Microsoft Surface tablets

[elroy]

I think Microsoft has done a great job with these. I'm really interested in the Pro, but the question is, how will it compare to other hybrid Ultrabooks that will be released with Win8, such as the Samsung Series 5 or Asus Transformer Book? A similar form factor to the Surface with larger screen is fairly appealing.

Also, what is that 5 "pin" connector on the right hand side of the Surface?

 

[BadTB25]

Hopefully the other manufacturers will step up their game to offer up something better and cheaper. I like what I see, but could go for a different Win 8 tablet if the price and performance is right.

The keyboard idea is genius if it works as advertised. I noticed that they noted that the "Touch keyboard" is mult-touch. I wonder if you can use it as a giant mouse/scratch bad instead of using touch on the tablet screen itself since it has the same dimensions as the actual screen.

 

[AzBat]

I was really impressed with the RT version. Though I had wished the 7" Xbox Surface/Kindle Fire competitor rumor was real. Anyway, I've been Windows-less on my personal machine for a 1.5yrs now & don't think I could go back to a pure Wintel machine. Windows don't have desktop apps that appeal to me anymore. I can get all the apps I need or want with the web or Linux. Anyway, I also hate having to run anti-virus & spyware protection. So I'm more likely to like the ARM version with just Metro app support. The thinner/lighter tablet appeals more to me anyway. I just hope it's easier on the battery & last a little longer than the Pro version. The only problem is price. Any more than $500 for the 32gb model & I will have to pass until the 2nd gen models get released.

Tommy McClain

 

[wco81]

Pricing will be interesting as well the final specs.

If conventional ultra books in the same price range had better specs would buyers pay more for the tablet and keyboard cover?

 

[eastmen]

I think Microsoft has done a great job with these. I'm really interested in the Pro, but the question is, how will it compare to other hybrid Ultrabooks that will be released with Win8, such as the Samsung Series 5 or Asus Transformer Book? A similar form factor to the Surface with larger screen is fairly appealing.

Also, what is that 5 "pin" connector on the right hand side of the Surface?

The pen connector ?

Or MS's magsafe competitior ?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/19/3096454/microsoft-surface-tablet-power-data-connector/in/2859835

 

[eastmen]

Pricing will be interesting as well the final specs.

If conventional ultra books in the same price range had better specs would buyers pay more for the tablet and keyboard cover?

MS said 90 days after window's 8 launch date . So assume mid oct for windows 8 that puts the pro verison at the middle of january.

March - June time frame is for intel haswell . So i bet this will be the first tablet to have haswell while everything at windows 8 launch has ivy bridge or trinity.

That could be a very big reason to go with this tablet. It also seems like the design is beyond anything else i've seen from computex in terms of tablets.

 

[DavidC]

March - June time frame is for intel haswell . So i bet this will be the first tablet to have haswell while everything at windows 8 launch has ivy bridge or trinity.

That's impossible. The ULV Haswell chips are launching in Q3. January means manufacturers will launch Haswell devices(to ship in Summer) while Microsoft will launch their Ivy Bridge based Surface.

 

[Mize]

Interesting how definitive people can be about this thing without specs, pricing or even a decent preview. For all we know that flexi keyboard is terrible, battery is short and it BSODs every seventeen minutes.

Any hard data on when they'll release specs and review units?

 

[joker454]

Interesting how definitive people can be about this thing without specs, pricing or even a decent preview. For all we know that flexi keyboard is terrible, battery is short and it BSODs every seventeen minutes.

It's pretty easy. Like I had mentioned I can sell three other devices to get this, so this device will save me money even if it's priced at $1000. I'm not worried about bsod's, I haven't had one in years and we have many windows 7/8/Server pc's in our house. My Mac Air has decent battery life, and the Surface Pro uses less power hungry components so I'm not too worried about it's battery life. A dual core i5 is plenty of power for what I need for a mobile device. If the keyboard is terrible it's still an option, I can always type on the tablet screen or plug in a usb keyboard while at a hotel, and the tablet is still to me infinitely more useable than any other out there as it has a full os on it hence I can run all my existing apps. Plus I'm thinking of making metro versions of all my websites, and this will be the test mule for that replacing my desktop Win8 test mule. It saves me some space in my office as a bonus, and makes my office quieter by replacing the desktop test Win8 test mule. So it's kind of a no brainer to me, unless it catches on fire or causes abortions in a 70 foot radius everytime it's turned on. Really to me it's basically an smaller ultrabook with optional keyboard. It will be great for travel, and unlike all other tablets out there I can actually run my business on this one.

 

[wco81]

It's pretty easy. Like I had mentioned I can sell three other devices to get this, so this device will save me money even if it's priced at $1000. I'm not worried about bsod's, I haven't had one in years and we have many windows 7/8/Server pc's in our house. My Mac Air has decent battery life, and the Surface Pro uses less power hungry components so I'm not too worried about it's battery life. A dual core i5 is plenty of power for what I need for a mobile device. If the keyboard is terrible it's still an option, I can always type on the tablet screen or plug in a usb keyboard while at a hotel, and the tablet is still to me infinitely more useable than any other out there as it has a full os on it hence I can run all my existing apps. Plus I'm thinking of making metro versions of all my websites, and this will be the test mule for that replacing my desktop Win8 test mule. It saves me some space in my office as a bonus, and makes my office quieter by replacing the desktop test Win8 test mule. So it's kind of a no brainer to me, unless it catches on fire or causes abortions in a 70 foot radius everytime it's turned on. Really to me it's basically an smaller ultrabook with optional keyboard. It will be great for travel, and unlike all other tablets out there I can actually run my business on this one.

Either you're representative of the old Tablet PC market (one device as both laptop and tablet) or perhaps a new laptop replacement market where people go for Windows tablets instead of laptops.

This could be a big market but OTOH, around the $1000 price range, it's mostly businesses which buy PCs or devices, isn't it?

 

[Mize]

In all seriousness, if I could replace my tablet(s) and my laptop with something like this I would really consider it. My concerns are many though:

1. How does the keyboard work on a lap? I spend a lot of time typing in airports where my "status" airlines don't have lounges and that means my lap is my "surface." Seems the Asus Transformer route is a better implementation for this scenario.

2. How does the keyboard feel period.

3. Is 10.6" really enough for a work laptop? I've had an 11" laptop before (Fujitsu) and it was too small. I think 13.3" is about the minimum for doing real work (not just email type stuff, but excel, drawings, powerpoint).

4. Other OSes. I know, it's the geek again, but I like to have a linux partition (or at the very least a fast VM) so I can boot into linux for IT things...PuTTY is okay, but just ok.

I think this thing has the potential to be great - OR - it could hit directly in a null between the consumer and business markets and be a complete dud.

 

[dlm]

1. How does the keyboard work on a lap? I spend a lot of time typing in airports where my "status" airlines don't have lounges and that means my lap is my "surface." Seems the Asus Transformer route is a better implementation for this scenario.

The first company to release a piece of plastic that holds your Surface up while providing a thin but flat surface for the keyboard cover to lie on is going to be rich. It probably costs $.40 to manufacture and they'll be selling them at $25 a pop.

The only thing separating that from the Transformer is that the rigid piece that's not always connected to the device is a cheap piece of plastic that you can cheaply and easily replace when you leave it on the plane.

 

[Arwin]

In all seriousness, if I could replace my tablet(s) and my laptop with something like this I would really consider it. My concerns are many though:

1. How does the keyboard work on a lap? I spend a lot of time typing in airports where my "status" airlines don't have lounges and that means my lap is my "surface." Seems the Asus Transformer route is a better implementation for this scenario.

They also have a 'hard' version, that's more like a laptop keyboard, but still really slim.

2. How does the keyboard feel period.

In your case, I'd go for the hard one, which would feel much like a laptop I reckon.

3. Is 10.6" really enough for a work laptop? I've had an 11" laptop before (Fujitsu) and it was too small. I think 13.3" is about the minimum for doing real work (not just email type stuff, but excel, drawings, powerpoint).

It's small but you'd get this one for portability, so that's a trade-off. Of course, having a separate keyboard saves you from sacrificing that little space to an on-screen keyboard. On the other hand, when you are typing do you really need to see more than just some text?

4. Other OSes. I know, it's the geek again, but I like to have a linux partition (or at the very least a fast VM) so I can boot into linux for IT things...PuTTY is okay, but just ok.

Would surprise me if that works, and if you'd want to sacrifice flash drive space for that.

I think this thing has the potential to be great - OR - it could hit directly in a null between the consumer and business markets and be a complete dud.

If it runs most Win8 stuff, it will likely find a market. How big remains to be seen, but the potential is significant. The risk is also the reward - many applications may not be as well designed for this Win8 tablet combo, but software you develop for this platform runs on most office PCs as well. There's a big advantage to businesses if this works.

 

[sebbbi]

Yes especially in battery life. Hmm wait...

iPad has bigger battery (42.5Wh) compared to 11" Macbook Air (35Wh). I have no problems with Macbook Air's battery life. Thus Intel's recent (Sandy Bridge) CPUs already work fine with small batteries, and the battery life will only improve with Ivy Bridge. This is especially true if Ivy Bridge's configurable TDP is used. When a lower 13W configurable TDP is used, Ivy is still comparable to older 17W Sandy Bridge laptops in performance (Anandtech benchmarks).

The only thing I dislike in x86 Microsoft Surface is the weight. It's weights 43 grams more than the (last year's) Samsung Series 7 Slate, and has similar specs... Except the older Sandy Bridge CPU is of course replaced with the more recent Ivy Bridge (but that should help with the power consumption and thus reduce the device size instead of increase it). They keyboard "smart cover" is a nice new innovation, but I am not 100% confident it, or the fatter "type cover" will offer comparable productivity to the Samsung's excellent chicklet keyboard (that is 1:1 carbon copy of Apple's small form factor keyboards). Competition is of course always a good thing, but I will personally wait to see what other manufacturers have in their sleeves for Win8 launch.

It's entirely possible that Samsung can shave 60+ grams of their design, and thus have a 100+ gram lighter Ivy Bridge based competitor with identical specs. Just look what they have achieved with Galaxy S III (133g, 8.6mm). It has almost twice the display area of iPhone 4S (140g, 9.3mm) but weights less and is thinner. Surface is an excellent first try from Microsoft, but I am not yet convinced it will be the best Win8 tablet during the launch period.

 

[french toast]

Very true, but whether it's the best or not its look extremely good as it is and let's be honest it bodes well for the future.

 

[Jubei]

iPad has bigger battery (42.5Wh) compared to 11" Macbook Air (35Wh). I have no problems with Macbook Air's battery life. Thus Intel's recent (Sandy Bridge) CPUs already work fine with small batteries, and the battery life will only improve with Ivy Bridge. This is especially true if Ivy Bridge's configurable TDP is used. When a lower 13W configurable TDP is used, Ivy is still comparable to older 17W Sandy Bridge laptops in performance (Anandtech benchmarks).

The only thing I dislike in x86 Microsoft Surface is the weight. It's weights 43 grams more than the (last year's) Samsung Series 7 Slate, and has similar specs... Except the older Sandy Bridge CPU is of course replaced with the more recent Ivy Bridge (but that should help with the power consumption and thus reduce the device size instead of increase it). They keyboard "smart cover" is a nice new innovation, but I am not 100% confident it, or the fatter "type cover" will offer comparable productivity to the Samsung's excellent chicklet keyboard (that is 1:1 carbon copy of Apple's small form factor keyboards). Competition is of course always a good thing, but I will personally wait to see what other manufacturers have in their sleeves for Win8 launch.

It's entirely possible that Samsung can shave 60+ grams of their design, and thus have a 100+ gram lighter Ivy Bridge based competitor with identical specs. Just look what they have achieved with Galaxy S III (133g, 8.6mm). It has almost twice the display area of iPhone 4S (140g, 9.3mm) but weights less and is thinner. Surface is an excellent first try from Microsoft, but I am not yet convinced it will be the best Win8 tablet during the launch period.

Samsung Slate 7 also has a bigger battery (41 Wh) compared to 11 inch Macbook Air but still doesnt come close to it in battery life.

 

[sebbbi]

Samsung Slate 7 also has a bigger battery (41 Wh) compared to 11 inch Macbook Air but still doesnt come close to it in battery life.

Are you sure you are not comparing apples to oranges here? I have seen many battery benchmarks that are solely browser based (to allow cross platform comparisons). If you use Internet Explorer for the Slate, then of course your battery life sucks. Use Opera or Firefox instead (or even better install OSX on it and test both on Safari, or alternatively bootcamp the Air). Samsung Slate has almost identical components to Macbook Air (both manufactured by Intel/Samsung, identical Intel CPU, same 4 GB RAM, same 1366x768 display resolution, identical 128 GB Samsung SSD). I can't see why the Slate would consume more battery if it performs the identical tasks (same software running on same OS).

I haven't had battery problems with either. But I haven't done heavy gaming on either. Internet forums however tell us that neither last 2 hours on heavy gaming (Crysis 2 for example). For normal use both can be charged once a day, and battery lasts just fine (both are rated for 7+ hours).

 

[Jubei]

Are you sure you are not comparing apples to oranges here? I have seen many battery benchmarks that are solely browser based (to allow cross platform comparisons). If you use Internet Explorer for the Slate, then of course your battery life sucks. Use Opera or Firefox instead (or even better install OSX on it and test both on Safari, or alternatively bootcamp the Air). Samsung Slate has almost identical components to Macbook Air (both manufactured by Intel/Samsung, identical Intel CPU, same 4 GB RAM, same 1366x768 display resolution, identical 128 GB Samsung SSD). I can't see why the Slate would consume more battery if it performs the identical tasks (same software running on same OS).

No i was trying to make the point that the OS is the difference. It remains to be seen if Windows 8 will provide any substantial improvement in this regard.

I was not comparing strictly battery benchmarks. But every review i have read from both consumers and techsites give the Slate 7 roughly 3 to 3,5 hours of battery life. And by that i dont mean running a 4 hour looping video or flash but simply using it normally

The original argument was that Surface Pro wont touch iPad in terms of battery life. It might be more than enough for you because of its capabilities (lots of people bought Slate 7) but for the general consumer its a massive drawback getting 3-4 hours of usage instead of 8-10 when all they want to do is check facebook and consume media

 

[Laurent06]

The original argument was that Surface Pro wont touch iPad in terms of battery life. It might be more than enough for you because of its capabilities (lots of people bought Slate 7) but for the general consumer its a massive drawback getting 3-4 hours of usage instead of 8-10 when all they want to do is check facebook and consume media

My question also is if these 3-4 hours would be enough for a professional use, at least enough to justify using a tablet instead of a laptop. I guess that it will have to be much more than that, but we'll have to wait for the real figures and see if it succeeds.

 

[french toast]

Yes I would think 5-6 hours of moderate productivity would do the trick...