News - Microsoft Surface RT prices slashed for schools and colleges

[HEXUS]

Base model to be available for $199, starting from next week.

Read more.

[crossy]

Is this them trying to clear stocks before a new model comes out?

That said, if they could do it (sans keyboard) for Joe Public at £199 then I'd be very interested. Was looking at one yesterday with my youngest, (she being a big fan of windows - both desktop and phone) and she was impressed with it, but really didn't like the keyboard/cover. Said it felt "creepy"

[M_Taylor40]

After reading up on this a bit more, I've very tempted.

It'll be around £160 for the 32GB RT w/o cover after you add on VAT and Shipping, £200 for one with the touch cover and £230 for one with the type cover.

Unfortunately that's the 32GB models, but as you can't install x86 apps surely you can't use up that much space.

One of my friends won a RT (Lucky...), so I'll ask him what he thinks of it now that he's had it for a few months. Only downsides I can see, which are personally just for me, are the lack of x86 apps, but then WUI apps are getting there or are already available for what I want/need, and the lack of stylus input.

I'd love a Surface Pro though, so hopefully they will include them at some point. Why do all companies add on £300 just so add a stylus?!

Just have to wait and see how I can order one of these through work.

[TheAnimus]

I'd love a Surface Pro though, so hopefully they will include them at some point. Why do all companies add on £300 just so add a stylus?!

I thought I was going to end up buying a Surface Pro. I found the Surface RT really useful as an Office / Note taking tablet. Something my iPad and Nexus7 could never come close too.

I found the touch keyboard also useful for short stints, being able to bluetooth or USB plug in any keyboard I have is really handy too.

Then I had a play with the Pro....

The Pro is a miss for me, its just too big, to heavy, with too short of a batterylife. I appreciate some of it will be due to the accurate wacom digitaliser (these things take power!) but on the whole its just too much compromise, 5/6 hours doesn't cut it. Then the weight. I could pack TWO of the new vaio pro 11s in that weight. Two! Not too mention they have much better battery life, going up to 25hours if I add more weight.

I think that if you draw penny arcade, it might be the best thing for you, but if you were thinking something that made 1 note better, whilst allowing me to do some viso, over just doing the regular code stuff, it is too much of a premium.

Hopefully they will have a haswell one round the corner, which could help fix the batterylife and weight issues a bit.

[M_Taylor40]

I'd only use the stylus for note taking, so I wouldn't have to carry an A4 notepad around.

We bought an Acer W510 Win 8 tablet at work, it works fine with a standard capacitive stylus, but I have a habit of resting my wrist on whatever I'm writing on, which just ends up making a mess in OneNote or making the tablet go crazy.

Battery life and weight aren't a huge concern, as I don't do long periods of travelling, so as long as I could hit the 6 hours between charge that would be fine, obviously prefer more but it's not a deal breaker. Same with the weight, won't be carrying it 24/7, and it'll be replacing my work laptop (Asus X401 I think) which is double the weight of the Surface RT/Pros!

I'd really use it to browse the Internet, send/receive emails, usual tablet content consumption, but then with the added benefit of Office.

@TheAnimus - Do you use yours with a stylus very often or is it just the odd bit of note taking? I'm very tempted to buy it with the touch cover, or even the type depending on final figures, which really will reduce the need of a stylus if I'm sat at a desk.

From what I've been reading, the Targus 2-in-1 Pen/Stylus works well with the RT, but then I'm sure it will work the same as all other capacitive styli. Think I may have to just learn to stop leaning my wrist on everything lol!

[TheAnimus]

Well I had a proper tablet PC when I was in uni. I could never use one note without resting my arm on the screen, so I simply don't do anything on one note that would need a digitiser.

The other issue is, I buy A3 ringbound paper that is ment for 'artists' or some such, from my local shop, its about 20p a sheet and I buy it in packs of 50. Using a bunch of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is just a much better colabarative experiance than trying to huddle over 10 inches!

Given that for most of these things, a quick photo from my phone is more than enough (lumia 920 does great low light images thanks to its image stablisation).

Which ultimately is why I don't think I would benefit from it.

I will say, I think the touch cover is ace. I can happily type a 600+ word response without wanting to through the thing out the window (hi iPad).

[M_Taylor40]

I won't be using it for collaborative work, just for personal use. The note taking is for college instead of carrying A4 notebooks around and the odd scribbled notes from work.

Thinking about it realistically, I probably wouldn't use the stylus that often if I had a keyboard/cover, so a capacitive one would work ok for the odd times of use. To be honest, it's probably for the best if I use the keyboard with the state of my hand writing...

You're just teasing me now with your Lumia 920! I'm still using my Dell Venue Pro with WP7.8 which is still going strong after about 26 months of use. Every so often I'm having reception issues but I think that's more Vodafone than my phone. Tempted by the Lumia 925 but I think I'd miss the physical keyboard from my DVP as I mainly text/email. Trying to hold out until it completely dies then upgrade to the newest Windows Phone, hopefully something quad-core with 1080p screen.

I can see me buying a 32GB RT with Touch Cover when the offer starts, well actually I'll wait until around 26th-28th to see what's going on at Build, you just know that if I buy on the 1st day of the offer they will announce a new, cheaper model with Stylus at Build lol.

[miniyazz]

Surely you can disable the touchscreen to hands while using the stylus? I can do that on my note 2 so I can lean on the screen to my heart's content

[M_Taylor40]

Surely you can disable the touchscreen to hands while using the stylus? I can do that on my note 2 so I can lean on the screen to my heart's content

Not on the Surface RT or any other tablets that don't use a proper digitiser and just capacitive pens, as the pen just acts like a finger.

The Note 2 uses Samsungs S-Pen technology, which is basically there own brand of a digitiser. I've looked at the Samsung ATIV Smart PC as it's running Windows 8 on an Intel Atom Z2670 (Same insides as the Acer W510) but includes the S-Pen technology but they retail between £800-1000! For that price I'd be able to buy a Surface Pro running a Core i5!

There's a few tablet's that turn of touch screen input when using the stylus, but they just add on such a ridiculous amount to the price which I'm not willing to pay.

I'm going to wait for Build, see what MS announce about the reduction of OEM licensing for <11" tablets as well as any new products and decide from that. If I can get an RT for £200 but miss out on the stylus, or pay £600 to get a tablet with a stylus, I know what will win lol. But if they announce Atom Bay-Trail based Windows 8.1 tablets with Styli for around £400 at Build, I think I'll wait for one of those.

[nacasatu]

Wish they would extend this to parents who homeschool their kids, I know my two would benefit greatly from having one.

Some hope of that though.

[TheAnimus]

Well they have to draw the line some place, making that something the government has classified as a school is a very handy way of doing that!

[The Hand]

If they applied this price cut across the board (for consumer and business),I for one would certainly get one. With Ipad 5/Next Nexus 7 coming, it may still be a possibility.
I notice the Blackberry Playbook has faded from view. PC World/Currys don't stock it anymore found the 16GB version on play.com for £90. I wonder if a new playbook is coming.

[crossy]

I notice the Blackberry Playbook has faded from view. PC World/Currys don't stock it anymore found the 16GB version on play.com for £90. I wonder if a new playbook is coming.

According to the lass I spoke to in PCW the deals on the Playbook were purely to dump a discontinued product. And I can't really see Blackberry doing another one - the competition's too fierce.

[vinnyT]

Not having seen one close up I can't really say one way or the other, but I've had my ipad now for just over a year now and don't think there has been a day that I havn't used it, so either the pro or the xt would have to be really special to replace it. Sure the ipad may have been more expensive, but I feel it is worth it (until the ipad I have not owned an Apple product and never figured I would be an Apple fanboy, go figure:-)