The Surface Pros are particularly big in enterprise. It’s why MS has been resistant to major redesigns. Employee needs an upgrade? Just buy a new SP and you don’t need to order a new keyboard and dock; just reuse the existing ones.
stusser
1725
The keyboard is updated this year. Don’t know if the old ones still work though.
Yeah, but they kept the same form factor since like 2014 until now. But the pressure for an update eventually won out. Expect this to be the form factor for many years.
My use case, for which I mostly enjoy the device, is that it’s a tablet* that does Actual Windows Things so I can do whatever dev/admin type stuff I need to do from the road/couch. Is it a daily driver for running heavy workloads? Of course not. But for me personally, being able to do what I need to in established toolchains without having to fuck around hoping to find something that works if I’m trying to do something that doesn’t have a web GUI…yeah, that’s legit.
And it is a great video conferencing device, as others have said.
All that said, I’m really hopeful for Windows to get its shit together as a tablet OS. It’s got a loooooooooong way to go from the state of Win10 today.
The thing was 8 was actually a decent first attempt at a tablet OS, but it was received with such venom that the 10 team basically decided to erase every trace of 8 and pretend it never existed. Which is maddening because they could have kept some of 8’s tablet ideas, but they just literally treated it as a Windows desktop OS where your finger replaces the mouse cursor. And it was maddening because your finger is a lot fatter than a mouse cursor.
New Surface devices finally up. And prices
Yikes, the SP8 has a higher base price. Gotta see the specs.
I mean, early adopters ain’t gonna soak themselves.
Okay, yeah, $1,099 for an i8/8/128 is ridiculous.
But these are initial prices. MS often has these things on sale. I bought my SP7 with a keyboard cover direct from the Surface site for $799.
Laptop Studio starts at $1,600. i5/16/256
Well, at least it’s not 8/128
Did the SP 8 drop micro sd support or was that dropped in an earlier SP version?
stusser
1734
Yeah, starting price for the studio is expensive but not stupidly so. 256GB is pretty tight for $1600 though.
7 and 7+ both had microSD. But 7 was a non-replaceable SSD.
8 does not have microSD it appears, but it does keep the replaceable SSD from SP7+
Also looks like a 58 W battery in the Studio. Pass.
stusser
1737
That new SP8 keyboard with a pen? $280. Without a pen, $180.
The SP8 config you want, with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, a core i5 and the keyboard with a pen? $2080. Whoo boy.
I’d just wait for the sale. Or Costco. There’s always a much more reasonable Surface Pro bundle at Costco within a few months.
stusser
1739
Dell XPS13, newest model, with the exact same i5 CPU, 16GB, 512GB SSD? $1370 list. And Dell always has sales.
I got that same machine and specs for $999 from Dell.
stusser
1741
Yep, Dell always has sales. Every week or two.
They also sell the XPS13 with an OLED screen, and that comes to less money list.
The XPS13 is also just a better laptop, period. It isn’t a tablet, but the SP8 barely is a tablet either.
MS also has sales all the time, too. Like I said, I got my SP7 8/128 with the premium keyboard cover for $799. That was like $350 off regular.
And MS build quality >>>> Dell’s. I’ll give them that. I also like how the software and hardware and drivers are all seamless. Keeping Dell’s updated is classic PC OEM. Tons of utilities or installer programs. Keeping a Surface updated is just hitting the Windows Update button.
stusser
1743
Didn’t mean to imply that MS is like Apple where you can either pay list price or choke on a dick, but they are much rarer than Dell sales.
