Microsoft Debuts $999 Surface Laptop, 'Streamlined' Windows 10 S, and More at Education Event

[Altis]

Maybe you have selective vision, or maybe your campus is in/near Redmond, or sponsored (paid off) by the big MS?

Nope, in Canada. I think it's more that the iPad is an awful choice for use at school for anything other than e-texts.

Students aren't made of money, either, so having a whole bunch of expensive devices for each use case isn't usually a reasonable option.

I was quite surprised myself to see how many generic laptops there are. It used to be mostly MacBooks but now those are probably around 30%, mostly in the arts/social sciences -- few in the hard sciences/engineering.

 

[myrtlebee]

What you saw in Microsoft's video was a scissor switch. Nearly all laptop keyboards uses scissor switches.

You're right. Sorry. Thanks for clarifying, don't know what I was thinking.

 

[ColdShadow]

The biggest risk to Apple is other companies learning how to "be Apple" at a cheaper price.

and Apple getting more expensive and less "Apple" at the same time.

 

[6foot5foot]

The biggest risk to Apple is other companies learning how to "be Apple" at a cheaper price.

This comment numbs my mind in how utterly lacking in observation and critical thought it is. I won't add any snarky extras, I've just not seen such a laughably false comment for a long time. Face truly in palms if you think ANYONE is a "risk" to Apple, with their legendary reputation which they've built up over many, many decades... just a total lack of understanding on your part, surely... they are worth ONE QUARTER OF A TRILLION DOLLARS - the only risk is to the other parties attempting to best them at the game they've NAILED, and failing - Apple are at ZERO risk (I can't believe I am typing this to someone who actually believes that their being "at risk" from copycats is something anyone could, in all integrity, take seriously)

 

[Mudcat62]

Microsoft is really starting to be the better horse... and Apple continues to be more interested in fancy HQ buildings and political agendas. And I think that is fantastic... competition is good.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about todays announcement. They are two things here... Windows 10 S and the new Surface Laptop. The fact that they are announced together doesn't mean they are one thing. Just like Google produced an expensive Chromebook as a reference platform, doesn't mean the majority of people buy them.

The same hardware people are buying for Chromebook will run Windows S. Coincidentally, last night my daughter bought a sub $300 Chromebook because her old Widows laptop died. She does browsing, email, and office... so doesn't need anything more. After an hour, she loves the thing. BUT, had there been a version of it running Windows S she would have bought that because she had to switch from Word to Google Docs. The hardware she bought has an Intel processor and 4G of RAM, so could have run Windows S. There will be a lot of machines announced from 3rd parties that will be at Chromebook prices running Windows S.

The Surface Laptop may come with Windows S, but the buyer can upgrade to full Windows 10. I believe it is targeting the MacBook, and I believe it will do pretty well. It looks to be a decent machine.

For everyone dismissing this stuff because its not OS X, Windows has gotten a lot better. I just bought a Surface Pro 4 to potentially replace my work Dell laptop and Mac Mini, and I love this thing. Windows 10 is actually pretty good once you get used to it and the ability to switch from full laptop to tablet is quite good. I stopped carrying around an iPad because with my iPhone 6s+, I didn't see it as anything but a big iPhone. But now I can seamlessly go back and forth from laptop to tablet and the experience is pretty good.

And oh... my Apple Watch face just popped off while I was talking on the phone yesterday... so I will be one of those people in the Apple Store there to talk to a genius about a defective product. When I went to the Microsoft store to get the Surface Pro, there was a wait to talk to someone and the place was just as full as the Apple Stores usually are.

Competition is good, and I am much more excited and happy about what I see Microsoft doing these days than the bleh Apple products.

Microsoft is really starting to be the better horse... and Apple continues to be more interested in fancy HQ buildings and political agendas. And I think that is fantastic... competition is good.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about todays announcement. They are two things here... Windows 10 S and the new Surface Laptop. The fact that they are announced together doesn't mean they are one thing. Just like Google produced an expensive Chromebook as a reference platform, doesn't mean the majority of people buy them.

The same hardware people are buying for Chromebook will run Windows S. Coincidentally, last night my daughter bought a sub $300 Chromebook because her old Widows laptop died. She does browsing, email, and office... so doesn't need anything more. After an hour, she loves the thing. BUT, had there been a version of it running Windows S she would have bought that because she had to switch from Word to Google Docs. The hardware she bought has an Intel processor and 4G of RAM, so could have run Windows S. There will be a lot of machines announced from 3rd parties that will be at Chromebook prices running Windows S.

The Surface Laptop may come with Windows S, but the buyer can upgrade to full Windows 10. I believe it is targeting the MacBook, and I believe it will do pretty well. It looks to be a decent machine.

For everyone dismissing this stuff because its not OS X, Windows has gotten a lot better. I just bought a Surface Pro 4 to potentially replace my work Dell laptop and Mac Mini, and I love this thing. Windows 10 is actually pretty good once you get used to it and the ability to switch from full laptop to tablet is quite good. I stopped carrying around an iPad because with my iPhone 6s+, I didn't see it as anything but a big iPhone. But now I can seamlessly go back and forth from laptop to tablet and the experience is pretty good.

And oh... my Apple Watch face just popped off while I was talking on the phone yesterday... so I will be one of those people in the Apple Store there to talk to a genius about a defective product. When I went to the Microsoft store to get the Surface Pro, there was a wait to talk to someone and the place was just as full as the Apple Stores usually are.

Competition is good, and I am much more excited and happy about what I see Microsoft doing these days than the bleh Apple products.

I have had Apple Watch from day 1, no problem

This seems to be a real killer. For some time I wondered why Microsoft would not release a real laptop. I thought Microsoft did not want to kill laptop manufacturers with a machine that would directly compete with theirs. The Surface Book was a laptop that turned into a somewhat clunky tablet; but it was expensive and the hinge was not all that nice. Surface Pro 4 was really nice, and almost there, but not a real laptop either.

But this one seems to nail it. This looks like the laptop Apple would produce if it were to manufacture a Windows laptop. Perhaps some people were expecting the MacBook or the new MacBook Pro to be this laptop, but running OS X instead. It is priced similarly to the MacBook (the 8 GB/256 GB option have the same prices), but it has a more powerful processor (the U-series instead of the Y-series). The MacBook Pro has probably more powerful processors (higher TDP), but they are significantly more expensive as well. The Surface Laptop could be the next-gen MacBook Air, if Apple would ever release one.

The USB 3.0 port seems useful, more useful for the time being than a USB-C port, although that might change in the future. However, it has only one USB 3.0 port, which is of concern. The screen resolution could be higher (but I like the 3:2 aspect ratio), and I am concerned about the fabric in the keyboard (will it get dirty?). And it does not have a giant trackpad nor a touchbar. I still want to test the trackpad and the keyboard, but if they are as good as the ones in the Surface Book, then they are surely a hit. And, even with all its drawbacks, it looks very nice still, and a worthy competitor. It may be the sweet spot for those who want something more powerful than a MacBook and still do not want to fork so much for a MacBook Pro.

While some people may say that this is not even worth looking at because it is a Windows laptop, it seems biased. The Surface Laptop seems to finally be a Windows laptop which is at the level of Apple laptops. Of course it will all depend on how the product feels and performs in the end. But if it is as good as it seems, it looks like a winner.

[doublepost=1493780471][/doublepost]

This seems to be a real killer. For some time I wondered why Microsoft would not release a real laptop. I thought Microsoft did not want to kill laptop manufacturers with a machine that would directly compete with theirs. The Surface Book was a laptop that turned into a somewhat clunky tablet; but it was expensive and the hinge was not all that nice. Surface Pro 4 was really nice, and almost there, but not a real laptop either.

But this one seems to nail it. This looks like the laptop Apple would produce if it were to manufacture a Windows laptop. Perhaps some people were expecting the MacBook or the new MacBook Pro to be this laptop, but running OS X instead. It is priced similarly to the MacBook (the 8 GB/256 GB option have the same prices), but it has a more powerful processor (the U-series instead of the Y-series). The MacBook Pro has probably more powerful processors (higher TDP), but they are significantly more expensive as well. The Surface Laptop could be the next-gen MacBook Air, if Apple would ever release one.

The USB 3.0 port seems useful, more useful for the time being than a USB-C port, although that might change in the future. However, it has only one USB 3.0 port, which is of concern. The screen resolution could be higher (but I like the 3:2 aspect ratio), and I am concerned about the fabric in the keyboard (will it get dirty?). And it does not have a giant trackpad nor a touchbar. I still want to test the trackpad and the keyboard, but if they are as good as the ones in the Surface Book, then they are surely a hit. And, even with all its drawbacks, it looks very nice still, and a worthy competitor. It may be the sweet spot for those who want something more powerful than a MacBook and still do not want to fork so much for a MacBook Pro.

While some people may say that this is not even worth looking at because it is a Windows laptop, it seems biased. The Surface Laptop seems to finally be a Windows laptop which is at the level of Apple laptops. Of course it will all depend on how the product feels and performs in the end. But if it is as good as it seems, it looks like a winner.

No bias, I use a windows 10 laptop for work. It hangs, drops wifi, stutter. Am awful experience. It stays busy and complains about windows. Try and tell management to switch to Mac. Cheaper in the long run after the initial outlay. So now this is a MAC copy with a very crappy operating system.

 

[Jack Burton]

Thanks for your patronising pat on the head, I'd never thought that other people may live differently from me, cheers for the enlightenment, you've changed my life.

Glad I could help! Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

You maybe forgot that focusing on one specific area of life - computer tech - and talking about it online and watching videos about it from people with equal interest, doesn't count as a valid metric for seeing these things in normal life with normal, average consumers, day to day. Those people moving around in front of you are videos on YouTube, they're not in your immediate vicinity, they're an illusion of movement.

Lol. Don't take this all so seriously. its not like either one of us will buy the surface laptop anyway.

 

[6foot5foot]

Glad I could help! Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.




Lol. Don't take this all so seriously. its not like either one of us will buy the surface laptop anyway.

Yeah you're right. Sorry for being snotty - it's like a game people play on forums - snottyness - it rubs off on you, and is despicable! I am guilty as charged, sorry mate, I am not like this as a person - the internet tends to get the grumpy side of me at times. Take care

 

[Jack Burton]

Yeah you're right. Sorry for being snotty - it's like a game people play on forums - snottyness - it rubs off on you, and is despicable! I am guilty as charged, sorry mate, I am not like this as a person - the internet tends to get the grumpy side of me at times. Take care

It's all good.

Now back to waiting for the iPad Pro update. And the Mac Pro...

 

[MartiNZ]

I was a big fan of Surface early on, got the RT and then the Pro 2. Then they just went crazy with pricing and became far less appealing. I like that they eventually settled on no windows logo at all on the front of the Pro 4, but when that is essentially just a slab for $NZ3k for the model I would want, it loses. I mean that is almost Apple territory.

The Surface Book went even further to $NZ7k for the model I would want, the Surface Studio starts at $NZ5k, and the new laptop doesn't even have pricing yet, presumably because they are too embarrassed. The one USB 3 seems rather backward; why can't they be more courageous?

Taking the colours from the Surface keyboard to the whole laptop smacks of that, and while the alcantara covers feel pretty durable, I would still be dubious about it as something built-in not replaceable. That was the angle they originally went with Surface and I think it was a good one; it really is a shame how much they lost from the Windows 8 vision of that time. I just got my Surface RT back after my dad had been using it for a few years, and that is still a nice machine to have around - really light and cool, nothing can really go wrong with the OS, and it has Office built in and still has access to the Store in case there's something useful there. They did have potential. Now I'm not so sure. It would be nice to be without OEM stuff again, but the pricing is off.

 

[Kabeyun]

Cant deny that MS is doing more right than Apple in the last couple of years.
Keep up the good work!

A single USB-A port, 4GB RAM, and a crippled OS for a thousand dollars? MS may have done well with one of their Surface products but let's not get carried away. If this were Apple people around here would be screaming for Tim Cook's head on a pike.

 

[Tiger8]

No thanks, it runs on Windows.

Aren't people tired of using this cliche line over and over? Guess what? The world runs on windows, still the most popular operating system in the world, from PCs personal to enterprise to hardcore servers to ATMs to POS, it's all Windows. Not Mac OS, not Linux, not unix, Windows.

Apple can only wish they had half of Windows users.

 

[Roobun]

I expected a 360 convertible hinge. It looks nice but it's almost a chromebook, only it can't use chrome

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

Oh God. This is actually good.

Compared to what, exactly?
[doublepost=1493784915][/doublepost]

I'm on the hook to buy my niece a laptop for college. Size, weight, price, and battery life are all where I need them to be.

I'm sure she'll thank you every single day for that 4 GB laptop...
[doublepost=1493785432][/doublepost]

Wake up from what? This is literally the 2016 MBP just with cheaper and less premium components.

You're kidding, right?

 

[IG88]

Windows 10 S is a walled garden OS, allowing only approved applications from the Windows Store to be downloaded on the system while also cutting down on some Windows 10 features to provide streamlined security and performance.

Walled garden again huh? Is this Windows RT back from extinction?

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

I was looking at this, and according to the MS Store, it's free to upgrade to 10 Pro until December 31st. So, that's something I guess, but to compare it to the MacBook or MacBook Air or MacBook Pro right out of the box is insane. I know a lot of designers and developers that run Adobe CC, Brackets, Chrome, Firefox, etc on those and they won't be doing that with Windows 10 S since they aren't available on the "Windows Store". How do they market this for education when it won't run those apps? Are schools supposed to have a mixed environment now where some machines are running Windows 10 Pro and some are running Windows 10 S? I feel bad for the IT teams.

There are a lot of postings on the internet about the Alcantara surface pro keyboard staining really badly just from normal use. I wonder how MS is going to address that.

I also find it amusing that they say "Mini Display Port, 1x USB 3, and Surface Dock port. Compare that to 2x USB-C on the MacBook Pro 13"." I'd be happy to. 2x USB-C ports can do everything that the Surface Book does and a lot more. Gotta love marketing. Oh, and it doesn't come with the Surface Pen, so that's another 99.00 if you want it.

I have owned the Surface Pro 4 and really liked the hardware, but this "Surface Laptop" with a top end of 2199 just seems confusing.

Um, the 13" MacBook Pro has FOUR USB-C ports, two of them that also do full TB3, and two that also do effectively TB 2.

That's quite different from this "new" Surface Book.

 

[intz2nu]

I went to pre-order one and noticed I can't get a maxed spec unit in any other colors apart from the silver model. Honestly if Microsoft is gonna limit the full spec version to only a single color this is just down right retarded. UNLESS of course this is maybe because its still a bit too early to be able to order a full spec model given it was just announced?

Also on a side note I'm a bit salty on the SSD sizes, no 1TB or 2TB? I mean we are in 2017 after all and these size SSD's should be standard upgrade options on pretty much any computer from here forward or is Microsoft trying to milk the cattle like Apple does?

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

If you bought the latest macbook pro with touch strip, you should absolutely be ashamed. Microsoft has such a beautiful and fast laptop starting at 999.99. It beats the newest macbook pro laptop in all aspects.....
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Windows 10 does not need more than 4 gb ram to run well.....

As long as all you want to do is stare at the desktop.

 

[greenlitdesign]

Windows 10 S.... Whow, what a nonsense!

What does the S stands for? Sh*t ?

 

[Ladybug]

I watched this keynote. Was the most boring thing ever.

They tried to put over being locked into Window's store and not being able to download anything else anywhere as a great feature.

Why not? Apple has been doing just that for years with iTunes and the App Store. No one here seems to mind and it works for Apple. Just sayin...

 

[mi7chy]

As long as all you want to do is stare at the desktop.

It's not bloated like MacOS. Windows 10 Pro uses a little over 1GB DRAM booting into the OS so Windows 10 Slim will even be less. Perfectly usable for most students up through university. If it was me, though, if I'm spending $899 (with 10% edu discount) on the i5/4/128 it makes more sense to go up to $1169 i5/8/256 for future proofing which is still less than $1399 Macbook Pro i5/8/256.

 

[Mac-lover3]

Isn't the surface more than 1000?

Well its starts at 1000 and goes up to 2100$. Mac Pro starts at 4000€ and goes up to 6000€..

 

[jeremiah256]

So, I finally sat down and viewed the Microsoft #EDU event. I'd recommend it to get your own impression.

1. Microsoft Learning Tools - Various apps, including Scratch, Microsoft Teams, STEM projects, Mixed Reality/3D, Office 365 Education Edition, Minecraft Education Edition and more. Also includes automation/AI added to OneNote and other Office apps to empower kids to self-learn reading at their own pace. Some very cool software.

2. Windows 10 S - 'S' either stands for 'school' or 'steam lined'. Looks great for administrators managing multiple devices across multiple schools. The software is locked down but powerful enough and tailored specifically for the classroom, but I don't see it's usefulness outside the classroom. There is no way a college student should get a laptop with this OS.

3. Surface Laptop - The Surface Laptop should not have been added to this event as it buried the lead. The computer does not matter (as long as you are using a Windows 10 or Windows 10 S device), it's the software and the services that will allow Microsoft to challenge the Chromebook. By putting this last and having Microsoft's most popular and charismatic presenter pitch it, it became the focus of the event.

 

[MrX8503]

Why not? Apple has been doing just that for years with iTunes and the App Store. No one here seems to mind and it works for Apple. Just sayin...

You can install any app you want on macOS

 

[Ladybug]

You can install any app you want on macOS

My point is that being in a walled garden is not necesssarily a bad thing per say. We buy Apple and know there are limitations and we are fine with that. I'm sure anyone buying a MS laptop will be equally fine with those limitations, or they will upgrade to Windows 10.

 

[convergent]

$1000 for a Windows machine - and a (more) crippled version of Windows at that - with 4Gb RAM and 128Gb and people here falling over themselves to complement it. LOL

I'm sure the same posters would be just as complementary if Apple released an App Store only Mac at the same price and specs

Yeh... you just described an iPad.