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Introducing Surface Laptop

blogs.windows.com

201–210 of 613 posts

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#201

This seems to heavily dilute the Surface brand. Until now, you could get a Surface device and know you were getting a useful, independent writing/touch surface and a good-to-great keyboard/trackpad to attach. Now we're given a laptop with no convertibility whatsoever; not even a 360 degree hinge like many similar-spec laptops?

It started as a table. Moved to a tablet. Then a laptop. Brand dilution doesn't seem like a priority for Microsoft. Wish they had more sensible and less confusing naming. This is not fun to explain when people ask. (Same can be said of Google and a bunch of other tech companies too though.)

> Brand dilution doesn't seem like a priority for Microsoft.

It's an euphemism considering the whole windows mail live hotmail with skydrive now onedrive thing.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#202
post #157

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.

Have you tried Bash on Windows? Been using it lightly (still dual boot) but it's pretty good experience.

Linux was brought up because grand-grandparent says it can only run stuff from the Windows Store, so I'm pretty sure that WSL is out of the question.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#203
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.

Xiaomi Mi Air 13, i5 8/256 $690. Aluminum unibody, smaller and lighter than MBP 13.

Stop buying overpriced crap and start supporting companies that charge fair prices and maybe MS and Apple will release products that aren't 2-3x as pricey as the competition.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#204
post #199

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 desir…

Microsoft has been using the same fabric for the keyboard covers on the Surface tablet for at least the last two generations. It seems weird on a laptop, but they should have most of the issues sorted out by now.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#205
post #134

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…

If this laptop can run Linux I'm buying it

It can, like pretty much any other Intel-based laptop. The main issue however might be the limited touchscreen support of most linux distros...

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#206

This seems to heavily dilute the Surface brand. Until now, you could get a Surface device and know you were getting a useful, independent writing/touch surface and a good-to-great keyboard/trackpad to attach. Now we're given a laptop with no convertibility whatsoever; not even a 360 degree hinge like many similar-spec laptops?

Heavily dilute? That's a bit dramatic. There was a tablet, now there's a laptop too.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#207
post #199

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 desir…

While that's certainly a concern, let's not forget that Alcantara is very common in high-end sports cars. It's commonly used in endurance racing (24h of le Mans etc).

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#208

The display has a 3:2 aspect ratio, I hope that means that we slowly move away from 16:9 screens on laptops.

What's wrong with 16:9?

Only useful for consuming content. It's like working through a slit when it comes to content authoring. 16:10 adsorbs a lot of toolbars.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#209
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.

Realistically, these are the 15W chips, and should only be compared to the non-TB Macbook Pro. The base non-TB MBP uses an Iris 640, so it's more comparable to the $1599 one than anything else ('i5' vs 'i7' in dual core laptops is an almost meaningless term, but there's a vast difference between the HD 620 and Iris 640).

So it's a bit more expensive than the MBP if you care about normal things, or a bit less expensive if the i7 branding is for some reason deeply important to you and you don't care about the GPU. Either way, not great, really, because the 13" MBP is noted for its expensiveness, and generally expected to drop $200 or so soon.

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