Report: Microsoft's Intel-powered Surface to Cost $1000

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for 1k i got a 10" tablet that can run real windows apps??? maybe it is expensive but think about all the money saved with all the freeware available for windows and x86 cpu no more thousand of dollars worth of apps, or no more lousy shareware apps!
 
I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't considered Trinity ULV chips; AMD generally sells their chips to manufacturers at a lot lower prices than Intel does.

Say what you will about the benchmark perf. of Ivy i5s versus the A10 Trinity, you'd be getting nearly-as-good productivity and better game performance for probably a hundred (or more) less.
 
[citation][nom]oneblackened[/nom]Why an i5? 'Cause they're fast and the low power ones rival an Atom for power consumption while being much faster.[/citation]
disagree strongly. Medfield = under 5w at load, lowest power i5 keeps jumping to 15w.

sure, it's much more powerful, but heat, noise and power consumption too much for such a device.

Also, to those saying that this is great for students etc, etc...well i'm in engineering college, and though i don't see myself using a 10 inch screen for making presentations etc. This is good for quick edits etc, and for giving presentations imo, otherwise it's a good companion device ONLY.

Seriously, for $1000, why wouldn't i buy an ultrabook or something? Something like that dual-screen Asus notebook?

On the other hand, yes, Samsung's series 7 slate packs much the same hardware and costs $1300, so it's to be expected. This should be more useful for people needing pen input and all.

Students...well very few. At $400-500 the ARM one would be great though.
 
[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]You do know that the i5 is also FAR more powerful right? Depending on usage the i5 would complete its tasks way faster allowing for it to enter power save mode while the arm will have to keep struggling with the load since it FAR slower as well. Personally i would prefer the i5 pad, since the windows software library is HUGE and that pad is more like a full blown computer rather than a toy. But both CPU's have their places and the two different pads are made for two completely different audiences, this is like a Ferrari pad vs Toyota Prius pad, do you want speed or do you want mileage? The choice here is yours and I for one like choices![/citation]

The current 11" MacBook Air has the i5-3317U (lowest power i5), 11" screen and a 35WHr battery and a claimed battery life of 5hours. (light web surfing with half display brightness)

The x86 Surface tablet is very similar except that it has a 20% bigger battery (42WHr), so you're talking 6hours of battery life under ideal lab conditions, probably 5 in the real world, 4 when watching video, 2-3 when playing games.
ARM based Android or iOS tablets last more than 10hours while playing video, probably around 15hours of normal usage. You can go 2 days without recharging them.
 
At these price points the Surface will flop. They need to be selling below iPad levels to get any traction.

Either Microsoft can add this to the list of Zune and other similar products or add it to the list of Xbox. It's all about pricing. And pricing above the iPad and other Android competitors is market share suicide.
 
[citation][nom]mmmdeliciouspie[/nom]I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't considered Trinity ULV chips; AMD generally sells their chips to manufacturers at a lot lower prices than Intel does.Say what you will about the benchmark perf. of Ivy i5s versus the A10 Trinity, you'd be getting nearly-as-good productivity and better game performance for probably a hundred (or more) less.[/citation]
The form factor is really what saves Surface some, umm, face. An Ultrathin would be a fair amount larger but would obliterate it for performance, and that's without taking into account Intel's lower-range competition as an alternative to the more expensive Ultrabooks.

I'd really like to see a Brazos 2.0 machine with similar dimensions to Surface. I'd have a hard time believing that it'd be any more expensive, not to mention how much faster it'd be. Even the new Atoms and Medfield could do something good in this space.
 
Glad I just got a Kindle Fire for $170. To me, a tablet is still a novelty device and should be priced as such.

Dunno if I actually trust these prices, but $1000 is way too high. Even $600 is too high imo and the reason I would never buy an iPad. Guess we will see how well these sell, but if Microsoft doesn't hit the right price point, I fear the worst. Having said that, these Surface tablets look really nice.
 
Only 2 manufacturers have been able to make a dent in Apples sales, Amazon, and HP. How where they able to do it? Sell a tablet cheap!!! Obviously, HP did it to get rid of inventory but they certainly get the award for best bang for the buck (especially if you were luck enough to get one at the low price of $99-$150 and then put android on it).

Now Microsoft wants to come in and offer a tablet at a price point $100 more than the competition. Sorry Microsoft!!!! Whatever marketing staff thought up the idea of comming into a marketplace that is dominated by brand and charge more, they need to be fired right now. Motorolla made the mistake a year and a half ago and it took a while for manufacturers to get it that they cant compete if you cant have a competitive price on the low end models. There may be some Apple haters out there that are willing to pay more money for a device that they know is better and has better specs, but the majority of the buyers are only going to be interested in this thing if the price is right.

I personally have an android tablet and an Ipad. I like both. When people ask me about getting a tablet for someone as a gift and what I recomend, I tell them to go to the apple store and get a used IPAD 2 for $319. The reason is that most computer iliterate people know how to use Ipads or can figure things out themselves. My wife for example has no problem with the Ipad or Iphone but give her and android device and she is totally lost. It doesn't make sense to me but that is how it is.
 
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]The article isn't providing the FACTS but these days I'm not really expecting that.Samsung 7 slate +$1000Asus EP121 +$1000If it 'is' above $1000 that'll be due to the Wacom active digitizer.But of course everyone posting already knew that /s[/citation]

Haha yeah. Hell, just to get a Wacom screen (crappy 15" one) is $800 retail... now you'd also need to buy a computer to run it. The Surface at $1,000 is fine. Its an ultrabook, tablet, artists tool, AND desktop replacement for most office users. I will purchase one once Haswell hits.
 
Too expensive for what it will do for us...
Same as Windows... Too expensive... I would have purchased at least 3 copies by now but.. its too expensive. When will these companies learn that by dropping the price a little, they will sell more...
 
I'm probably one of very few people willing to shell out $1k for the Pro version. I've been looking to pick up an Ultrabook for work when traveling, as well as a tablet for personal use. If Microsoft doesn't screw this up too badly, it looks like the Pro Surface will fit both needs and save me a few hundred bucks.

Really, I just need to see the battery life. If it doesn't get at least six hours I'm not touching it. I need to be able to fly across the country on a single charge with moderate use for it to be useful. If it dies halfway through the second flight, I am not a happy camper.
 
[citation][nom]IndignantSkeptic[/nom]Wait, the Surface is around the same price of the Ipad 3 and yet it can't do Full HD whereas Ipad 3 has already gone beyond that?[/citation]
And you have lots of movies at that resolution, which you enjoy with 2 distinct black bars because it isn't widescreen, all those extra pixels are giving a very expensive waste of screen space.
...
Also, the price is good seeing as it is really an ultrabook with a detachable keyboard, where is the detachable keyboard for the Macbook Air? Surely they invented it first?
 
0$ unless it proves to be amazing, which I doubt.

I am also willing to pay 0$ for an Ipad. While it is beautiful I still don't see the point. It's impossible to seriously work due to lack of keyboard, i certainly don't want to watch a film on a small screen with finger stains and if I need to browse internet in small spaces where a light laptop won't do I have a smartphone.

Surface could have tried to go further, such as another stand that would allow to use it vertically, which would be great to work on A4-like documents.

But 10.6" is really too small, especially when one is used to 14+ " laptops and dual 24" desktop screens.
 
The problem is that this laptop that isn't quite a laptop will set you back a lot more than $1000. Unlike an iPad or an android tablet with apps that go from free to $10 at the most, theye are going to want $150-200 for a win 8 mobile compatible version of office. Upgrade to Win 8 pro, add another $100. Try getting some serious business software and you're out at $1400 or more. This a product without a market. It is Zune all over again. Add the fact of more and more people are moving heavy chore processing to the Cloud, this think is D.O,A.
 
The problem is that this laptop that isn't quite a laptop will set you back a lot more than $1000. Unlike an iPad or an android tablet with apps that go from free to $10 at the most, theye are going to want $150-200 for a win 8 mobile compatible version of office. Upgrade to Win 8 pro, add another $100. Try getting some serious business software and you're out at $1400 or more. This a product without a market. It is Zune all over again. Add the fact of more and more people are moving heavy chore processing to the Cloud, this think is D.O,A.
 
Geesh , judging by the comments, most of u guys really seem to be missing the point here. Very soon we are going to have a synergised environment where the 3 biggest computing devices on the planet (desktop,tablet,mobile phone) will be essentially running the same OS kernel! Who was the monkey who said windows 8 is an OS still in its infancy? Windows 8 will be based from windows 7, the greatest and most popular OS in the history of computing, never mind the decades of OS technology packed into the last 30 or so years! Do you understand the the size of the developer community surrounding windows based development? It makes the combined developer community of android/iOS/symbian/blackberry look like a drop in the ocean! I cannot wait for windows 8! With minimal effort I can write an app and have a single code base with minor modifications running on all 3 platforms! Can't u guys see, its not a stripped down mobile OS, its full blown windows running on a tablet! As a dev, this is just an incredible milestone in computing...
 
Though I can not comment on the RT price I can easily say that the 1000$ price for the ivy bridge Win8 pro version is spot on. Most people are making comments without even looking at the specs.
Yes surface pro is as expensive as an ultrabook because it IS an ultrabook in a table form, moreover it also features a wacom digitizer layer which adds a lot to the device.
Similar products on the market today are Samsung slate 7 and Asus ep121 and both start around $1100. I am confident that it will be the choice of many including me if it really hits the shelve around 1K.
 
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