Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Is Now Selling a Surface Laptop With An Intel Core m3 Processor For $799 (windowscentral.com)
Microsoft has begun offering a lower specced Surface laptop running Windows 10 S and an Intel Core m3 processor. It's priced at $799, compared to the standard model's $999 price, and is only available in the platinum color configuration. Windows Central reports: The Intel Core m3 spec is paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB Storage. This is definitely not a high-end model of the Surface Laptop, but it's still a premium one, with the same Alcantara fabric and high-quality display found on other Surface Laptop SKUs. Microsoft offers an Intel Core m3 model of the Surface Pro priced at $799 also, however that SKU doesn't come bundled with a keyboard or pen. At least with the Surface Laptop, you're getting a keyboard and trackpad in the box, so perhaps the Intel Core m3 Laptop is going to be the better choice for many. If you're looking for a straight laptop by Microsoft, that is. Some other specs include a 2256 x 1504 resolution display, Intel HD graphics 615, 720p webcam with Windows Hello face-authentication, Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Audio Premium, one full-size USB 3.0 port, Mini DisplayPort, headphone jack and Surface Connect port. The device measures in a 12.13 inches x 8.79 inches x 0.57 inches and weighs 2.76 pounds.
...the freezer is built-in.
Aren't m3's terrible CPUs? This looks like a complete ripoff when you can buy similarly spec'd laptops for less than 500.
09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0
What's the cost to upgrade to actual Windows 10? 90% of the programs people still use on Windows won't run on the S.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Shit hardware with premium price tag. Who do they think in Redmond they are? Apple?
advertising space to Microsoft!
Definitely not a high end model [...] but it's still a premium one
What is with these retarded journalists these days?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have backups to corrupt.
Does it run (can it be made to run) GNU/Linux? No? Then it's a piece of shit.
But... Does it run Linux?
What is the point? That Surface laptop is priced similarly to the entry level Surface Pro, but without any of the advantages. Is a traditional keyboard worth giving up the versatility of the Surface platform?
Seriously, folks, Microsoft is a software company, not a hardware company. They're not set up to design hardware. The Surface is really terrible as the NFL will gladly tell you. I wouldn't pay 799.00 for that, maybe around 250.00-275.00. Microsoft is trying to be all things technology to all people and not doing a particularly good job of it. I believe it is almost better to focus on a core competency or two or three and run with that. Microsoft is almost the Siemens of the United States: they do a lot of things but not one thing particularly well.
lol u r ghey
Is this a Intel or Microsoft AD?
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Get back to me when the surface isn't garbage and Windows 10 S isn't garbage.
The problem for Microsoft is that, even though they *arguably* invented the segment, they're now getting squeezed out between the cheapo tablets that'll run real Windows, and the premium, enterprise-class Surface Pro killers from folks like Dell, Lenovo, and HP that are more powerful, modular, and secure. E.g., I have the latest HP X2 Elite G2 which fully loaded costs about what a top of the line Surface Pro 4 runs, but it's got 4G LTE, 16 GB of RAM, a high-end mobile i7 chip, a 1 TB SSD, and runs all of the above for about 10 hours on a single charge as well as just about any desktop I've ever owned. Someone else said it -- they're a software company, and three generations in, they're getting beaten by the real PC hardware companies.
I was shocked at just how bad the performance of a relatively high-spec'd machine was, and all I was doing was adding a VPN configuration for it. I can't imagine making the performance WORSE!
The classic argument on why an iPad makes a better tablet seems to apply. It reminds me of the first time I considered buying a Fujitsu ultralight notebook. Looks great, really light, crappy battery life, and extremely slow. Add in the fact that you have to buy desktop/laptop software licenses, and they really become a bad investment quickly.
What am I missing here?
I think the true test of this product will be whether they think that WiFi is a printer. There probably won't be any plugs. The Goog might need to be the Drive standard. This prod is SSD.
cause I don't want it if you can't....
Does it come preloaded with Meltdown?
The real question is "so?"
With tablets running iOS Android and Chrome, who really cares?
How many M$ fanbois are stupid enough to buy a Windows tablet from Microsoft?
Nokia, anyone?
The first gen of Intel's M processors was crippled in that they would only turbo boost when running on a single core. When using both cores, they were limited to their base clock speed. Since their base clock speed was 800 MHz - 1.1 GHz (turbo boosting to 2 - 2.9 GHz), this completely crippled their performance.
Subsequent generations (the m3, m5, m7 series) can turbo boost on both cores. Their performance is primarily limited by thermal throttling (since they're often used in fanless systems). Couple that with them coming with 4 MB of L3 cache as standard, vs only 3 MB for many i3 and i5 processors, and for short tasks (where they don't hit their thermal throttling limit) they can actually be faster than a dual core i5, clock for clock.
You don't want to use them to encode videos or compiling large projects or doing massive amounts of number crunching. But for bursty loads like web browsing and office tasks, they are quite good processors.
I bought my niece a hundred dollar android tablet with all the features expect. Seven hundred? Joke.
That's the only reason I can see them putting 10 S on the damn thing. The price is bad (I got a i7 HQ 4C/8T w/ 8 gigs of RAM for $650), but that's probably appropriate pricing for the business segment.
In 2018, I don't know how people are defending a gimped CPU like this in any "premium" notebook?
The fact it's "excellent for mobile tasks that don't require much computing power" means you're lumping it in with the ARM processors in Apple's iPads, among other things. They're great for watching videos and web surfing, or running basic Office apps too.
From what I've seen, Windows can bog down a CPU pretty seriously just doing its OWN software updates! I feel the sluggishness on any Core i3 laptop as opposed to bumping a similarly spec'd one up to a Core i5 processor. So the Core m is a step below that, essentially.
I saw the hype about these new, lower MS Surface prices on C-Net news this morning, and thought that was a good thing until I saw they just used the Core m CPU as the way to achieve it. That's nothing special. Just offering a lower tier than ever before for the machine.
Wow congratulations on using a task that a computer from the NINETEEN SIXTIES can handle without issue.
Does it have wireless? And how about the storage space?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Why is SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), not model, part or item name being used in so many articles now?
How old is your i3? Early i3's were dual thread processors. The Core M3 is hyper threaded for four simultaneous threads, apparently has a higher cache.
While an M3 can't compete withthe performance of a current generation i5, it likely compares to the earliest i5 processors in laptops.
The M3 is no slouch, and I haven't noticed any slowdown, aside from gaming. Its more than enough for the Surface Pro 4 for my day to day use.
That said, not sure what the target market is for this laptop.
Windows can bog down a CPU pretty seriously just doing its OWN software updates!
They seem to have a serious problem with setting process CPU and I/O priority. It should be possible to prioritize everything above maintenance tasks, so that you never even feel it.
The Surface Laptop soured my mom on any microsoft laptops. That thing was impossible to open with one hand. How can you get the user experience so wrong on something so fundamental?