News - Surface Pro 64GB to be priced at £719 in the UK

[cptwhite_uk]

We all want the Surface Pro to be game chaging device, but in the end it just fails to deliver on it's promises. It's a damn shame.

- Too heavy for a tablet
- Too expensive
- Too little storage for it to be used as a laptop
- Screen too small to be a good productivity device
- Can't be used as a laptop (i.e. on the top of your lap)
- Resolution and windows environment causes issues
- No one wants a glossy screen, they're just rubbish - especially on a device that's portable

+ Great build quality
+ A good first effort

They need a stiff hinge option, how they implement that I don't know.

What this needs is a tablet that can run some kind of lightweight OS (RT?) for tablet mode, allowing consumption of media and a reasonable weight / battery life - and then some meat and potatoes in a base unit which can up the grunt and make it a viable laptop - extra battery power, extra RAM, extra CPU and GPU grunt, switch to a full fat OS.

[MrBozack]

Nope. Simply No. I can't justify this purchase!

[Defiant]

This isn't aimed at power users or non corporate users, standard users in an office environment will find that specification more than enough. Very little people in a corporate office need large amounts of storage as well.

This and similar Win 8 Pro tablets fill a void that Android and iOS devices dont just now, this will sell with Corporate customers, I know my company is looking at them as well as a deployable product.

Haswell while nice is still not deployable for this form and I dont think we will see Haswell in tablets for a while yet.

[ed^chigliak]

OK but only ~5hrs battery life and the battery is not user replaceable.
That's pretty much all I needed to know. Endeth research.

Surface and pen is desirable but I can wait. I stopped buying and testing v1 hardware a long time ago. I want something that does it's job well and will continue to do so for a very long time.

[Defiant]

OK but only ~5hrs battery life and the battery is not user replaceable.
That's pretty much all I needed to know. Endeth research.

Surface and pen is desirable but I can wait. I stopped buying and testing v1 hardware a long time ago. I want something that does it's job well and will continue to do so for a very long time.

You were expecting more battery from a full blown ultrabook spec in a tablet? Come on not even I was expecting better for a first gen PC tablet.

[streetster]

"prolly not"...

[brandthin]

I'm all about the surface, i'm a big believer!

[ed^chigliak]

I'm expecting CPUs in the not too distant future to be significantly more power efficient and so it seems sensible to wait a while longer. I cannot afford to waste >£200 on devices with a captive battery that will inevitable deteriorate.

Surface Pro would be better for my intended usage if I could easily swap out the battery. 2x ~5hr would be good enough and I wouldn't then need to worry about some horrendous tear-down procedure in 3 years to fix a worn out old battery.

[Saracen]

Defiant may be right about corporates, but for me, and my usage, this would be overpriced at half the projected price, and too compromised.

For me, a tablet needs to be light and have good battery life, but power isn't really an issue. Price is.

I'd rather have a cheap, low-end (-ish) tablet and a decent laptop. I prefer thecright tool for the right job than a compromise, and if that means two tools, so be it. It's why I have a tiny li-ion scredriver for mucking about with PC cases, a heavy-duty SDS for heavy work, and a mid-range combi for day to day stuff.

[Defiant]

Defiant may be right about corporates, but for me, and my usage, this would be overpriced at half the projected price, and too compromised.

For me, a tablet needs to be light and have good battery life, but power isn't really an issue. Price is.

I'd rather have a cheap, low-end (-ish) tablet and a decent laptop. I prefer thecright tool for the right job than a compromise, and if that means two tools, so be it. It's why I have a tiny li-ion scredriver for mucking about with PC cases, a heavy-duty SDS for heavy work, and a mid-range combi for day to day stuff.

Don't get me wrong, this tablet is aimed at a mid market set of people and anyone with savvy like us Saracen wouldn't use this as we need better options and the next few gens will show this in future.
This would do for me when I'm on site in comms and node rooms but that's more to do with the form factor and how easy it is to natively integrate into our MS back-end.

[Saracen]

Don't get me wrong, this tablet is aimed at a mid market set of people and anyone with savvy like us Saracen wouldn't use this as we need better options and the next few gens will show this in future.
This would do for me when I'm on site in comms and node rooms but that's more to do with the form factor and how easy it is to natively integrate into our MS back-end.

Understood, and agreed.

For my money, ANY technology purchase is about the right tool for the specific job, at an acceptable price. A lot of that depends on what the "job", and I use that term quite lightly, is.

It might be an all-purpose PC to do WP, email, web browsing, game-playing, etc, in which case that's the job. Or the emphasis might be on photo or video editing. Or, it might he supporting a data repeater on a radio transmitter. I have one PC doing that and pretty much nothing else, and it's one old enough that I suspect Methuselah threw it out in an upgrade .... in his youth.

Or it might be that all it has to do is light web stuff in the home, but portability and battery power are the main criteria, in which case a pretty cheap tablet will do, but power or loads of memory aren't needed. Or it may be that it has to operate like the last one, but with a net connection anywhere, in which case a 3G data capability may be essential. Or it may be critical that it, as you said, integrate with some existing systems.

That's all I was really getting at with my last post. It's a case of the right tool for the job, and for my jobs, I'd get far more utility out of a cheap, relatively low-end but still reputable tablet, and a half-decent laptop (say low to mid-end Dell, etc) and I would not pay state-of-the-art prices for a high end tablet or laptop because I have no need of state-of-the-art in either.But some people presumably do. And no doubt, some want it whether they actually need it or not.

My circumstances, and needs, might change, but I'm not expecting to need a high end tablet or laptop, and for the same reason (and some other reasons) I'm never likely to buy into the latest iPhone, Galaxy Sx, etc., either. I just don't need, or as it happens, want them. They'd be tools for which I just don't have a job, and I'm certainly years past caring about technological fashion statements or the latest must-have gizmo. But because I don't want or need them, doesn't mean others don't.

For me at least, therefore, it's not especially about me being savvy, though you may be right about the savvy not buying these. But I wouldn't buy high-end iPads either. There may well be those for whom they are a good buy, and there may well be others for whom money is more plentiful than common sense. But for me, I just don't want or need them.

There are, however, things I do want, regardless of needing them, for which I would indulge and spend, which other people might regard as irrational .... such as (at current prices) the best part of £800 on a macro flash for my camera, and another £800 for a macro lens.

I'm not immune to indulgence, just immune to indulgence in phones, tablets, etc.

[Defiant]

Understood, and agreed.

For my money, ANY technology purchase is about the right tool for the specific job, at an acceptable price. A lot of that depends on what the "job", and I use that term quite lightly, is.

It might be an all-purpose PC to do WP, email, web browsing, game-playing, etc, in which case that's the job. Or the emphasis might be on photo or video editing. Or, it might he supporting a data repeater on a radio transmitter. I have one PC doing that and pretty much nothing else, and it's one old enough that I suspect Methuselah threw it out in an upgrade .... in his youth.

Or it might be that all it has to do is light web stuff in the home, but portability and battery power are the main criteria, in which case a pretty cheap tablet will do, but power or loads of memory aren't needed. Or it may be that it has to operate like the last one, but with a net connection anywhere, in which case a 3G data capability may be essential. Or it may be critical that it, as you said, integrate with some existing systems.

That's all I was really getting at with my last post. It's a case of the right tool for the job, and for my jobs, I'd get far more utility out of a cheap, relatively low-end but still reputable tablet, and a half-decent laptop (say low to mid-end Dell, etc) and I would not pay state-of-the-art prices for a high end tablet or laptop because I have no need of state-of-the-art in either.But some people presumably do. And no doubt, some want it whether they actually need it or not.

My circumstances, and needs, might change, but I'm not expecting to need a high end tablet or laptop, and for the same reason (and some other reasons) I'm never likely to buy into the latest iPhone, Galaxy Sx, etc., either. I just don't need, or as it happens, want them. They'd be tools for which I just don't have a job, and I'm certainly years past caring about technological fashion statements or the latest must-have gizmo. But because I don't want or need them, doesn't mean others don't.

For me at least, therefore, it's not especially about me being savvy, though you may be right about the savvy not buying these. But I wouldn't buy high-end iPads either. There may well be those for whom they are a good buy, and there may well be others for whom money is more plentiful than common sense. But for me, I just don't want or need them.

There are, however, things I do want, regardless of needing them, for which I would indulge and spend, which other people might regard as irrational .... such as (at current prices) the best part of £800 on a macro flash for my camera, and another £800 for a macro lens.

I'm not immune to indulgence, just immune to indulgence in phones, tablets, etc.

Yeah all true enough, I'm hoping that MS keeps at Surface. I think that OEM's generally never come up with hardware devices of the quality that Apple shows in its range and so far I'm happy with the limited play time that I have had with hardware iteration of the Surface RT.

I admit that a lack of 3G and LTE in Surface was a stupid thing for MS to do, but I get the impression that MS really fudded this product launch up as its release was badly managed to promote RT first and then due to a lack of stocks it was staged through zones in its release. But I expected nothing great from them due to this being the first large scale hardware launch since they moved into the console market.

I admit I just about bought a Surface Pro from Canada when it launched but that was due to it being cheaper £600 range, I cant say that I would be willing to pay £800 for this device here though. Its just to much of an indulgence.

[TheAnimus]

Had a quick look for a Surface Pro in London.

There isn't one anywhere. Apparently it's only John Lewis who have stock to begin with, they, like Microsoft store are out of stock online for the 128gb model, and you can't find any in any of the London stores, the one I spoke to on the phone, sold the '50 or so' they had for launch day, by the end of launch day.

I think there will be a very limited but buoyant market for these, if you want something that is a 10" ultrabook, and I mean less than 11" you are SOL. In fact most of the small ultrabooks, make me think, why not just for a 13". Often the real world difference is less than 1".

There are quite a few circumstances where I think this is useful, I can see why a few people would buy them. Myself I'd like it to have biometrics and 4G built in, oh and a CPU which isn't out yet.