Microsoft Announces Intel Atom-Based Surface 3 With Windows 8.1 for $499

[balamw]

I'm not sure, you may be right.

The pen appears to be the same, but I'd like to make sure that the digitizer in the screen is as good. It may for example have lower resolution.

Edit: for the record, the SP3 pen is one of it's best features. I'm continually surprised as to how well it gets my handwriting. And my handwriting is lousy!

B

 

[sracer]

No need to be condescending. I believe Samsung has an active stylus. The root of this argument was that this new Surface brought out something fundamentally different and innovative. Microsoft did not invent the active stylus, and this product is very similar to earlier incarnations at a lower price point.

It was not my intention to be condescending. I was not able to discern from your posts whether or not you knew there was a difference. I apologize.

 

[diamond.g]

No need to be condescending. I believe Samsung has an active stylus. The root of this argument was that this new Surface brought out something fundamentally different and innovative. Microsoft did not invent the active stylus, and this product is very similar to earlier incarnations at a lower price point.

I think Samsung uses Wacom digitizers. So technically their pen is passive (doesn't require batteries)

 

[dazz87]

Finally Game Changer.............

 

[Steve121178]

Very cool product, and I know beggers can't be choosers, but this would be UBER competitive if it had a retina display and double the RAM at that price... But even though the entry level model competes with the iPad on price, I don't want a Windows machine with 2GB of RAM, and I think it should have a retina display.

It has a 1920x1280 3:2 10'6" display which is more than adequate. What would a screen with a much higher resolution achieve on a device like this? Lets not forget that Windows doesn't scale anywhere close to how well OS X does. Oh and lets not forget cost and how much more a high res display will add. Microsoft have chosen the right screen for this product.

 

[2IS]

Nah, my post didn't suggest anything. I spoke of how Windows is/was. And you're so defensive over Windows. And it's painfully obvious you didn't really read what I wrote. So tell me Sir, what exactly did I say about Windows 8 in terms of it giving me trouble? NOTHING. Go back and read before you accuse me of not knowing how to operate the system. All I said was I didn't care for the tiles. Are they are not there? Good gracious. This forum...

That's all you did? You complained about every single version and showed you clearly don't know how to use them. Let me illustrate. It's fine to have a preference. That's not the same thing as being blatantly wrong.

Windows 98? That's as far as you're willing to go? XP (Hated it) Very insecure OS. Tons of holes and constant patches and wasn't easy to pair up with wireless solutions.
Vista (The poor copycat of Mac OS X Tiger)....nuff said.

Windows 7 was "Better" but basically fixed Vista's problems, but at the end of the day it still has the same Registry and the same Registry annoyances. The Registry should've been ripped out of Windows in the early 2000's and Windows should've been completely re-written as Apple did when they re-wrote the Mac OS into OS X.

Windows 8, hate the tiles. Complete nonsense other than to make it look like something new when it was really just AOL-kids Desktop theme.

No matter what Windows still has the same inept way of installing apps with the same difficulty fully removing them due to the Registry. I can go on. That's why my business computer is completely Windows-free.

Sounds like you have no clue what you even said much less know how to operate Windows. To install a program you double click, hit next a few times, and you're done. To uninstall you go to your programs list and uninstall from there or in many cases, there's an uninstall function right in the program folder. You don't need to mess with the registry.

As far as Windows 8, you mentioned tiles, like you don't know how to NOT use the start screen. You don't care for them? Great, neither do I. I don't even remember the last time I saw the start screen on my computer.

Finally, before telling someone to go back and read, you should probably make sure you remember what you actually said.

 

[tdale]

That's all you did? You complained about every single version and showed you clearly don't know how to use them. Let me illustrate. It's fine to have a preference. That's not the same thing as being blatantly wrong.




Sounds like you have no clue what you even said much less know how to operate Windows. To install a program you double click, hit next a few times, and you're done. To uninstall you go to your programs list and uninstall from there or in many cases, there's an uninstall function right in the program folder. You don't need to mess with the registry.

As far as Windows 8, you mentioned tiles, like you don't know how to NOT use the start screen. You don't care for them? Great, neither do I. I don't even remember the last time I saw the start screen on my computer.

Finally, before telling someone to go back and read, you should probably make sure you remember what you actually said.

Ouch LOL. This set of posts is going nowhere, and OSX user and a Windows user, nothing to see here.

I use both, they do the same things, both have annoyances, one is not right or wrong. A better topic is the usefulness of an iPad vs an SP3.

 

[Steve121178]

Exactly... how much power will it pack? I mean this new surface is running the brand spanking new latest gen TOP OF THE RANGE Atom processor! At that price point, so it will be very interesting to see what the Pro 4 ends up packing.

Same Broadwell i5/i7 processors that's in the MacBook Air.

 

[niun]

Same Broadwell i5/i7 processors that's in the MacBook Air.

The rumours are saying Skylake processors. Depending on release dates.

 

[Xiroteus]

Has it been confirmed to have pressure sensitivity?

If it does, sold!

I have the vivotab note 8 and this would be a bit better.

 

[Steve121178]

The rumours are saying Skylake processors. Depending on release dates.

SP4 will be available around August/September and MS must get it in stores in time for crucial the back to school period.

Roadmap points to no Skylake CPU's for that time period.

 

[2IS]

Ouch LOL. This set of posts is going nowhere, and OSX user and a Windows user, nothing to see here.

I use both, they do the same things, both have annoyances, one is not right or wrong. A better topic is the usefulness of an iPad vs an SP3.

Agreed. Sadly this was about iPad vs Surface 3 until some of the over zealous Apple enthusiasts saw favorable feedback from forum members and went into panic mode thinking "ohhh noes, Windowz is the sux"

 

[HenryDJP]

It's a full fledged desktop OS with great user experience on a tablet, combined with a usable mechanical keyboard and a working stylus. We never had such a device before.

The iPad has not seen anything new since the introduction of the retina display and iOS is really lacking productivity features.

Thanks for stating something that wasn't exactly news.
Right and how long has the Surface been out? Yeah and by all this time Apple has not seen it as a threat. Outside of the stylus there's nothing much different than any other Windows tablet/notebook.

Oh and the "Usable Mechanical Keyboard" comes with it right?

 

[Woyzeck]

The keyboard and pen are not included in the product. You can get those for other tablets as well if you want. Personally I don't view a full fledged desktop OS on a tablet as great user experience, but a compromise.

In my opinion MS has done an impressive job with W8.1 both on the desktop and on the tablet. Having better convergence between both worlds, while not crippling the user experience was well executed.

If by never, you mean before Surface 1 then yes. The only thing new here, is the lower price point.

I was not impressed by the early Surface devices, but their line has evolved into something unique now and I still think that it's good to have real competition for the iPad, at least on the conceptual level. Android forced Apple to build larger screens into their iPhones and perhaps MS will teach Apple that some people want file access and a stylus on their pads.

 

[Michael Goff]

How so, have you used this Surface pen? It's not available yet.

According to the site, it is the same 256 levels of sensitivity as the Pro 3.

 

[rowspaxe]

This looks great a tablet to browse and a PC to get some real work done, well built and competitive, Microsoft is back in the game; Apple be a-feared.

The ipad pro wont have a kickstand--and that too bad--because its a great
feature

 

[Makosuke]

Perhaps we need to look back at posts here, about the 1st few iPad Models, and see if everyone here was complaining about how "Incredibly Chunky" they were as devices.

The iPad 1 was ridiculously fat and heavy compared to the modern iPad Air.

But then, I'm not comparing this to an iPad 1. I'm comparing it to what I could buy today. If your bar for weight and size in a portable device is what was on the market 5 years ago, it's a bad sign. I wouldn't compare an iPhone 6s to a Samsung Galaxy 3, either.

however "unbridled hate"? usually only people who repeat such nonsense haven't used it themselves. For the most part, on the desktop, you're in your standard windows desktop 95% of the time. which operates exactly like any previous windows version.

I most certainly have used it myself, though admittedly I've had more time with Windows Server 2012 than the desktop version.

And I didn't say I had unbridled hate for it--I don't like it at all, and I think the confused hybrid interface metaphor is an embarrassment, but I don't despise it. I just don't like it at all, and refuse to use it unless forced to.

Some of the Windows users I support, however--yes, "unbridled hate" is exactly how I would describe it. Some of them just dislike it and can't figure out how to use it. Others--mostly, I think, tech novices who feel they've lost all the interface conventions they'd finally gotten comfortable with, but a few power users as well--vocally despise it. Not everyone, but there's noticeably more animosity toward it than even Vista or Windows ME.

As I said, I'm sure some people actually like it. The 8.1 update went a ways toward un-breaking the schizophrenic interface. But I, personally, have still never met someone face-to-face who had anything at all good to say about it.

 

[niun]

SP4 will be available around August/September and MS must get it in stores in time for crucial the back to school period.

Roadmap points to no Skylake CPU's for that time period.

Ahhh. Well that would be a shame. I was hoping Skylake would have been pushed through without delay for the perfect matchup of Win 10 and SP4.
However, we are talking about the Pro versions here. Are you sure that's a back to school device?

 

[Xiroteus]

According to the site, it is the same 256 levels of sensitivity as the Pro 3.

This is basically now on my to buy list. Cheaper then before and likely enough to do what I want and or need.

Plus if I wait a bit I am sure to find even better pricing.

 

[Woyzeck]

Thanks for stating something that wasn't exactly news.
Right and how long has the Surface been out? Yeah and by all this time Apple has not seen it as a threat. Outside of the stylus there's nothing much different than any other Windows tablet/notebook.

A full fledge Windows provides many things professional users need on their mobile devices, including file access, a plethora of business and engineering applications that are not available for iOS, enterprise class integration, device management etc.

There's nothing really new with the Surface devices, but MS did something that Apple's quite good at: take existing stuff and do it better than the others. It's the whole package and how it was executed.

I hope that Apple will learn their lesson and reconsider their gimmick-lifestyle-thinner-dumbed-down approach that we saw in the last five years. They were quite good in the professional (albeit not in the enterprise) market in the past. Now we have the iWatch.

 

[HenryDJP]

Agreed. Sadly this was about iPad vs Surface 3 until some of the over zealous Apple enthusiasts saw favorable feedback from forum members and went into panic mode thinking "ohhh noes, Windowz is the sux"

Painfully obvious you can't stand any criticism about Windows. Instead you blame it on user error for someone expressing their displeasure of it. Interesting....you're getting so worked up about what I said about Windows....I could've sworn this is an Apple Enthusiasts forum. Day by day it just shows that MR needs to change the name of this place, not in favor of Apple.

 

[tdale]

In my opinion MS has done an impressive job with W8.1 both on the desktop and on the tablet. Having better convergence between both worlds, while not crippling the user experience was well executed.



I was not impressed by the early Surface devices, but their line has evolved into something unique now and I still think that it's good to have real competition for the iPad, at least on the conceptual level. Android forced Apple to build larger screens into their iPhones and perhaps MS will teach Apple that some people want file access and a stylus on their pads.

No reason why it cannot compete with the iPad as here in NZ, a similar price to my iPad Air 128GB. Bigger screen. Full OS. Ports. My iPad Air is just an internet player device, thats what it was designed as, consumption. If I can read, watch, play the same stuff, and its a full OS where I can actually move files to it easy, why not? The proof will be in the pudding, how videos play, how websites look, responsiveness. Far more flexible, making it a great product at this price.

 

[HenryDJP]

A full fledge Windows provides many things professional users need on their mobile devices, including file access, a plethora of business and engineering applications that are not available for iOS, enterprise class integration, device management etc.

There's nothing really new with the Surface devices, but MS did something that Apple's quite good at: take existing stuff and do it better than the others. It's the whole package and how it was executed.

I hope that Apple will learn their lesson and reconsider their gimmick-lifestyle-thinner-dumbed-down approach that we saw in the last five years. They were quite good in the professional (albeit not in the enterprise) market in the past. Now we have the iWatch.

Tell us how you really feel about Apple. At least your negative feelings about them won't get any rebuttal from the many of anti-Apple crowd that swarms this place.

 

[tdale]

A full fledge Windows provides many things professional users need on their mobile devices, including file access, a plethora of business and engineering applications that are not available for iOS, enterprise class integration, device management etc.

There's nothing really new with the Surface devices, but MS did something that Apple's quite good at: take existing stuff and do it better than the others. It's the whole package and how it was executed.

I hope that Apple will learn their lesson and reconsider their gimmick-lifestyle-thinner-dumbed-down approach that we saw in the last five years. They were quite good in the professional (albeit not in the enterprise) market in the past. Now we have the iWatch.

Good post.

 

[Woyzeck]

Tell us how you really feel about Apple. At least your negative feelings about them won't get any rebuttal from the many of anti-Apple crowd that swarms this place.

I think it was Paul Watzlawick who said that Jack ranting over Jill reveals more insights on Jack than Jill.

It might be hard for some to accept that there are people outside that don't commit their lives to a brand but instead buy best-of-breed to get their stuff done.