Microsoft Surface Tablet announced

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arbok26 said:
actually id be worried about the instability of that on your lap. most of the heavy stuff is in the screen. it'd be ok with two points of contact on your thighs and if you kept your thighs flat but by the looks of it, it would be easy to tip over.
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Read the commentary with the picture:

"we were able to balance the Surface on a lap for typing like a notebook without it falling forward or tipping over backwards; compare this to the Asus Transformer Prime which always wants to fall backwards, and you'll appreciate this weighting."
 
coldfoot said:
Notebook on clearance with outdated Sandy Bridge processor, garbage screen and no SSD.
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No it's not.

For $779.99, however, you can get the visually identical Ultra M5-481TG-6814, where the "G" stands for discrete graphics, namely a switchable GeForce GT 640M LE chip, That won't be as powerful as the Ultra M3's 640M, because "LE" basically stands for "low end," but we just so happen to have tested a 640M LE recently and seen that in the right machine, it can still run games like Battlefield 3 at lower settings. There's also a brand-new Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive with a 20GB solid state cache, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out and a headset jack in a 4.3-pound package.
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http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3098581/acer-aspire-m5-ultrabook-ships-this-month-game-friendly-version
 
I think the arm version will become very popular. It's only metro, which will appeal to people who detest the dual personality of Win 8.

If MS keeps the appstore less restrictive than Apple but at the same time manages to create a more coherent app market than is available on android, they could have hit the golden middle ground.
 
Well now we know why MS Office isn't hitting the iPad until October, they want the ARM version of the Surface to have 2 months (?) head start as being the only tablet with Office.
 
SteveWD40 said:
Well now we know why MS Office isn't hitting the iPad until October, they want the ARM version of the Surface to have 2 months (?) head start as being the only tablet with Office.
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office wont come to any other platform but RT till 2013.
 
Divvy said:
No of course not, but they said they were aiming for entry-level ultrabook pricing, and well, that's it.
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It isnt officially a ultrabook unless it is ssd I thought? And since the pro is ivy bridge and ssd there is no way it will be that cheap. Comparable entry level ultrabooks are around 1000.
 
A bit sour?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57...thdraw-later-from-tablet-market-acer-founder/

Microsoft will withdraw later from tablet market: Acer founder

Microsoft's objective in unveiling its new Surface tablet is to prod device makers to bring out Windows 8 tablets, then withdraw from the tablet market once that's accomplished, according to reported comments from Acer founder Stan Shih.
Microsoft "has no real intention to sell own-brand tablet PCs," according to a report in Taipei-based Digitimes, citing Shih.
"Once the purpose is realized, Microsoft will not offer more models," the report said.
Shih reportedly goes on to say that the strategy was conceived as way to "encourage" device makers to bring out Windows 8 tablets. And Microsoft has "no reason" to sell hardware because it is less profitable than licensing software, adding that Shih "analyzed" Microsoft's strategy in order to reach this conclusion.
Needless to say, this is a positive take on Microsoft's strategy. A more cynical view holds that Microsoft believes it must bypass PC makers to better compete against Apple and Android. And that a Microsoft-branded tablet undermines those companies, who were given little warning and now must compete against each other and Microsoft at the same time.
That said, Dell offered an upbeat-sounding official comment today. "Microsoft is an important partner to Dell and we look forward to delivering a full slate of Windows 8 tablets -- and other products -- later this fall," Dell said in response to an e-mail query.
And Acer's Shih had more to say in this vein. "Vendors adopting Windows 8 should interpret Microsoft's intentions positively, as they will benefit from Microsoft's marketing," Shih reportedly indicated.
That sounds a lot like Google's lead-by-example strategy. Google has already done this with its Nexus phone and a Nexus tablet is imminent, according to reports.
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Cheebo said:
It isnt officially a ultrabook unless it is ssd I thought? And since the pro is ivy bridge and ssd there is no way it will be that cheap. Comparable entry level ultrabooks are around 1000.
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It has a small SSD and an ivy bridge i5 and they're selling it for 780. I'm not saying that I think it's going to be 780 at all, I'm just saying that the range that it could be in can stretch anywhere from 780 to 1000.


coldfoot said:
A 4.3 lb 14" low-grade plastic laptop is not an ultrabook
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It's still being marketed as an Ultrabook.
 
Divvy said:
It has a small SSD and an ivy bridge i5 and they're selling it for 780. I'm not saying that I think it's going to be 780 at all, I'm just saying that the range that it could be in can stretch anywhere from 780 to 1000.




It's still being marketed as an Ultrabook.
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Its still not a real "ultrabook" by intel's definition.. and the SSD is only cache, so it doesnt qualify.

Comparable ultrabooks i thought was what was said... comparable ultrabooks are ~$1000
 
One of the concerns I have about this is if there is a problem with it, who do I take it to or call? Post-sales customer support is horrid on PCs. The customer service IMO is the best selling point about Apple in contrast
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
One of the concerns I have about this is if there is a problem with it, who do I take it to or call? Post-sales customer support is horrid on PCs. The customer service IMO is the best selling point about Apple in contrast
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by the time this releases there will be a decent smattering of MS stores... besides that i'm expecting a cross shipment for replacements.
 
gcubed said:
Its still not a real "ultrabook" by intel's definition.. and the SSD is only cache, so it doesnt qualify.

Comparable ultrabooks i thought was what was said... comparable ultrabooks are ~$1000
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I'm pretty sure they said it would be competitive with entry level ultrabooks.
 
Divvy said:
I'm pretty sure they said it would be competitive with entry level ultrabooks.
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Entry level ultrabooks are around 1000. What you linked isnt a ultrabook. It doesn't meet many of intels qualifications. It will not have intels ultrabook line sticker on it. The verge was incorrect in calling it one.
 
Cheebo said:
Entry level ultrabooks are around 1000. What you linked isnt a ultrabook. It doesn't meet many of intels qualifications. It will not have intels ultrabook line sticker on it. The verge was incorrect in calling it one.
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Interesting, what the current guidelines for the ultrabook designation?
 
Full Windows 8 - CHECK
Tablet Windows 8 - CHECK
Tablet Design - CHECK
USB - CHECK
Higher than 64 GB memory - CHECK
Video Out - CHECK
Weight - CHECK
No Bloatware - CHECK
Display - CHECK
Price - ?
Battery Life - ?



Price & Battery life are most important after Design and OS

if they get those right, its game over
 
maharg said:
Eh, if there's something to cool there's something to burn your balls off. I haven't used a laptop in years that never got hot on the bottom, and that definitely includes several macs (the supposed best).

And I disagree. It's a pretty fundamentally different *take* on notebook design, but it basically is one. At least the pro. I, frankly, t think this is more the future than either the ipad or these twisty overly hinge-y things.
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I use my laptop resting on bare skin while wearing shorts. Macs are actually one of the worst when it comes to heat management. They are notorious for being hot on the bottom. My Asus has a bottom that has an 80%+ surface area that is cool to touch and is the same whether it is on or off. The only are that warms up is the bottom rear left corner and that gets no warmer than an iPad full load. My wife's Samsung I think is similar.
 
They require 16 GB of ssd hard drive space, this doesn't have that. And as juice said MS didn't say entry level ultrabooks. They said ultrabooks with comparable specs. Which are around 1000.
 
16:10 is really the perfect aspect ratio for nearly all purposes. I wish apple adopted this ratio for the iPad, iPhone, Monitors and the upcoming Apple TV. One universal aspect ratio and just three resolutions for ALL Apple devices. 960x600 for iPhone. 1920x1200 for pretty much everything else. 2880x1800 for anything they want to brand as retina.

I find 16:9 aspect ratio is way too narrow. 4:3 is good vertically but looks off horizontally and it's not great for watching movies and not as universal.

ari
"Is the ipad 2 still worth getting?...i mean, is it still relevant with ios6 and such coming out? I notice that apple like to drown the older tech out of its catalog."

Apple only phases out devices when their internal hardware becomes too slow and outdated. The iPad 2 shares pretty much all the same internals as the new iPad. The only differences are the retina display and a slightly beefed up gpu to power the retina resolution. It's not outdated.

Besides, from the sounds of it, the Surface tablets have a shitty resolution.
 
planar1280 said:
Full Windows 8 - CHECK
Tablet Windows 8 - CHECK
Tablet Design - CHECK
USB - CHECK
Higher than 64 GB memory - CHECK
Video Out - CHECK
Weight - CHECK
No Bloatware - CHECK
Display - CHECK
Price - ?
Battery Life - ?



Price & Battery life are most important after Design and OS

if they get those right, its game over
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looking at comparable specs to ultrabooks coming out, it's going to be over 5 hours easy... and isn't power management even better on Win8 then Win7? I'd expect 6-8 hours
 
giga said:
Tegra 3+ is not Wayne. It's a clock speed bump. Wayne isn't coming till 2013.

I don't know why some people are expecting Haswell either. That's Spring-Summer 2013. It's Ivy Bridge, as confirmed in the keynote.



Ivy Bridge is the 3rd generation in the Core [iX] family. Nehalem -> Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge. It's used everywhere for its marketing.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...rd-gen-core-family-mobile-vol-1-datasheet.pdf
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Ivy Bridge is just a die shrink and clock bump of Sandy Bridge, adding no new features. It's same generation, but I guess Intel marketing wants to make a new distinction.

The proper generation layout with their "tick tock" die shrink/clock bump:
Nehalem (Nehalem - Westmere) > Sandy Bridge (Sandy Bridge - Ivy Bridge) > Haswell (Haswell - Broadwell)
 
Marty Chinn said:
I meant the concept in general. Even if the Surface Pro has a MSRP of $999, there is nothing stopping a device that fits the bill coming at a much cheaper rate. We've got current Windows 7 tablets at $500 easily. There's no reason why it has to be a $1000 starting point. What about the iPad in itself makes it impossible in theory to run OSX on it?
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ARM?
 
Gary Whitta said:
Yeah it's a competitor to the MBA.

Now would I like to see a next-gen MBA with this form factor? Possibly but Apple doesn't roll like that.
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It would take apple 5 years to change OSX to making it just right for touch input. As you pointed out they would never toss OSX on a touch device how it is currently
 
Shogmaster said:
Ivy Bridge is just a die shrink and clock bump of Sandy Bridge, adding no new features. It's same generation, but I guess Intel marketing wants to make a new distinction.

The proper generation layout with their "tick tock" die shrink/clock bump:
Nehalem (Nehalem - Westmere) > Sandy Bridge (Sandy Bridge - Ivy Bridge) > Haswell (Haswell - Broadwell)
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I wouldn't say no new features. Tri gate, HD 4000, and PCI-E 3.0 are pretty significant changes. Panther Point also adds USB 3.0.

I know about the tick tock cycle, but my main point was that it's a regular "3rd gen" Ivy Bridge.
 
mescalineeyes said:
You literally never have to use iTunes if you so desire.

I am just going to ignore the Flash thing because at this point that is downright silly.
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That's just not true. If you want to put any type of your own content on it, ie music, videos, pics, etc, you still have to deal with iTunes.

Cheebo said:
Almost no enterprise market will be rolling out surface pros either. What company will give their employees thousand dollar tablets when the vast majority only give cheap dell laptops?

It is downright delusional to think the pro will be big in enterprise. It is way out of the price market CIO's are willing to spend.

The market for thousand dollar laptops/tablets is extremely small. Very few spend that kind of money. Windows pc sales in both the consumer market and enterprise is dominated by laptops that cost far closer to 500 than 1000.

A very cheap dell enterprise focused tablet could take off in the enterprise market but the surface pro is a consumer niche product at best. No one spends that kind of money on hardware.

I am convinced those here and the bloggers who think the pro will be a hit in enterprise have never worked a day in the business side of a IT department in a big corporation.
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I've heard you mention this a few times, but are you sure about that? Every company that I've been at in the last few years has had $1000+ laptops. Many have MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros. I know this because I've been given the choice and I've seen people walking around with them. Now maybe it's I've been lucky enough to have only seen companies that spend considerable money on laptops, but I never would have thought it was an unusual thing to do.
 
Marty Chinn said:
That's just not true. If you want to put any type of your own content on it, ie music, videos, pics, etc, you still have to deal with iTunes.



I've heard you mention this a few times, but are you sure about that? Every company that I've been at in the last few years has had $1000+ laptops. Many have MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros. I know this because I've been given the choice and I've seen people walking around with them. Now maybe it's I've been lucky enough to have only seen companies that spend considerable money on laptops, but I never would have thought it was an unusual thing to do.
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my company lets us build our own laptops if we need the extra power. You can also get MB Pros (they don't let you buy airs or ultrabooks without justification and VP approval), but IT hands Macs off with a "we dont support these at all, you can use them, but if they dont work don't come to us"
 
giga said:
I wouldn't say no new features. Tri gate, HD 4000, and PCI-E 3.0 are pretty significant changes. Panther Point also adds USB 3.0.

I know about the tick tock cycle, but my main point was that it's a regular "3rd gen" Ivy Bridge.
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I got what you're saying. I just think Intel marketing is making a mess again. I guess Westmere never existed in this new scenario.
 
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