Microsoft Surface 'Power Cover' to Pack Integrated Battery

[JMcEntegart]

Word on the street is that the next Surface cover will also charge your tablet.

Microsoft Surface 'Power Cover' to Pack Integrated Battery : Read more

 

[ingtar33]

more well designed junk. i have to admit the hardware in those surface tablets is impressive. However, as long as they run win8 they are and will remain basically junk.

 

[wemakeourfuture]

ingtar33

more well designed junk. i have to admit the hardware in those surface tablets is impressive. However, as long as they run win8 they are and will remain basically junk.

Problem is not the OS on Surface Tablets, its Price, Price, Price. They way over priced their devices compared to Android and iOS and have suffered the failure many expected as myself.

Do you want them to put XP, Vista or Windows 7 on their touch tablets instead of Windows 8? You gotta be crazy

 

[warmon6]

So, MS is taking a page off of Asus Transformer/VivoTab tablets....

 

[pbrigido]

I love my Surface Pro. Don't compare this with a tablet, because it is more of a laptop with a removable keyboard. Compare it to other pieces of hardware with similar specs, and you'll find the price to be right on par.

I probably won't upgrade when the successor comes out...maybe the generation after that though I'll pull the trigger.

 

[universal remonster]

more well designed junk. i have to admit the hardware in those surface tablets is impressive. However, as long as they run win8 they are and will remain basically junk.

Baaaahh mmmBaa a a ahh Baaa ahh.

Get back in line with the rest of the sheep and discuss how GREAT of a touch experience Surface would have been with Win 7. Now THAT would be a dream machine am I right?? Sorry that it takes more than 6 minutes in a Best Buy to figure things out, or maybe it's your non-conductive sheep hoof that's giving you troubles navigating the device. The rest of us Surface Pro users can all see that in a tablet environment, Win 8 works great.

 

[stevejnb]

more well designed junk. i have to admit the hardware in those surface tablets is impressive. However, as long as they run win8 they are and will remain basically junk.

This is why I have trouble taking a good portion of the Windows 8 hatred seriously. Where I can totally understand that it's not ideal for a lot of scenarios (businesses, non-touch screen devices) and that a lot of people simply don't want to deal with the hassle of learning its new interface, when you have people who come in and blindly declare a device junk when the device was almost designed from the ground up for Windows 8 and would benefit significantly from having it on there, you know that it really is utterly blind hatred. I swear some of you come into forums like this and say "Ok, what's it cool to dislike today?" without having a clue what the hated device is actually like.

Seeing as the Surface Pro's biggest weakness is probably its battery life - and, arguably, price point, though I think it's inching towards the right ballpark here - this is not a bad device advancement in itself. That being said, for those who have already forked out the $100+ for a touch/type cover, the idea of getting another keyboard will rankle. The keyboard covers are overpriced to begin with - seriously, Bluetooth keyboards cost about half as much and many of them work far better than the touch cover - and if MS is going to pull an Apple and release an update every year or two on horribly overpriced hardware, it won't do anything more than hurt their already lacklustre sales. Get it through your head MS - you are NOT Apple, and cannot push your weight around like they can. Your devices may be good, but they are NOT "cool" and don't command the must-have muscle that Apple products do.

 

[gfontana1986]

Sounds interesting, worth checking into...

 

[back_by_demand]

A lot of big ifs here, but if the new Surface Pro 2 has 7 hours+ of battery and this cover can give another 7 hours, you just created an instant market leader

 

[d_kuhn]

I've got a Surface Pro, I think it's a great machine and if they were a bit cheaper I think they'd sell well. Win8 is not a perfect tablet os by any means but it's a whole lot better than any of the other windows operating systems. I also have an iPad and while the Surface Pro is a LOT more useful (iPad isn't used much anymore), they have a bit of work to do before the user experience matches the iOS machines.

 

[w8gaming]

Seeing as the Surface Pro's biggest weakness is probably its battery life - and, arguably, price point, though I think it's inching towards the right ballpark here - this is not a bad device advancement in itself. That being said, for those who have already forked out the $100+ for a touch/type cover, the idea of getting another keyboard will rankle. The keyboard covers are overpriced to begin with - seriously, Bluetooth keyboards cost about half as much and many of them work far better than the touch cover - and if MS is going to pull an Apple and release an update every year or two on horribly overpriced hardware, it won't do anything more than hurt their already lacklustre sales. Get it through your head MS - you are NOT Apple, and cannot push your weight around like they can. Your devices may be good, but they are NOT "cool" and don't command the must-have muscle that Apple products do.

The problem with MS is they do not seem to know what they really want to achieve. If they are really interested to become a "device" company, then they better hurry up and release hardware at faster pace. For a late comer that has little market share, they cannot hope to be like Apple and release one or two product in a year and hope for the best. They need to be more like Samsung to swarm the market with various devices and see which one sticks. Or if they are not really interested to be a dominant hardware vendor, then they should have made it clear that they are not interested to become a "device" company, but are only making hardware to showcase what W8 machine should be like, control the number of units produced and not making too many that they cannot sell and have to be written off. I really do not think MS at the moment knows how to run a successful hardware business.

 

[back_by_demand]

"They need to be more like Samsung to swarm the market with various devices and see which one sticks"

 

[back_by_demand]

"They need to be more like Samsung to swarm the market with various devices and see which one sticks"

The only problem with that is that they will piss off the OEMs that sell Windows machines and they will jump ship wholesale to Android, but if you sell a single unit of a certain spec then people will either buy a Windows machine or they won't. If they buy a Windows machine then if they buy a Surface then fine, if they buy an Acer, Samsung, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, etcetcetc then they will still get capitalisation of OS and the appropriate license fees. Sales of Surface may be low, but how many "Windows" tablets of any manufacturer have been sold and this will give a more accurate reflection of market penetration. Same applies to Android, people are not working on a level playing field when they say "Android" it appears they only refer to total numbers as some sort of generic manufacturer, but really they should break those numbers down to how many were made by Samsung, Acer, etc - then you will see how "bad" Microsoft sales of Surface are rather than poking fun at low figures taken totally out of context. It is an excellent piece of engineering and is well worth the money, but bad marketing and not a small amount of the "black arts" from competitors has blown any negative points way out of proportion.

 

[teh_chem]

I sincerely hope MS ditches the dumb kickstand design, and implements proper keyboard/battery docks in their next design.

The kickstand is useful for only a single situation (sitting it on a solid, flat platform, not going anywhere), whereas tablets were designed to be used wherever/whenever, as more of a portable device. Make a proper keyboard/battery dock--leave the kickstand if you want--but don't make some flaccid, magnet-attached keyboard/battery cover. A proper dock, with a proper hardware docking connector, and allow the device to be used more like an actual laptop. TBH, this is one of the major reasons I was turned off from the Surface RT platform (and one of the things I liked about my OG TF101--despite problems of its own).

 

[grimtriad]

I like my Surface Pro, I like my kickstand on my Surface Pro, it makes it easier to hold at times and it's really convenient for watching video. I bought my Surface Pro having a good understanding of the limitations of the device and what I would gain over a normal laptop. It's not a laptop but it performs similarly given the price point (though the SSD really does make it that much faster), it's not a tablet, which is good because I would never own a proper tablet, but it is nice to occasionally use it like one.

Seriously, I'll buy the next iteration if it doesn't need fan ports that get covered every time I lay the Surface Pro on a my bed.

For anyone in the convertible laptop market, I would recommend one as long as screen size isn't an issue. For a person that draws (like I do) the only other reasonable device is the significantly more expensive Samsung Ativ. So, $1000 for a 10.6 inch "Wacom Cintiq" that's also a full X64 computer is a bargain. Seriously, go look up the price of a brand new Wacom Cintiq (there smallest, a 13 inch is $1350 at amazon or $1000 on Wacom's site). Anything cheaper than a Cintiq doesn't display the image and all of them (Cintiq included) still requires a regular computer to work.

Hate as much as you want, but please, at least understand what you're hating.

 

[stevejnb]

Gotta agree with Grim. If you don't like the stand, don't use it, or get one of the several competitors that don't have the stand. I find the stand *extremely* handy at times and having to always carry around a keyboard dock to get the thing to stand up would be a huge pain in the arse. Kickstand design is not "dumb" just because you don't like it, thanks. Frankly, I wish every tablet I'd ever owned had them, and I wouldn't even complain if my smart phone had one.

 

[w8gaming]

The only problem with that is that they will piss off the OEMs that sell Windows machines and they will jump ship wholesale to Android

That's true. Microsoft should be concerned about pissing off the OEMs. That's also why I think they should not announced they want to become "a device company" as this is sending the wrong message. They could go with limited run concept and just sell their devices for showcase purpose and controls the number of units made so that they will not be stuck in warehouse. When they announced they want to become "a device company", everyone is going to judge them by how their market share compare to Apple or Android. There is no win for them if they are not really intended to become a strong hardware maker.

The exception is that they could do whatever they want with RT platform now that almost all vendors have given up anyway. As far as RT is concerned, if MS is really interested to support this platform long term, should start selling at a price point of $199 or lower. Or RT will never have a chance to succeed.