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Microsoft Surface Pro to Be Released February 9 with $899 Price Tag

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el-John-o

macrumors 68000
Nov 29, 2010
1,588
766
Missouri
The thing that's flooring me the most is the batteries here. The iPad has the biggest battery of the three. How can an i5 tablet hold up battery wise to an ARM tablet with a bigger batter?

For me, a long battery life is a MUST with a tablet. It HAS to last all day long without being plugged in once. I just can't see using a tablet that I have to plug in during the day
 
T

tann

macrumors 68000
Apr 15, 2010
1,944
813
UK
I wonder what the battery life on this thing will be! Smaller than iPad's and much more powerful...
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I like the idea of a screen cover that also offers real physical keys.

So... grab an iPad plus Logitech Ultrathin keyboard cover. Comes in 3 colors, attaches magnetically, and unlike the Surface, will hold your tablet in either portrait or landscape. And, since it doesn't try to be a halfway "old-style computer," it doesn't need a fan!

Credit to MS for a visually interesting and original UI, though. I like it. (Kind of like I like the UIs on Star Trek: I might not desire to use them all day, but they look cool!)
 
I

iAco

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2012
132
0
ronwasserman said:
They are high.
Click to expand...

No they're not. High people think of better ideas than the Surface Pro.

Just look at it. It's a shrunken laptop with a touch screen and detachable keyboard and trackpad!

I see the past looking out the Windows. :)

It's about Apple and Google today.
 
S

shenfrey

macrumors 68020
May 23, 2010
2,424
657
I will never buy a Microsoft product, I don't think I will even buy the 720. Have you seen the 360s interface really? It's shockingly bloated.
 
Renzatic

Renzatic

Suspended
Aug 3, 2011
9,561
10,118
Gramps, what the hell am I paying you for?
I'm thinking the battery life will be roughly the same as the MBA, since they're directly comparable.

In other words, you won't be using it all day without plugging it in at least once. It might last 6-7 hours if you use nothing by Metro apps, but I'd guess heavy desktop use would lower that down to around 4 hours or so. This is the biggest weakness of the machine for me, and why I probably won't consider getting one until the Haswell revs come out.

----------
iAco said:
Just look at it. It's a shrunken laptop with a touch screen and detachable keyboard and trackpad!
Click to expand...

er...what's so bad about that?
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
HiRez said:
I don't get this thing. It looks like they took some good ideas but jumbled them together into something that is somehow less than the sum of its parts. I can't imagine choosing this over either an iPad or a MacBook Air (or even one of the many Wndows clones of it). I'm sure they'll sell a few million of these but MS bet the company on it and I don't see this pulling them out of their slow downward spiral.
Click to expand...

I have an iPad and have been looking at augmenting it with an ultrabook. I was considering the MacBook Air but after playing with the Surface tablet at the Microsoft Store last month, I am now open to the idea of trying Windows 8.

I might not choose a Surface Pro tablet but I am very interested in the Windows 8 "hybrid tablet/ultrabook" space. I am looking specifically at the Lenovo Yoga 11S and Thinkpad Helix, two "convertible tablets" that might offer the best of both worlds.
 
C

CausticPuppy

macrumors 68000
May 1, 2012
1,536
68
Kudos to Microsoft for building a subnotebook that can't be used on a standard airplane tray table, unless to take the keyboard off.
 
5

576316

macrumors 601
May 19, 2011
4,056
2,556
Can't help thinking Microsoft are being greedy with THIS Surface too. It's barely better than the iPad 4 when you compare the specs.
 
I

inlinevolvo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2012
359
3
Renzatic said:
I'm sure the 5 minutes you spent with Windows 8 was absolute hell for you.



It could use some spit shine and fine tuning, but it's hardly unusable. Once you learn where all the new stuff is, it's not vastly different than what came before.

It all really comes down to how much you like having a fullscreen start menu. That's about the biggest difference between it and 7 if you ask me.
Click to expand...


It was for a few hours setting up my grandfathers laptop. I should have clarified, it is a nightmare for desktop users. The OS is clearly designed for tablets and the OS makes you feel like you are using a tablet in a desktop environment. For example, I can't even manually resize apps to my liking in metro when using a 1080p monitor, I have to use this rather absurd 2/3 1/3 split. I have used windows since DOS, not that I'm a technical guru, but it feels like Microsoft took all the productivity out of the OS while trying to sock it to the iPad. It doesn't work well for the desktop. Sure win 8 is prettier, smarter and faster. But it is a complete disruption in work flow. I'll stick with win 7. Besides, every win user knows to skip every other OS release. Win 8 has worst uptake than vista, and no one today doubts that was a waste.
 
KdParker

KdParker

macrumors 601
Oct 1, 2010
4,793
998
Everywhere
mac jones said:
I've tried Windows 8. A horrible experience. They actually are trying to drag back that disaster 'Metro'. They are calling it something else now.

WTF is wrong with them? They have this market share but they are lost


l o s t.

But maybe this thing is really cool. Looks cool.
Click to expand...

Been using windows 8 for a while and I don't have any issues with usablity at all.
 
bassfingers

bassfingers

macrumors 6502
Nov 15, 2010
410
0
From my personal experience, the Surface is an engineering marvel.

I'll never wrap my brain around how they managed to fit a quad-core processor in a tablet that size and it still feels slow and unresponsive.

The touch experience is somewhere between the iPad and one of the first touchscreen garmins
 
S

shaown

macrumors 6502
Mar 24, 2011
293
129
I think this is a great threat to Apple - but not to the iPad. As everyone saying - this is a MBA competitor.

Cheaper (marginally) - has full touch, will be curious to see how it benchmarks. It will be a good test for how quickly full laptops like the MBA will go full touch and will people gravitate to some type of convertible model. I do agree though that other convertible ultrabooks that convert from tablet to full laptop (i.e. Asus) might be a better option.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Renzatic said:
It's almost the exact same hardware in the MBA with a touch and digitizer enabled, higher resolution screen.

...for $100 less.

Tell me again how that's funny.
Click to expand...

$100 less? But the Surface has no keyboard included at that price, vs. the Air's keyboard which offers two important things: backlighting, and adjustable screen angle. Two things you'll find hard to live without once you've tried them.

So at the very least, you'd better add that $100 back onto the Surface, to get at least a keyboard of some kind. Otherwise, you've got a product to compare with tablets, not laptops.
 
Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
WOW! Microsoft continues its tradition of unappetizing tablets. They'll sell 10s of hundreds.
 
I

ItsWelshy

macrumors regular
Jul 31, 2012
215
0
Renzatic said:
It's almost the exact same hardware in the MBA with a touch and digitizer enabled, higher resolution screen.

...for $100 less.

Tell me again how that's funny.
Click to expand...

I'd sooner pay $100 and get the MBA... Actually I'd sooner pay $500 more and get the air

Are you really comparing a premium OSX laptop with a two-bob Microsoft tablet?
 
E

everything-i

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2012
827
2
London, UK
jrlcopy said:
I love it and windows 8. I feel that the chart should be comparing it to a MPA as well though. Since you have full desktop mode and it's basically a laptop.
Click to expand...

My problem is all the switching between desktop and Metro interfaces makes it clunky, if they can make using it overall a more fluid experience then it would be a huge leap forward.
 
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