Microsoft's Intel-powered Surface Pro to launch in February Microsoft has announced the next major push in its Surface consumer hardware campaign, including the launch date of Surface Windows 8 Pro, the Intel-powered big brother to the ARM-based Surface Windows RT fondleslab that debuted in October. In a press release on Tuesday, the software giant said its latest tablet will arrive in …
What I don't understand is how they're going to make HD graphics work with windows apps on such a small screen. Displayed at the native resolution, existing apps will be unusably small but if they do the iPad retina trick of presenting it to apps as half the resolution (960x540), they'll be too big to fit on the screen
When the Surface kit was announced, the “Pro” version was billed as coming with a “Type Cover”.. so removing a £100 item from the spec is effectively a price increase.
My guess is that the “pro” version is being re-positioned more as a desktop replacement (where the touch keyboard just doesn’t cut it) than a hybrid tablet, and will be followed up with a docking station
This post has been deleted by its author
Is it me or are people getting more and more gullible ?
unless your a moron or have a remarkably reduced genital set there just is no such thing as,..
- a phone, notebook or tablet that'll be out of date within 12 months and cost £500
- a car that's actually worth half a million
- a TV that'll be out of date within 12 months and cost £5000
these things only sell with such a high markup because some folk are dumb enough to believe the prices are reasonable, or are incapable to accurately value items - jus' sayin'
"Beginning soon, the devices will also be available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland – more than doubling the number of markets for Microsoft's own-branded kit."
They're likely hoping a doubling of the markets will equal a doubling of the sales. Unfortunately I can only see them failing to sell in twice as many places now. The price is far too high for what it offers especially when you factor in the cost of the keyboard cover. As others have said many times it costs more than, for example, an iPad, Nexus 10 or the ASUS Transformer Infinity, offers far less functionality and has far fewer apps.
The only real selling point is the Windows tag but as it's based on an ARM architecture that means nothing. For some reason Microsoft think they can price it higher than competing products with less going for it. I don't know why they bothered with all the secrecy about it when they effectively killed it before it was available. It's a shame because even though I own other tablets it appealed to me but not at that price. The Surface 8 Pro (who picked that ludicrous name?!) is a better option but it's still priced too highly. It offers nothing over a high-spec laptop besides the display and while it's a great display it isn't enough to sell the product to me.
I'm seriously tempted to buy one of these when they come out, mainly because of the high-quality pen stylus input which I've not seen offered on any other tablet anywhere near this price point. Wacom sell a 12" display digitiser, the Cintiq 12WX costing 800 quid which the Surface Pro digitiser matches according to its published spec (600 dpi resolution, 512 pressure steps, pen angle sensing). That trounces a rubber nub stylus on the iPads and Android devices if you're interested in a mobile graphics editing device.
A US company, Modbook rebuild Apple laptops into a tablet form factor by integrating a Cintiq 12WX but they charge 3000 bucks for what the Surface Pro can do out of the box. I'll be interested to see if someone can Hackintosh OS/X onto the Surface Pro hardware or even run it in a VM under Win 8.
I think a few people have missed the point here ...
The surface Pro is the worlds first full blown desktop PC at reasonably good desktop spec in tablet form.
Show me where you can get any other windows / mac / linux machine that weighs less than 1kg that will run any desktop built software on the market?
I'd love to see an iDevice of this grade, someone else raised a good point before me about the only other potential option of this type costing around £3,000 ... and yet people on here still complain about price?
Oh and surface sales figures are poor because no one can get one over here ... literally no one seems to have any stock ... when shops start stocking them Microsoft will start selling them.
That and ... it's Microsoft, they will sell, purely for that reason ... Micorsoft seem to have a way of making stuff sell weather we want it or not.
Oh and that douchebag up there saying Microsoft have never made a successful product ... xbox is still the biggest console in the world (based on sales figures) and windows xp was in it's time the biggest selling product in its class.
Some people need to learn to check their facts instead of blindly trashing a company because it already has a bad rep.
No i'm not a M$ fanboi i'm just bored of people of trashing Microsoft for simply existing over some shit they did like 20 years ago that was monopolistic.
Quit being so judgemental and see a little innovation ...
Side note:
Why do people think this idea of "tablet computers" was first Apples idea ... Bill Gates was banging on about this in the 90's?
> Why do people think this idea of "tablet computers" was first Apples idea ... Bill Gates was banging on about this in the 90's?
Why do people think that MS is innovative when all they do is copy what has already been done and then talk about it more loudly than anyone else can:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tablet_computers
"""1990s
1991
The Momenta Pentop was released.[77]
GO Corporation announced a dedicated operating system, called PenPoint OS, with control of the operating system desktop via handwritten gesture shapes.[78][79]
NCR released model 3125 pen computer running MS-DOS, Penpoint OS or Pen Windows.[80]
The Apple Newton entered development; although it ultimately became a PDA, its original concept (which called for a larger screen and greater sketching abilities) resembled the hardware of a tablet computer.
1992
GO Corporation shipped the PenPoint OS for general availability and IBM announced IBM 2125 pen computer (the first IBM model named "ThinkPad") in April.[81]
Microsoft releases Windows for Pen Computing as a response to the PenPoint OS by GO Corporation."""
@Wardy01
Well said. I don't like MS's past naughtiness any more than the next man, or the thousand little annoyances I've encountered when using Windows. I wish desktop Linux well whilst looking on with interest with Valve/Steam Linux developments, since it might blaze a trail for commercial software to follow.
But I am very tired of the simplistic "Linux is great, Windows sucks" type posts, and the automatic knocking of Windows 8 by people who should easily be able to find a workaround to any UI-related hiccups.
Still, when this article headline mentioned new accessories for this Surface Pro, I did think a set of skateboard trucks and wheels would be cute : D
...at least that's what I think.
I mean, when looking at the comparison chart for the Surface RT and the Pro you'll notice quite a bit of differences, and I'm not only referring to the difference in price ($499 for RT vs. $899 for Pro).
For example; at least the RT comes with a Home edition of Office. Sure; its a stripped down Office since you won't be able to get Outlook functionality, but its still Office. The Pro version doesn't include such a thing, even though the price sits quite higher.
Also note how on that same comparison page they're actually trying to sell features which have nothing to do with the Surface itself but fully come from the underlying OS. I'm talking about stuff such as "security policy control" and "enhanced data protection capabilities using BitLocker technology". That's Windows 8 talking, not Surface.
And when you finally check the specific hardware features you'll notice the Pro does a lot less. "Always connected" (RT) vs. "Connectivity off when hibernating/sleeping to preserve battery.". Or "Get more done with up to 8 hours of battery life. Surface with Windows RT comes installed with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT Preview. 1" (RT) vs. (this is no joke:) "Surface with Windows 8 Pro supports the full Office experience. Run Outlook, Word, SharePoint Designer, PowerPoint and more. 2". Where the 1 points to a statement telling us that the full Office 2013 version will become available when its out and the 2 points to "Office products sold separately".
But like; why compare running time with the mentioning that Office products can run on it? Why not, for example, mention that it might have Agenda, Todo and e-mail functionality even when you don't have Office? And why not mention anything about battery life, is it really that bad?
The RT is neither tablet nor laptop, and out of the box not suited for business use even though it comes with Office. And the Pro may support regular software but in fact seems to provide even less functionality than the RT does (that is; unless you're willing to pay even more).
And for the price of one Surface Pro (or RT with keyboard) you can get yourself both a regular laptop and tablet at the same time; so always have the option to pick the best solution for the situation.
I'm not a believer here...
This post has been deleted by its author
Some good points from @ShelLuser and @Jon Green there:
That price point does feel like it needs more to really appeal to people ... I'm hoping that more happens to show off the Not Metro UI side of things more but it requires a big shift in thought patterns about computing with Microsoft products.
The key point being that Microsoft has always (in the past) pushed for the business customer and this time they are pushing for consumer market ... Companies like Apple have the benefit of being "designers by nature" so are used to making stuff look good which is at least in part why iDevices flew off shelves so fast, Microsoft however have always been technical problem solvers, the people that make your business do its thing ... they are used to solving problems not looking pretty.
I don't think Microsoft has worried too much about it's image in the past because it's had the benefit of dominating in its field ... all that is changing ... I'm looking forward to seeing more from Linux as a result of this type of thing.
The guys canonical (behind Ubuntu) have been talking about intel driven mobile devices that have dual touch / desktop UI's depending on weather the device is docked or in hand, this is something I can see working ... but i'm still waiting for linux to have a decent touch framework (android excluded - or maybe canonical can use that?).
Microsoft seem to have a habit of making stuff easy to do on their platform, something that again Linux has often fell behind with ... that catch up process for Linux is nearing it's end when you consider the innovation of the people behind technology in products like android it makes me think that there is more ... something has been missed ... a gap that needs closing.
I doubt this time round Microsoft is capable of doing it on their own ... as stated many times before, Microsoft are not really that good at true innovation (generally speaking although kinect shows promise), they simply buy a small up and coming company that is and use that to solve the problem, but with competition being what it is today Microsoft certainly can't keep taking that approach, it needs to learn to innovate ... maybe by buying a company that looks something like Apple from about 10 years ago?
But the biggest problem right now ... supply ... still not seeing the RT in shops round here ... despite plenty of demand ... I don't consider surface dead yet but it's long overdue that Microsoft started sorting out their distribution channels!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
