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Introducing Surface Laptop

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#191

Post by slm_HN »

tmd83 wrote: post #154
rsynnott wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Faster than a MacBook Pro What's their basis for that? I'd have thought at the very best it'd be about the same speed as a 13" (assuming you're not doing anything that uses much RAM; the 4GB would really cripple it there). I'll be interested to see what CPU it has, exactly, but I'd be surprised if it has the HD540/640 graphics. EDIT: Specs here: https://i.imgur.com/Kc1fQ52.png The expensive ones use an Iris 640, so…

This look fairly expensive for the config isn't it?

They could probably drop the price, but they want OEMs to build their own versions of the machine. If you drop your price too low OEMs will be squeezed out of the market.

That's the big problem Microsoft has with their hardware that Apple doesn't.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#192

Post by tcoff91 »

gnicholas wrote: post #158
dangrossman wrote: post #27

They're now demoing the Surface Laptop. Thinner than a MacBook Air. Faster than a MacBook Pro. Longer battery life than either. The downside? "Windows 10 S", which only runs apps from the Windows Store. The upside over Windows RT from the Windows 8 era? You can port Win32 apps to the Store today, don't think you could back then. Edit: You can upgrade Windows 10 S to ordinary Windows 10 Pro for $50. Laptops that run W…

Does upgrading to ordinary Windows 10 impact the battery life? The touted specs are much better than Mac laptops, but those run a more fully-featured OS.

Probably not until you start installing non-store applications, at which case they can no longer make as strong of guarantees.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#193

Post by FireBeyond »

haswell wrote: post #166

It appears that the cost to upgrade the i7 model from 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD to 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD is ~$600 ($1599 - $2199). This is something Apple has long been criticized for. Is there something I'm missing? Because this seems like a ridiculous premium.

Well, half criticized, half lauded. There are many people around HN and elsewhere that will say that it is an entirely sound and justified decision, "and besides, if you use it every day for three years that's not even a dollar a day, why shouldn't they charge a premium?", etc.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#194

Post by robhu »

tankenmate wrote: post #17
jlebrech wrote: post #10

might be able to install steam on this?

Highly unlikely, Valve have always said they won't pay Microsoft the 30% fee. Having said that it's been reported that Valve charges a similar fee on Steam.

Yes, well it makes sense that Valve are not going to pay Microsoft 30% of every Steam sale via Steam installs from the Windows store as it'd mean Valve would get 0% of that sale themselves, and they're the ones who built the store and infrastructure up over a many years. Microsoft are just coming in at the last moment and hosting a very small Steam installer binary!

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#195

Post by greenshackle2 »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #108
tashoecraft wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that having each kid able to brick their computer leads to significant problems for IT in debugging everyone's computer. As well as letting them move away from educational material extremely easily. I agree that great things can happen when kids can truly explore their computer and take away the 'magic', but just handing all kids a laptop and having them go wild is not the way to do it. I don't what is, to be…

Handing them a laptop and having them go wild is exactly the way to do it. If they brick it, they have to work out how to fix it. As one of the kids who was lucky enough to get a BBC Micro, I had zero support. No-one else in my family even knew how to turn it on. No teacher at my school could support me because none of them knew how it worked either. If I broke it, I had to fix it. And no Stack Overflow, so no code t…

You're not average. Get out of your bubble.

We had laptops at my high school 10 years ago, some of us learned how they worked inside and out, most did not.

When the curriculum depends on having a functional laptop, teachers wont want to wait around for kids to figure out how to fix their laptops. 90+% will go go the tech. Little Johnny who's already struggling with math class will not be helped by having a non-functional laptop. Not everyone needs to know how computers work.

EDIT: Probably you are like me and many people on here who found the HS curriculum easy and boring and stimulated yourself by hacking around with computers instead. This is not everyone's experience of HS, some kids legitimately struggle.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#196

Post by tatoalo »

gnicholas wrote: post #158
dangrossman wrote: post #27

They're now demoing the Surface Laptop. Thinner than a MacBook Air. Faster than a MacBook Pro. Longer battery life than either. The downside? "Windows 10 S", which only runs apps from the Windows Store. The upside over Windows RT from the Windows 8 era? You can port Win32 apps to the Store today, don't think you could back then. Edit: You can upgrade Windows 10 S to ordinary Windows 10 Pro for $50. Laptops that run W…

Does upgrading to ordinary Windows 10 impact the battery life? The touted specs are much better than Mac laptops, but those run a more fully-featured OS.

Well Windows 10 S can be compared to Chrome OS, obviously they both are less battery hungry, upgrading to a "full" Windows 10 version could impact battery life since the HW and the OS have been built as a black box product. (But we'll know for sure once it's officially released).

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#197

Post by FireBeyond »

pinkythepig wrote: post #93
jlebrech wrote: post #10

might be able to install steam on this?

You would have to upgrade the Windows license first. These ship with a version of Windows that only allows installations from the windows app store. To upgrade to a 'real' Windows license will cost an extra $50.

"You can upgrade to Windows Pro for free through December 31, 2017."

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#198

Post by lorenzhs »

fosco wrote: post #146
avn2109 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this thing could be persuaded to run Linux out of the box with no driver problems, it could be a Macbook killer.

this would be my dream laptop if it ran linux out of the box. I really wish a linux laptop with this type of design was put out for an affordable price, I really think its a major opportunity for a large business market there. I think there is a lot of room for improvement on the "librem' laptops...

If you're willing to comprimise on price, the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a fantastic Linux business laptop.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#199

Post by wamatt »

Nice aesthetics and form factor, which makes the choice to use fabric right under the palms, more than odd.

Perhaps it will have strong sales given potential buyers rarely consider these long term issues. However, that fabric is almost certainly going to turn nasty over time and be a pain to manage.

It's like innovating by installing living potted plants inside a Ferrari to improve air quality. Cleaner air is a desirable goal, although the implementation could use another iteration.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#200

Post by vaishaksuresh »

FireBeyond wrote: post #187
tmd83 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This look fairly expensive for the config isn't it?

Compared to what? Surface i5, 8/256 $1299, MBP $1499 or $1799 depending on the i5 processor. Surface i7, 8/256 $1599, MBP $2099 Surface i7, 16/512 $2199, MBP $2499. So not sure how you're saying this is on the expensive end.

I don't think /u/tmd83 said MBPs were not expensive or was even comparing the two.
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