News - Microsoft Surface Pro price cut by $100 in some regions

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No signs of a similar cut in the UK as yet.

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Read more.

I saw an advert on TV last night for the Surface RT with price reductions in Curry's/PC World. Flogging dead horses I guess.

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Originally Posted by Brewster0101

I saw an advert on TV last night for the Surface RT with price reductions in Curry's/PC World. Flogging dead horses I guess.

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Yup. Too little, too late. It's been said elsewhere many times, but surface RT came out at a higher price than many expected NOT including the keyboard. At least the recent price cuts are a significant percentage drop I s'pose. Surface pro was firmly in ultrabook territory price-wise and remains so even with this cut. In the time it has been out, most of the ultrabooks around at the time of its launch have gone down in price by more than this just as part of the normal product lifecycle, making this more of a gesture than a convincing cut anyway.

I really never thought it would come to much the Surface line - I expect them to exit it sharpish, perhaps by the end of the year

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

I really never thought it would come to much the Surface line - I expect them to exit it sharpish, perhaps by the end of the year

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TBH - I (like many others) thought the RT should have been a low-cost device to push/promote the Win8 app market and the pro was going to be a limited-run halo/flagship device (nexus style) to give other developers a benchmark to work against. Wrong on both counts!

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Originally Posted by Tpyo

TBH - I (like many others) thought the RT should have been a low-cost device to push/promote the Win8 app market and the pro was going to be a limited-run halo/flagship device (nexus style) to give other developers a benchmark to work against. Wrong on both counts!

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Nice to know it's not just me then - I too had assumed a Nexus/KindleFire low cost device. Perhaps that's something still to come - with the 7" windows tablet that some have talked about. Personally though, I can't see it.

Good point earlier about the desirability of the Pro v's Ultrabook. Other than a fanatical desire for lightness I can't see why someone would spend $800 on a Pro when that money gets quite a decent Ultrabook.

Of course if Microsoft do an HP-style "fire sale" on the Surface RT then expect a post on how wonderful it is and how come everyone doesn't have one. I know, I'm fickle... ;)

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Originally Posted by Tpyo

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

I really never thought it would come to much the Surface line - I expect them to exit it sharpish, perhaps by the end of the year

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TBH - I (like many others) thought the RT should have been a low-cost device to push/promote the Win8 app market and the pro was going to be a limited-run halo/flagship device (nexus style) to give other developers a benchmark to work against. Wrong on both counts!

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The problem was many things about the Surface RT *were* low-cost like it's Tegra 3 CPU, screen resolution and the amount of free storage after OS deductions. Yet it cost several as much as a Nexus 7 and similar to an iPad. The extortionate costs of one of the major features (the keyboards) didn't help, even an iPad+keyboard-shell could've worked out cheaper. People won't take a punt on poorly specced devices when there are either cheaper or more established players in the market. The strengths such as included Office and peripheral compatibility were largely neglected in the marketing from what I saw... the adverts just seemed to focus on how clicky the stand was without actually enlightening us to any features. Whilst Apple do play on the iCool factor their adverts do actually showcase functionality too, even if the sequences are shortened...

Then of course RT just missed it's window (pardon the pun) - by early 2013 there were faster Atom tablets running full x86 Windows 8 for similar money and with similar battery life. Why would you want an RT over one of those except just to be a hardcore ARM/Nvidia fanboy?

Windows RT just seems like Microsoft's "just in case" safety net - they were worried Intel didn't give a stuff about mobile computing and just in case ARM-based tablets starting grabbing huge market share from the traditional PC market they thought they'd better do an ARM port... kinda sensible really but will probably end up being pointless if Silvermont Atoms are faster or similar with x86 Windows than any ARM chips running RT. Atoms will always have the huge x86 software compatibility bonus so I just don't see Windows on ARM ever being more than a funny little niche a or a multi-billion $ oops.

RT was always going to be a dud for me when full blown Windows Surface Pro was to follow shortly.

I don't mind the Pro being in ultrabook range because there are more limitations in getting everything in a tablet form vs a normal notebook. But should not be too much of a premium.

Having said that, I'd rather they brought out a proper convertible tablet instead of/as well as the Pro, one with a proper dock, ideally with another battery in, more ports and possibly a hard disk as well. I'm in the market for one but nothing's *too* convincing at the cheaper end of the range (and I don't want atom, especially when coupled with non-expandable eMMC memory).

RT should be priced at what it is. A sub par device for people to get a feel of a Windows 8 tablet. Not priced at a premium level around the ipad and decent spec android tablets.

I'd expect an x86 windows tablet (but not as powerful as the pro) for that kinda money.

I've not really seen the point of the RT, if you want something just for apps go android or ipad.
If you want it for office... oh yeah thats been released for android and ipad too.

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Originally Posted by Odeas

RT should be priced at what it is. A sub par device for people to get a feel of a Windows 8 tablet. Not priced at a premium level around the ipad and decent spec android tablets.

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It's not a great advert for Windows 8, not like a Nexus is for Android. Surface RT is too slow and lacks much of the traditional Windows trump card of compatibility.

The Pro is just a super-light ultrabook convertible, with the keyboard dock it can do all the same things... the battery life isn't great though. I was initially attracted by the stylus and speed but it was the realisation of how bad to use it'd be on the lap or without table that killed it for me and I'd much rather just have a nice ultrabook now.

I'd like a convertible with a keyboard dock containing extra battery (that's used first not second as some implementations) and maybe extra storage and ports. THe current ones are all too heavy as a package, I'm holding out hope for Silvermont devices.

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

Surface RT is too slow

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You used one? I mean they have sort of messed up the first few hours of use as it tries to download and install office in the background. But other than that I find it just as fast as my iPad (mk2) and certainly faster than my Nexus 7 (mk1).

The Surface RT really isn't a bad tablet (I'm one of the few who bought one). When you consider it comes with a full office licence, it's not even that bad value. The only annoying thing is the complete lack of apps/programmes available. I think that's probably why it hasn't sold.

Wait a little longer and I think the price will drop more, competition always helps us when it comes to price

Well if Flash worked on it correctly my company would be buying them to replace sales force users laptops & iPads. But most websites don't load correctly, and there doesn't seem to be another version of Flash I can install.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

You used one? I mean they have sort of messed up the first few hours of use as it tries to download and install office in the background. But other than that I find it just as fast as my iPad (mk2) and certainly faster than my Nexus 7 (mk1).

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I have, configured some stuff on someone else's and I'd describe it as 'usable' rather than impressive, I liked the design as 10" tablets go but didn't at all consider buying one despite the Office advantages. Whilst its CPU is better than an iPad 2 and its got more RAM the N7.1 so should be faster I thought overall loading and web performance was disappointing for the price. It should have been released closer to £300 including the keyboard, today's price is still to high with keyboard because the world has moved on since.

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Originally Posted by Rapp

Well if Flash worked on it correctly my company would be buying them to replace sales force users laptops & iPads. But most websites don't load correctly, and there doesn't seem to be another version of Flash I can install.

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Flash only works by default on the desktop. There are some registry settings you can tweak but since Mar they pushed an update and you don't need too.

I've found it works well with every flash site I've tried. I can try anything that's public on the web if you want me too.