Live data from Hacker News

New Surface Pro

microsoft.com

31–40 of 606 posts

Re: New Surface Pro

#31

They are still using the SurfaceDock with the SurfaceConnect Cable: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/accessories/surface-... , which does basically the same as USB-C. In an era when even Apple is rumored (and even if false, still plausible) to be switching to USB-C for the iPhone, Microsoft still tries to force a proprietary connector. Didn't they learn anything from IE? Even if it's good for them for a while,…

From what I’ve seen, USB-C is a disaster. The ports and cables all have to support specific profiles, which are just getting more and more complicated, for specific features to work, and there is no visual indication at all of this. If you got a cheap cable (which people will do), you may suddenly find that maybe charging doesn’t work. Or maybe it melts. Or maybe it doesn’t transfer data. Or maybe using it for a video signal doesn’t work. There is no way of telling without trying it.

USB-C just isn’t popular enough yet to have crashed and burned (though even after that it’ll still be popular for ages for want of an alternative).

I have a Surface Book (the hardware was good enough to get me to switch from Linux, without ever actually having seen one), and the Surface cable is marvellous. Magnets are awesome, and the Surface Book is probably the most carefully magnetically-designed computer hardware. At work I have a Dock and I pretty much just put the Book on the desk by the connector and it jumps into place and my external monitors connect. And removing it, really easy and it can’t go wrong. The whole thing is really, really nice.

Re: New Surface Pro

#32
post #22
post #7

I love my Pro 4. This video won't convince me to upgrade, but I'll be a tad jealous of every new starter at our firm who gets assigned one!

Care to elaborate why? I'm somewhat of an apple-fanboy but Surface seems more and more appealing, and I'm leaning towards giving one a try.

As an apple fan who gave the surface 3 pro (with surface 4 keyboard) a try, yes you can mix and match the keyboards, I didn't end up keeping it long. My MacBook Air's keyboard and touchpad was much superior to the surface and I found coding on the tiny surface cumbersome.

Re: New Surface Pro

#33

Following the Apple school of numbering things up to a point the throwing a random self-titled reboot, I see. It won't work, Microsoft. It didn't work for Apple. Just ask anyone who owns an iPad, and count the amount of time it takes to figure out exactly which model iPad they own.

I have the The New iPad, which is the old iPad now.

Re: New Surface Pro

#34
post #13

> The most versatile laptop. ...that doesn't ship with a keyboard (pen isn't included either). No USB-C. 16GB RAM maximum.

Are you saying that 16 GB isn't enough?

It absolutely isn't. I'm a C++ programmer working in games industry, my work machine has 64GB and all our work-issued laptops are 32GB(which is not enough to actually start local servers of our game, so doing any mobile work is quite limiting).

why does this apply here: because I can easily imagine artists using this to modify some assets and trying to run the game to see what they look like, but with 16GB of ram they won't even load the editor, much less the actual server+client combo.

Re: New Surface Pro

#35

> The most versatile laptop. ...that doesn't ship with a keyboard (pen isn't included either). No USB-C. 16GB RAM maximum.

Plus that kickstand always looked so inconvenient to me. On normal laptop I can adjust screen angle however I want. The kickstand also require a bigger surface to put it down properly. On normal laptop I am fine as long as the bottom half can fit on the table (or any flat surface), here there is need for much more space, seems very inconvenient especially when working in tight spaces like server room, car, or small coffee table.

Re: New Surface Pro

#36

Following the Apple school of numbering things up to a point the throwing a random self-titled reboot, I see. It won't work, Microsoft. It didn't work for Apple. Just ask anyone who owns an iPad, and count the amount of time it takes to figure out exactly which model iPad they own.

Does it matter? I have a newer iPad and couldn't tell you what model/year is - and I'm pretty tech-obsessed.

Does this mean I'm less apt to upgrade?

Re: New Surface Pro

#37
post #19

They are still using the SurfaceDock with the SurfaceConnect Cable: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/accessories/surface-... , which does basically the same as USB-C. In an era when even Apple is rumored (and even if false, still plausible) to be switching to USB-C for the iPhone, Microsoft still tries to force a proprietary connector. Didn't they learn anything from IE? Even if it's good for them for a while,…

Looks more complicated that it sounds. MSFT already did the job of sourcing cables, connectors, and power supplies for all their surface line for the next XXX years (where XXX is the time they're commited to support all their hardware products). Switching to USB-C from the bussiness perspective would be a great expense... and would involve higher price tag.

That is what I mean, it's basically a similar situation to 2005's IE. From the business perspective it wouldn't have made sense to support standards and would have involved a higher price tag.

What this means is now people (those who buy an extra $200 device) will be happy for a while until their devices start to be incompatible or work slower than the competition who have a single cable type for everything. Then they will resent the brand and thus not buy again. Of course totally my opinion.

Re: New Surface Pro

#38
post #19

They are still using the SurfaceDock with the SurfaceConnect Cable: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/accessories/surface-... , which does basically the same as USB-C. In an era when even Apple is rumored (and even if false, still plausible) to be switching to USB-C for the iPhone, Microsoft still tries to force a proprietary connector. Didn't they learn anything from IE? Even if it's good for them for a while,…

Looks more complicated that it sounds. MSFT already did the job of sourcing cables, connectors, and power supplies for all their surface line for the next XXX years (where XXX is the time they're commited to support all their hardware products). Switching to USB-C from the bussiness perspective would be a great expense... and would involve higher price tag.

[deleted]

Re: New Surface Pro

#39
post #22
post #7

I love my Pro 4. This video won't convince me to upgrade, but I'll be a tad jealous of every new starter at our firm who gets assigned one!

Care to elaborate why? I'm somewhat of an apple-fanboy but Surface seems more and more appealing, and I'm leaning towards giving one a try.

I have an iPad pro, a MacBook, and a Surface Pro. I carry the MacBook and the iPad. The surface is too hot, cooks off battery too fast, the screen is small, the UI for the desktop app I use has icons too small to Target with the pen. The charger is janky.
Post reply on HN