News More compact Arm variants of Microsoft Surface Pro and Laptop lines leaked

[Admin]

Microsoft is rumored to announce new compact 13-inch Surface Laptop 7 and 12-inch Surface Pro 11 models at their Surface event on Tuesday.

More compact Arm variants of Microsoft Surface Pro and Laptop lines leaked : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

What people want: A Surface Laptop device that matches or exceeds the MacBook Air in price, performance, and battery life.

What Microsoft gives: A Surface Laptop that's slower, smaller, and more expensive than the Macbook Air.

 

[bit_user]

What people want: A Surface Laptop device that matches or exceeds the MacBook Air in price, performance, and battery life.

What Microsoft gives: A Surface Laptop that's slower, smaller, and more expensive than the Macbook Air.

At the entry-level, Apple can always hit a lower price point. What you have to look at is how the pricing compares, further up the range. As soon as you configure a Mac above the base specs, it very quickly gets very expensive.

Also, MS really can't do much about Snapdragon X. It's a first-gen part made on an older process node (TSMC N4). So, as far as performance goes, they're pretty much stuck waiting until Qualcomm gets the next gen laptop parts out, which are actually based on 3rd gen CPU cores and hopefully use a more similar process node to what Apple will be on.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

At the entry-level, Apple can always hit a lower price point. What you have to look at is how the pricing compares, further up the range. As soon as you configure a Mac above the base specs, it very quickly gets very expensive.

Also, MS really can't do much about Snapdragon X. It's a first-gen part made on an older process node (TSMC N4). So, as far as performance goes, they're pretty much stuck waiting until Qualcomm gets the next gen laptop parts out, which are actually based on 3rd gen CPU cores and hopefully use a more similar process node to what Apple will be on.

They don't have to use Snapdragon and ARM, I think most people would prefer they just go back to x86 and Intel. Asus and Lenovo, among others, have released x86 laptops with extraordinary battery life and performance and great displays, TomsHardware has reviewed several of them. The problem is that Microsoft charges a premium for Surface devices. Compare a Surface Laptop 7 against the, say, ASUS 15.6" Vivobook S

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1870663-REG/asus_m5506wa_ds96_15_6_vivobook_s_oled.html/specs

$1300 for the ASUS and you get a 12 core AMD CPU, long battery life (17 hours quoted), an OLED screen, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. The cheapest Surface Laptop 7 with the same specs except LCD screen and Snapdragon CPU is $1800. There's no reason Microsoft can't match those specs or even the price, they just want to charge a large markup, and that's a huge problem.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

At the entry-level, Apple can always hit a lower price point. What you have to look at is how the pricing compares, further up the range. As soon as you configure a Mac above the base specs, it very quickly gets very expensive.

Also, MS really can't do much about Snapdragon X. It's a first-gen part made on an older process node (TSMC N4). So, as far as performance goes, they're pretty much stuck waiting until Qualcomm gets the next gen laptop parts out, which are actually based on 3rd gen CPU cores and hopefully use a more similar process node to what Apple will be on.

Honestly, why not just wait for Qualcomm to release Elite 2 before even bothering with the Surface 12". This is so late in the cycle, they probably could launch next gen ARM in 6 months.

 

[bit_user]

They don't have to use Snapdragon and ARM, I think most people would prefer they just go back to x86 and Intel.

I don't track the Surface product line, so it's news to me if they left x86 completely. I think that, for a good while, they were selling both.

$1300 for the ASUS and you get a 12 core AMD CPU, long battery life (17 hours quoted), an OLED screen, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. The cheapest Surface Laptop 7 with the same specs except LCD screen and Snapdragon CPU is $1800.

How do size & weight compare? Just curious.

 

[cerata]

The problem is that Microsoft charges a premium for Surface devices.
…
The cheapest Surface Laptop 7 with [32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD]… is $1800.

Haha, in Australia they charge $3400 AUD for that configuration. Now, that includes GST, while the US price omits sales tax. Even then, at current exchange rates they're overcharging us by about $200 USD.

The low-end configurations are even worse. $1900 AUD for a config with an X Plus chip, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. That's about $320 USD more than their $800 USD price.

I don't track the Surface product line, so it's news to me if they left x86 completely. I think that, for a good while, they were selling both.

They do still sell x86 Surface laptops, e.g. Lunar Lake ones. They just try to hide them from the general public under their webstore's "Small Business" section, but AFAIK you don't need to actually be a business customer to buy one.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

I don't track the Surface product line, so it's news to me if they left x86 completely. I think that, for a good while, they were selling both.


How do size & weight compare? Just curious.

ASUS: 15.6" screen, 3.31lbs, 13.92"x9.72"x0.63"
Surface Laptop 7 15": 15" screen, 3.66lbs, 13"x9.4"x0.72"

Basically the same.