better than an iPad and it has some great built in features like the kick stand but their target market should have been people who didn't want the apple walled garden
Instead all they've done with RT is given them a different walled garden
Re: Shame
Erm - plus the Surface has support for 420 milion hardware devices at launch via USB, it runs MS Office, has a memory slot, has a 3mm thick keyboard cover, has faster performance than the iPad 3, has much higher build quality and doesnt break as easily, uses better case material, and it costs less for the equivalent memory spec. iPad 3 model....
Re: Shame
It might be faster than the iPad 3 but that's old hat now and no longer even available for sale. It's the iPad with Retina Display (aka iPad 4) that Surface will need to compete with and it's highly unlikely that it's faster than that.
Re: Shame
I agree a 1080p screen (or better) for Surface RT is desirable but realistically Tegra 3 isn't up to the job and Microsoft so far don't control the SoC so they had little choice for an October release. Apple have now played their A6 hole card early to regain a clear performance advantage but we can expect to see more Cortex-A15 announcements at CES January making 2013 an interesting year for Windows RT/Android/iOS competition on price and performance.
Re: Shame
Erm - plus the Surface has support for 420 milion hardware devices at launch via USB, it runs MS Office
I could be wrong but all I see at launch is the windows RT version which I don't think will support 420 million hardware devices via USB.....
As for office well it runs a flavour of office but do you really think they'll give you all the candy on a machine like this?
All it will take is for google to release a version of that office suite they bought that works offline - quick office?! For android and then Microsoft have lost their USP
At launch all I see is a metro only RT device which is no better than the iPad for content creation despite the inclusion of office
Re: Shame
The Windows RT device does indeed support most USB devices. Just plug them in and off you go.
Also, Office isn't a 'flavour' of Office, it's a pretty much full version of Office 2013 written for ARM.
Re: Erm - plus the Surface has support for 420 milion hardware devices at launch via USB
That's a lot of chargers- is the battery life that bad?
Or else the USB hub to plug them all into must be massive!
Re: Shame
Windows comes with loads of drivers, all Microsoft need to do for ARM is just recompile the drivers for ARM.
Third party drivers are a different matter, but then this is a new version of Windows so you would expect some devices to not be supported for a small while.
Re: Erm - plus the Surface has support for 420 milion hardware devices at launch via USB
Erm, don't you remember recently how HP said they alone have 200 different laser printer models?
So it's not hard to imagine that many of those drivers are printers.
Apple managed to slim down their OS by a huge amount by downloading the printer drivers on demand, instead of bundling them.
Business
The more I examine the varying decent in-depth reviews on windows8 (specifically winRT) and surface, the more it becomes clear that Microsoft is very much targeting the business market.
The iPad, despite being adopted by business to a degree, is more of an entertainment/consumption device.
Ditto for Android tablets such as the Nexus.
What Microsoft appear to aiming to do, is to bridge the gap between productivity and tablet devices.
Yes, we've joked that the surface is a confused device - "look, it's a notebook!" - "no, it's a tablet!" - but perhaps that's the right direction for Microsoft.
If the surface is a success, it will be in the Office and it will be "Office" that drives that success.
A device which can double up as both presentation - in boardrooms - and productivity - on the road - will appeal to businesses far more than one that is mostly presentation based.
I can't see the surface making much of an impact in the consumer market - not at it's price point and not with the iPad (at the same price point) so entrenched. Also, with a plethora of cheap and excellent Android tablets available, which are perfectly capable of filling the consumer middle-ground, Microsoft have to take the battle elsewhere.
I think they have. The reviews are mostly favourable. The OS gets a thumbs up, albeit with the caveat of a steep learning curve. The surface gets mixed reviews, but by all accounts is manages to hit the productivity sweet spot decently.
I hope it's a success. Although I use Linux and MacOS, I also use windows and I can see myself at work in a few years using Windows 8, possibly on a touch device.
Meanwhile, over at the Graun....
Their coverage of the event was pure snark. Seems the Koolaid was completely the wrong colour for their tech "journalist".
Told them as much in the comments (in a jokey innocuous fashion) but they didn't like the criticism and nixed it within 20 minutes. Up until that point I had only been half serious about the Koolaid.
Captain of the fail boat
Actual quote: "In creating Windows 8 we shunned the incremental". Whoops someone forgot to tell him Windows 8 is v6.2 and 7 is 6.1 and Vista 6.0
Re: Captain of the fail boat
But the excremental is never overlooked...
When (not if) the Surface and the entire Windows 8 'ecosystem' flops...
Ballmer and/or Sinofsky will be out of a job at Microsoft.
The Surface will end up just like the Zune.
Interesting
I was all prepared to really hate these.
However the more I see of them the more I'm finding myself thinking hmm maybe I ought to get one.
Or do I wait for a x86 one to run "real" windows.....
I dont know why but they are actually looking far better than I expected,
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