This is the Surface we've been waiting for

MS just needs to get this out into the market so we can see if it takes off. I'm curious to see if people want this much in their tablet devices.....or if they are content with fewer features and lower prices.
 

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MS just needs to get this out into the market so we can see if it takes off. I'm curious to see if people want this much in their tablet devices.....or if they are content with fewer features and lower prices.

Well see that's where it's baby brother would come in handy, but everyone likes to pound it into the dirt without giving it much of a chance, yet the people that own them seem to be very happy with them. But then this is Microsoft, it's like Duck Hunting season.
 

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It's a tablet PC, so by default, it's hard to straight up compare it to an equivalent priced ultrabook and it's difficult to compare it to a phablet. The Surface Pro is both, more or less, in an elegant package.

Seeing as it's a PC and a pricy one, it's going to compared to other PCs. But that's isn't too much of a stretch, then again, it is a tablet (see what I mean).
 

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Hi there
Until I've seen it I can't comment on it. My Gut feel is that if I need a PC I need a PC - fiddling around with a separate tablet and keyboard doesn't really "float my boat".

Laptop Ultrabooks are light, portable and small enough these days and on a 11 inch screen who needs crazy video resolution. On a decent laptop HDMI out provides decent resolution to external monitors so for me I can't really see why I would bother with a tablet.

Same with the crazy hardware specs and ideo resolutions now on offer on smartphones - who needs a pixel density of 445 / in on a 5 inch screen -- I doubt if even J.C himself could see the benefits of ultra HD resolution on a screen that small -- it's just hardware bragging rights with no useful purpose whatsoever -- since even if you could stream video from your phone to a large monitor -- the resolution of the phone is totally irrelevant). Who also needs an 8-way processor in a PHONE for gawd's sake.:mad:

If I'm on the move a decent smart phone (Galaxy IIIs or similar) provides adequate surfing / email experience.

I did try a surface RT for a while in an office -- have to say I didn't really like Touch for using office type apps -- maybe that's just because I'm an old Dinosaur - but I can't see myself jumping on the tablet (or even "Phablet") bandwagon.

Plenty of people will -- enough people in my office liked "having a go" with the surface RT so I'm sure the Surface pro where you can install "Normal Windows applications" will be popular -- however currently the status of the Surface Pro where I am is very much still in the realms of "Vaporware".

Ms need to get these out fast to the "Great Unwashed" if they are to make any inroads into "The Fruit Company's" offerings.

However the convenience of tablets when travelling might be a bit over exaggerated.

When you are travelling in a crowded place --for instance "Cattle Class" on a busy plane it's just as awkward to use a 10 inch tablet as a small laptop -- the thickness of the device isn't so important -- just the AREA ( Width times the length for our more mathematically challenged people) occupied by the device.

A thick laptop with a 11 inch screen is far easier to use in a crowded space when you are sitting compared with say a really THIN 17 inch laptop --- try it at home on your couch -- have the couch occupied fully -- and for thickness use something like Phone directories if you still have them. Compare reading a full size newspaper with a Phone directory !! --With Longer devices such as the newspaper fully opened you'll be banging your arms and elbows into your "seat mates".

I find these days using a nice E-reader is a much better way of relaxing on the move -- it's also not necessary to have music tethered to your ears 24 hours a day either -- although if you want this most smart phones have slots for micro sd cards --32 GB should give you enough music even for the longest flight with stop over delays.

Cheers
jimbo
 
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Don't under estimate the usefulness of high resolution on small devices, it has nothing to do with videos and photos and such, but a lot to do with text.
I'm a bit of a tech nut so I have to have some of the latest devices, embarrassing really, I have 3 iPads and an Android tablet. IPad 2 low resolution hard to read, iPad 3 high resolution easy to read, iPad Mini low resolution almost impossible to read, HTC ONE X high resolution easy to read. Acer a500 medium resolution reasonable to read.
I've also got of a couple of older Netbooks low resolution not too bad to read. The main reason if not the only reason I've got all this stuff is for use on trips, I do a lot of travelling. Most of my usage is looking for hotels and flights while I'm overseas, I rarely book anything in advance.
My opinion is that for travelling a tablet is better than a Laptop, although if you're using it for business, a laptop would probably be better. Apps come in really handy for quick access to weather info, hotels and flight and places to eat and get the latest news.
I think a Surface Pro would be absolutely ideal for anyone on the go, especially with that high resolution. I also think an Ultrabook cannot be overlooked, but it's amazing how touch becomes a habit that's hard to break, I'm not saying you have to touch all the time but a combination is great.
17 Laptops are the funniest thing you can ever see at an airport, especially when they're tethered to a power pole.
 

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Actually people probably wonder why I'm so wrapped in Windows 8 when I've got all these iPads and Android stuff. Well it's because I can see a future with all kinds of Windows 8 devices, there will be something for everyone in all kinds of professions and casual use.

Android is okay but it's not Windows, IOS is okay if you like being in a prison. With Windows you can do anything and the variety of machines that will become available will be mind boggling. But they really will need Windows 8, and okay there might be a couple of things people don't like at the moment, but they will get used to it, and Windows will evolve as it always has.
 

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................................
17 Laptops are the funniest thing you can ever see at an airport, especially when they're tethered to a power pole.

Hi there
agree
I find an I3 laptop just fine for travelling -- up to 6 hrs battery life too -- I think some of the newer one's even go for 8 hrs.

An I3 with an SSD and enough RAM will perform quite adequately even for doing Photoshop -- you won't run the entire USAF's NORAD Air defence system on one of these but it's more than adequate for typical tasks.

These days most users don't need anything like the full power of things like I7's in portable devices when they are travelling. I'm sure people aren't "Extreme Gamers" while travelling on a plane.

I can't re-iterate this too often but 90% of poor computer performance these days is really not very nice DISK I/O. Laptops generally have very poor internal 2.5 inch HDD's running at a slow 5400 RPM. Change for an SSD -- the performance improvement will be stellar - even on oldish laptops.

If lack of storage is a problem use SD / Micro SD cards and USB sticks -- with a 32 GB micro sd card and say 2 X 32 GB Usb sticks you can have a reasonable amount of external storage without even thinking of having to take a USB ext drive with you.

You can even use the micro sd card in your phone as an external storage device for the PC - so store your movie(s) on the phone before you leave if it's easier and plug the phone into the computer as "an external drive".

I've never found the lack of CPU power a problem with recent laptops -- so long as you have an SSD fitted and a decent amount of RAM -- I invariably "Up" the RAM in any laptop I get to 8 GB as a matter of course --Single slot 4GB DDR3 laptop modules are cheap enough these days so with two slots available in most laptops 8GB is easy to install.

( I copy say 5 - 10 movies in XVID format on to a USB stick -- and then I've got my movies for even longish flights - say London to L.A or Hong Kong for example) and I know the laptops battery won't run out either)

cheers
jimbo
 

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    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
................................
17 Laptops are the funniest thing you can ever see at an airport, especially when they're tethered to a power pole.

Hi there
agree
I find an I3 laptop just fine for travelling -- up to 6 hrs battery life too -- I think some of the newer one's even go for 8 hrs.

Jimbo ... was he saying I7 or 17? I think he was referring to 17" laptops in airports, not i7 laptops. I'm sure you can get small form-factor machines with an i7 in them!

-Max ;)
 

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................................
17 Laptops are the funniest thing you can ever see at an airport, especially when they're tethered to a power pole.

Hi there
agree
I find an I3 laptop just fine for travelling -- up to 6 hrs battery life too -- I think some of the newer one's even go for 8 hrs.

Jimbo ... was he saying I7 or 17? I think he was referring to 17" laptops in airports, not i7 laptops. I'm sure you can get small form-factor machines with an i7 in them!

-Max ;)

Yeah sorry left out the", it's supposed to be 17" although I agree I3 should be fine for most people, unless you're going to be heavy graphics work. I think in this day and age the GPU is becoming more important than the CPU.
 

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The GPU is the most important thing in system's these days, LOADS of software have hardware acceleration to them, meaning they use the GPU over the CPU. Also another reason why I choose an AMD APU over an Intel i3/i5: Radeon graphics cores.
 

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When are these things going on sale?
 

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Hi there
Will finally be glad to see these things actually in the flesh -- any comments so far must surely be speculation -- although strange for Ms --very few if any leaks on the real "Retail" versions of these -- they seem to have it under better wraps than the Vatican's Secret Archives which themselves make the CIA seem like an open book in a public library.

Ms should really have got these out "In time for Xmas" to get maximum marketing - so what the delay was -- I've no idea. Possibly a last minute Engineering or Manufacturing glitch - these things happen. I'm sure it wasn't a software problem --W8 has been out long enough and is stable AFAIK. Certainly is on my system.

Perhaps they were using the RT as a "Testing" model for the resilience of some of the components to see how they would actually fare out in the field with real users dropping them etc.

Wouldn't be good marketing if something broke really easily after 5 mins of first use on a 1,000 USD piece of equipment.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I think it had something to due with parts availability, there was a rumor that Microsoft was short on certain parts for the Pro as that's why they delayed it.
 

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That's Surface RT, considering the google nexus 7 got around 1.5 million sales in a quarter and having a household recognition, 1 million for Surface is pretty decent seeing as it recently became known.
 

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    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
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    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
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    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
Nexus sales were a surprise to Google - it always looked a winner to me. They started at 5ook a month, then quickly got to 1m a month. Of course, they didn't come off the back of a $2bn ad spend.

Conversely, RT sales were half what MS was expecting.

Quite a different picture.

If they can get PRO on machines that work ok at reasonable prices, then they have a chance - in spite of the botch ups so far.

Any ideas about battery life on these PRO things?
 

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Any ideas about battery life on these PRO things?

Current estimates are around 5 hours. That's based on previous experience with devices that have similar specs and screen resolutions.
 

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I listened to Windows weekly today with Paul thurott and Mary Jo Foley and they discussed the surface pro quite a bit as they saw it at CES.
 

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    8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings
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    EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570
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    Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio
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    23" Acer x233H
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    Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
    Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS
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    Corsair 620HX modular
    Case
    Antec P182
    Cooling
    stock
    Keyboard
    ABS M1 Mechanical
    Mouse
    Logitech G9 Laser Mouse
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    15/2 cable modem
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    Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset.
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