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Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2: Now With New Kickstand!
UnknowingFool writes "For consumers who had hoped that Microsoft would greatly upgrade their recent entries into the tablet market, leaks and rumors have said that both machines will receive modest hardware changes. Surface Pro 2 will sport new Haswell processors which will increase battery life to 7 hours. RAM is expected to increase from 4GB to 8GB. Surface (formerly RT) will get Tegra 4 processors. The only other confirmed change will be new kickstands that have 2 positions instead of one."
Kickstands!!
So, it has come to this.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
I feel these manufactures are moving backwards. I don't want a small tablet, I would much prefer something more usable with a 15" or 17" screen. These things are just too small to really be useful.
another billion dollars into the drain.. oh wait now they have a new devices guy onboard with proven track record so it'll be 3 billion down the drain.
also: why the fuck would any other manufacturer get on-board botched-windows-on-arm rt? am I rt?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Are they just trying to see how tall they can make a mountain of unsold Surfaces?
Is it still going to cost as much as a 10" Android tablet AND a low-end laptop, while offering neither the portability of the first nor the big screen and hard drive of the second?
Yeah, I think I hear another billion dollar write-off coming...
0 1 - just my two bits
Notebook and tablet. Hello Surface Pro 2.
Can't wait.
If they want something that wins Sell me the 2560 x 1600 screen I want. SOLD. We need two. The google pixel cost too much for what or I'd have that.
Holy crap ... a kickstand with 2 positions.
Now that is innovation and market leadership.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No, no, it makes sense. If Microsoft can just get to version 4, then they'll start to have a halfway decent product. Of course, somewhere around version 6, it'll become a bloated piece of crap. Then around version 8, they'll force 'features' down your throat that you don't want.
That's how it always works.
hey, honey, I'm taking down the retirement account and getting me two of them Surface 2s with the high-wattage kickstand! it has TWO positions! AND they have Windows 8.1 with the start button!
.
.
.
why are you packing everything? oh, it's only my stuff?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I thought the Surface v1 kickstand already had two positions: opened and closed ? Wasn't it working as advertized ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
I want a _Surface_Tablet_ because ________.
Examples, leaving iPad's out:
I want _a_Tivo_ because _I_don't_like_my_Cable_DVR_.
I want a _Honda_ because _I_trust_the_brand_based_on_past_experience_.
My point is that the Surface doesn't fit anything for me.
Based on Microsoft's own site http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/surface-with-windows-8-pro/
Microsoft believes our answers are :
I want a _Surface_Tablet_ because _I_Need_Office_on_a_tablet_.
I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_a_neat_keyboard_on_a_tablet_.
I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_USB_Port_.
I'm not the target market, but I don't know who is?
The more interesting question is where is the graveyard holding millions of unsold original Surface tablets? Were they dismantled in Asia? Were they buried next to ET? Were they lost in a warehouse and locked up only to be discovered in 2021? Have they been lost at sea along with the cargo ship necessary to hold them all?
I find this question far more interesting than a new kickstand on a product that has failed before ever getting released.
At a good price MS would have this won. The luxury old Apple like price point is just not working.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
As you run up to kick the thing from 25 yards?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Then again, it's not difficult to get confused about an MS product lineup these days. So do I understand that Surface RT is now just called Surface or Surface Pro while they then have the Surface Pro 2? Having Surface RT in the mix was confusing enough, but at least the RT implied something was different. Now they're both called Surface, dropping the RT on the ARM model? Huh? I can see this resulting in a lot of returns when people realize they purchased the wrong model the hard way. Or few returns since they aren't exactly selling. Did I RTFA too fast and miss something or what?
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
The community here is doing a good job of driving me away from Slashdot as a source for tech news. Every single story that mentions Microsoft turns into a circle jerk bashing the company. Few here seem capable of having a mature discussion about the topic with the level of cynicism going beyond any sense of reason. What makes anything Microsoft is doing inherently inferior to Google, Apple or Sony? Excluding, of course, the fact that Microsoft remains the company it's cool to hate. Nevermind everything they've enabled over the last few decades.
It's one thing when the topic specifically discusses Microsoft's missteps, but this is getting ridiculous.
More RAM and a better processor, which entails almost every single hardware update ever, for some reason paints a lackluster picture when Microsoft is behind it. Other than the stupid decision Microsoft made in offering the Surface RT, there was nothing wrong with the hardware. I'd be more concerned if they went with a totally new form factor.
And what's with the fixation on the new kickstand? It looks to me like tech specs were leaked and some internet twat specifically brought up the kickstand to turn the news into yet another anti-Microsoft joke. They don't even know what the kickstand improvements entail, but that's what this writer chose to emphasize.
The ironic thing here is that Infoworld even listed that kickstand as one of the 10 things Microsoft needed to improve. Microsoft has done so and now they're bashing them for it. But some of the stuff they're complaining about seems unreasonable because they tolerate worse from Apple. I don't think I've ever seen a single person complain about Apple charging $40 for a rubber cover embedded with a few magnets. Not to say I don't think the Surface Pro isn't expensive, but it's also far closer to being a proper laptop than the iPad.
I am currently in Malaysia for business, Kuala Lumpur.
Had planned to take a new tablet back; not for major work but minor stuff, reading mail, light gaming, when on the road.
KL is a good place for such things.
Saw a really beautiful RT. Sorry, I am a Linux person, an MS-hater, but it looked good to me. Smooth, bright. Nice keyboard. Nice build-quality. RM 1099. Could fit my bill. Nice to touch as well. Next to it a Surface. To me as a non-Windows person, the same as the RT (I know, I know, I know the difference). RM 2700. On the next table an Asus Fonepad. RM 749. I know, I know, this is different. 7" instead of 10" or whatnot. But also great build-quality.
I went out with the Fonepad. No, not a single sen comes my way for this comment. However, I do think that this is what the current market is all about. Most customers with a limited budget will do likewise, as long as a tablet is not a full replacement for a desktop. And since the tablet market is not a market like Office Suite with MS having a stranglehold, MS is pretty much "cooked" as the French say.
Microsoft "gave" me a Surface Pro a while back and it's actually a decent device, I use it a lot as a replacement for my old netbook, but it's not really a tablet so much as a new netbook with touch. The RT ... I am amazed anyone thought anything about that was a good idea. As far as I can see the RT is completely full of fail whereas the Pro is merely a bit overpriced.
I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_a_neat_keyboard_on_a_tablet_.
I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_USB_Port_.
Except I got an ASUS Transformer with both of those for half the price.
Like anything else, I'm going to give Microsoft a pass on their tech until there are a few more iterations and improvements on their products. Don't feel like paying for a 'guinea' pig product.
I want a _Surface_Tablet_ because _I_Need_Office_on_a_tablet_. I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_a_neat_keyboard_on_a_tablet_. I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_USB_Port_.
You missed a few of the marketing points:
I want a _Surface_Tablet_ because _I_Need_Performance_ -- Windows based tablets, from Microsoft or otherwise, come with vastly more powerful hardware compared to *any* Android or iOS based tablet. Aside from the obvious i5, Windows based tablets typically come paired with a full SSD instead of cheap eMMC storage. For anyone who doesn't understand what this means, typically you'll see 10x better transfer rates on the Surface Pro compared to a tablet like the 4th gen iPad.
I want a _Surface_Tablet_ because _I_Need_An_Active_Digitizer_ -- Almost all x86 Windows tablets come with an active digitizer, and so do many ARM based tablets. Apple offers exactly zero options for this, and the options on Android are few and far between. Also, Android cannot compete with Microsoft's handwriting recognition software, as it's easily best in the industry and probably won't be beat in a long time (I'm familiar with the machine learning approaches they are using). Windwos also has the software to match which is adequate for professional artists and yes, usable in tablet mode despite being x86 applications.
I want a _Surface_Table_ because _I_need_Ports_ -- Not just a USB port, but HDMI, full size USB 3, SD, and sometimes all three at the same time. A dongle system like the iPad has doesn't work for me. Some Android tablets have these features, but what's even more important is what the OS can handle with them. Surface turns into a full desktop system with full desktop apps and a full desktop OS when plugged in to KVM. Android tablets remain primarily touch-based shoehorned with some keyboard and mouse functionality.
As one of the few Surface owners, I can say on a general level the hardware is solid but the software makes me want to start straggling some UI designers.
Issues:
* on screen keyboard is overlay, so some applications you can't see what you're typing.
* some basic functions (ie. sleep timer) is on the Desktop interface, which makes no sense since MSFT is trying to push the Modern Interface. Plus, Desktop interface is a pain to use on a touchscreen
* "Home" button is capacitive touch and if you use it in portrait mode you'll hit it accidentally very very often
* factory reset takes 2 hours to complete. And then another hour or so to "update" the laptop. Makes me miss Apple's OTA updates.
* to close an Internet Explorer (in Modern), sometimes its swipe up, click on the tab's "x", which switches the active tab to another tab, click "x" on that tab again. Other times its single click on the tab's "x" you want to close. No very consistent
* on-screen keyboard pops always pop up when you want it, like when filling in text fields on a web page
Calling two very different products by the same name is incredibly stupid and confusing, and dropping "RT" does nothing to address the issue. Apple makes it almost impossible to confuse their Mac and iOS products, MS deserves to be bashed for failing to do so even on their second attempt. And the Windows 8/8.1 "F*ck U, no Start menu" debacle has hardly earned them any good will.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Im not clear why theyre not selling. I dont particularly need one (the touchscreen would be of no use to me, and the form factor only marginally so), but my experience with them in the store was that the pros were solid. Certainly the folks at Penny Arcade gave a glowing review of the pro, and IIRC the newer comics are being done on it due to its excellent built in wacom.
Is it just the price point? $800 for an ultra-bookish laptop with an incredible touch screen seems pretty competitive to me....
Microsoft has fallen prey to it's own most powerful weapon - platform lockin - it's just this time the platform isn't owned by them. It's owned by Apple (and increasingly Google).
Are the Redmond guys as dumb as they look, or did they not get the idea that Windows8 and Metro was in a seriously hampered position without the PC software chain behind it? ANd then they go cripping their existing desktop monopoly (and the Surface Pro) by forcing Metro on those, too.
The hubris smells from hundreds of miles away.
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