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Microsoft Ships Surface Pro 2 Tablets With Wrong, Slower Processor

Posted by Unknown on from the get-what-you-paid-for? dept.

SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 2 tablet in October 2013 with several hardware upgrades, like the new 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U processor specifically optimized for longer battery life and increased performance. Three months later, Microsoft decided to upgrade the CPU with a 1.9GHz Core i5-4300U unit that would be capable of taking these improvements even further. Although Redmond kept quiet about the improvement, tech savvy buyers were aware of the change. Now, according to some new reports, it seems that the company is still shipping the old models to buyers, despite the fact that Microsoft promised to deliver only upgraded models featuring the new CPU."

26 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Suburb half to blame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently Microsoft is just as much to blame as the suburb of Redmond.

  2. You've Been BALLMERED! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thanks for playing! Enjoy the improved experience Windows 8.1 offers, over the competition!

    And don't forget to come back in 16 months. Sanjay promises to BALLMER you harder!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
    1. Re:You've Been BALLMERED! by steelfood · · Score: 2

      No chairs were harmed in the act.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    2. Re:You've Been BALLMERED! by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Funny

      16 months, you say? that's about how long it will take to install this version of win 8.1:

      http://blog.dk.sg/wp-content/u...

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  3. Perhaps they are leftovers from old production by NixieBunny · · Score: 2

    Don't these things sell a bit more slowly than MS predicts?

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
    1. Re:Perhaps they are leftovers from old production by tlambert · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't these things sell a bit more slowly than MS predicts?

      Not when Microsoft buys them from the vendors themselves, and then warehouses them. The problem is that old stock is removed from the front, and new stock is loaded in at the back, so unless they hit their predicted sales numbers, you get the older stock.

      Microsoft just promised that they would ship (eventually); the only date involved is the date they made the promise, not a dealine by which the new stuff would be shipping exclusive of the old stuff, and certainly not the unsold stuff already in the channel.

      What we have here is the use of an ambiguous generational designator that has nothing to do with the clock speed, and a journalist suffering sour grapes over not getting the faster model that has exactly the same description.

    2. Re:Perhaps they are leftovers from old production by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I RTFA, and aside from sales people on the phone quoting the wrong processor, I didn't see anything that indicated a "deadline" for shipping only the new one. The story isn't about something like MS promising the newer processer and not delivering, but a call center person making an error in confirming a specification. There is a difference in intent and action, even if not much difference legally.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    3. Re:Perhaps they are leftovers from old production by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Microsoft just promised that they would ship (eventually); the only date involved is the date they made the promise, not a dealine by which the new stuff would be shipping exclusive of the old stuff, and certainly not the unsold stuff already in the channel.

      False. RTFA, which you clearly did not do.

      Actually, the previous poster was right. Microsoft has never publicly announced that they were shipping the new processor. What happened is that the article writer called a customer rep who said that they would get the new processor. The customer reps may have been told that the new processor was coming and made assumptions. Its still on Microsoft as they obviously dropped the ball in clarifying the situation with the customer reps. But that doesn't make the previous poster wrong.

      All of the articles I can find on the topic indicate the same thing. There was no official announcement by Microsoft. Someone leaked the information to the standard tech magazines and the rest has been speculation, rather than fact.

  4. I Predict by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Surface tablets will end up in the same place as all those old Atari E.T. game cartridges.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:I Predict by EvolutionInAction · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I doubt it. A lot of people probably don't have a use for a surface, but I find that a tablet/laptop hybrid was exactly what I needed. 95% of the time all I want is to be able to read documents, but that other 5% of the time I really need to use office, or would quite like to play a game. Windows 8 actually works reasonably well on it, which shouldn't be a surprise - it's pretty obvious that it was designed around the surface. The price point isn't sustainable but if they fix that, I see no reason that the Surface line can't stick around for quite a while.

    2. Re:I Predict by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yup, the Surface hardware is actually quite good, best hybrid currently available ... sadly Windows is Windows ... but, installing Ubuntu on these is trivially easy, and all of the 'touch' stuff 'just works', no need to find weird drivers, etc. I have an original SurfacePro, and it has proven to be a very useful machine - much more useful for 'real' work than any tablet, whether Android or IOS ... you can even put Android X86 on it, but it's not clear why you'd want to ...

    3. Re:I Predict by redback · · Score: 2

      For the surface to take off they need to do 2 things.

      1. stop restricting which retailers can sell the device.

      2. Let said retailers make a profit.

      1. Is mostly done, but 2 keeps us from stocking them ($20-$50 markup in a top end surface)

  5. clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article explicitly says Microsoft store and site makes no such promise of an upgraded processor, all they is one report from a user that supposedly got told from someone in Microsoft that if they ordered they would get a newer processor (despite the website making no such promise). Why is this even a story?

    1. Re:clickbait by msobkow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because you're supposed to froth at the mouth about Microsquishy instead of learning the facts.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    2. Re:clickbait by bloodhawk · · Score: 2, Informative

      unless the actual source is provided that made said promise and it was someone that you would expect to be able to make such a promise then yes the facts pretty much say the story shouldn't be believed as all the verifiable facts contradict it.

  6. Smart move, by Antony+T+Curtis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lets face it: They're probably sitting on a huge amount of old inventory and for every 1 semi-tech savvy customer who specifically wants the faster CPU version, there will be 1000 customers who wouldn't know the CPU from their elbow.

    --
    No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
  7. Not news by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Customer buys Microsoft product. Gets less that they were led to expect. Customer buys another Microsoft product, gets screwed again.

    Sounds like their core business plan. Nothing to see here, move along.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Not news by HerculesMO · · Score: 2, Informative

      While it's always entertaining to read the same tired MS bashing, I got my wife the Surface Pro 2 for her work, and she loves it. It's an amazing machine, well built, great display, and has a wacom digitizer for her to take notes with. For $1000? Name me another product as versatile and portable. There isn't one. For all the MS hate, Windows 8 boots in 10 seconds from cold and it runs all the apps she needs or could need.

      The alternative was an iPad, but realistically to me it didn't make any sense because a lot of apps she needed were Windows centric or needed plugins, etc.

      For the right market it's a great product, and I think I got exactly what I paid for... an ultraportable that doubles as a tablet, and laptop in one.

      --
      The price is always right if someone else is paying.
    2. Re:Not news by symbolset · · Score: 2

      You forgot to say how you make $2300/wk working from home with this one weird trick

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
  8. Not a big problem by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Both Surface customers have been notified and the situation is under control.

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    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  9. When will Microsoft Retire RT? by Mr_Wisenheimer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Surface Pro is a great computer, basically a high end ultrabook in tablet form. Thanks to advances by Intel, this makes Windows 8.1 tablets available in almost every price range, and with the same battery life as an iPad, often at a cheaper price point if they are using the new Atom netbook processors rather than the high end ultrabook core processors like the Surface does.

    Given these developments, Windows RT tablets seem about as useful as Microsoft Bob. On the high end, they cannot compete with their own Windows x64 tablets. On the low end, they are too pricey and with too small of an app store to compete with Android. Also, the fact that the two tablet series carry similar names just drags down the market potential of the x64 Surface line and confuses consumers.

    It's time for Microsoft to take Surface RT, roll it into Windows Phone, and get out of the ARM tablet business. Let Apple and Android fight over the toy tablet market. Pulling stunts like shipping older CPU's in new products without telling anyone is just going to hurt Microsoft's business in the long run. A $350 tablet that can run Windows desktop apps is a potential money maker. A $400 Surface RT tablet that can run Office, browse the web, and do little else offers nothing over Android or iOS.

    1. Re:When will Microsoft Retire RT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have a Surface pro 2. I can tell you it's a terrible computer. It tries to do two things and fails at both. As a tablet it's too heavy and bulky -- it has a fan! When's the last time your tablet starting blowing heat at you when playing a movie?

      So then you try to use it as a computer. Well, you can't on your lap really because of the floppy keyboard. Plus the trackpad is a joke so you have to plug in a mouse. You fire up the Desktop -- and usability goes into the toilet because either sh*t is minuscule on the 10" screen, or it's altogether fuzzy because the software hasn't been adapted to high DPI. The whole software system feels bonky, rough, un-thought-through.

      Oh and of course if you make the mistake of hitting the windows key you get a circus screen of flashing tiles all blaring at you with news and "friends" and stocks and weather and ads -- just because you wanted to start a program.

      Ultrabooks, thank goodness, have at least 11" screens but usually at least 13".

    2. Re:When will Microsoft Retire RT? by Mr_Wisenheimer · · Score: 2

      Windows OS has been on tablets since Microsoft introduced XP Tablet Edition back in 2002. It's not exactly a new phenomena. Windows RT (which is a half a decade too late getting to the market), which runs on low end ARM tablets is the new phenomena. From everything I have seen, it is at least as secure as iOS or stock Android.

      It's problem is simply that it got to the market too late to beat Apple and Android to the punch and only about a year before Intel introduced low-powered Atom and Core processors that could compete with ARM processors in battery life. When an Atom mini-tablet starts at $350 and can run tens of thousands of existing desktop applications (even if most of them are not optimized for a tablet) and when the Android app store is huge while Windows RT is tiny, it just is hard to justify why anyone would want a second-generation RT tablet.

    3. Re:When will Microsoft Retire RT? by ericloewe · · Score: 2

      What are you talking about?

      All versions support all APIs. That means Windows RT supports Win32 (in fact, the WinRT API is just a fancy Win32 wrapper) and x86/x64 support WinRT.
      WinRT apps are only distributed through the store, while Win32 applictions are distributed like they've always been. The only exception is that Windows RT refuses to run unsigned Win32 applications, effectively limiting it to Microsoft's bundled stuff, like Office and IE.

    4. Re:When will Microsoft Retire RT? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      Well, a small difference in weight (1.9 lbs vs 1.5 lbs) is a lot when you have to hold something in your hands for a long time. After 4 years, the heaviest iPads are 1lb with some models less than 1lb.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  10. Terrible news.. by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft Ships Surface Pro 2 Tablets With Wrong, Slower Processor

    Tablets? They sold 2 of them?