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Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

blogs.technet.com

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Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#41

Post by joejohnson »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #7

Should be interesting. One of the things I've wished for was a tablet that could do both capacitive touch style interactions and more precise Wacom pen/tablet style interactions. Looks like I'll have a chance to play with an implementation of that. I agree with kimura that its a pretty high price point. Although reserve judgement on whether or not it crosses into the 'too expensive' territory. Its essentially the sam…

The price is not $999; with a keyboard (to be a fair competitor to the MacBook Air), it costs $1050. At $999, it's just a crappy iPad alternative with a large hardrive.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#42

Post by bunderbunder »

Permit wrote: post #10

Everyone seems really blown away by the pricing and I'm not sure why. This isn't an iPad, it houses a fully functional operating system that lets you run existing Windows 7 desktop applications. In a use-case scenario I see it being more similar to a laptop than to the iPad. If I can run Visual Studio on it and it handles all my existing Windows 7 applications correctly, I'd consider purchasing it. I don't look at it…

Ditto. As it is, I'm seeing it as something that's price-competitive with my Macbook Air, but which can handily double as a tablet for when I want to kick my feet up to just browse the web or read a book.

Given that it actually sounds inexpensive to me, after you factor in that it saves having to spend an extra several hundred dollars if you also want a tablet.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#43

Post by fumar »

As someone who likes to use Ableton Live and Adobe CS. This is exciting. I want to carry around a computer in the form of a tablet. I want to have pen input and USB.

I am using Surface RT right now. Its not perfect. But all the things, I dislike are hopefully fixed with the pro.

I do wish Apple made something similar.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#45

Post by fumar »

As someone who likes to use Ableton Live and Adobe CS. This is exciting. I want to carry around a computer in the form of a tablet. I want to have pen input and USB.

I am using Surface RT right now. Its not perfect. But all the things, I dislike are hopefully fixed with the pro.

I do wish Apple made something similar.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#46

Post by dscrd »

chollida1 wrote: post #37
dscrd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when did touch screens become a requirement or even a semi-useful thing for laptops?

> Since when did touch screens become a requirement or even a semi-useful thing for laptops? I don't think anyone said it did. All I said was this surface is very comparable to an air but also includes a touch screen and is cheaper.

Well, no. The macbook air has a keyboard, it has been available for a long time, and it's not running Windows 8; so it's a bit of a stretch to call them comparable just like that.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#47

Post by cbhl »

Permit wrote: post #10

Everyone seems really blown away by the pricing and I'm not sure why. This isn't an iPad, it houses a fully functional operating system that lets you run existing Windows 7 desktop applications. In a use-case scenario I see it being more similar to a laptop than to the iPad. If I can run Visual Studio on it and it handles all my existing Windows 7 applications correctly, I'd consider purchasing it. I don't look at it…

For the last decade or so, a x86-based device running Windows with a half decent digitizer cost roughly $3000. I doubt you'll see people picking this over an iPad though.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#48

Post by debacle »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #33
Permit wrote: post #10

Everyone seems really blown away by the pricing and I'm not sure why. This isn't an iPad, it houses a fully functional operating system that lets you run existing Windows 7 desktop applications. In a use-case scenario I see it being more similar to a laptop than to the iPad. If I can run Visual Studio on it and it handles all my existing Windows 7 applications correctly, I'd consider purchasing it. I don't look at it…

I don't get it, really. They designed a tablet whose primary use-case is in laptop mode? Why not just buy a better-spec'd laptop for the same price? And why does Surface have a mission-critical piece of hardware (the keyboard) missing from it? Sorry, but at a whopping $1050 after purchasing this critical component, I'd rather just buy a 11in Macbook air for cheaper.

I think a better question might be "Why buy a tablet that is also a laptop when laptops that are also tablets have been around for years?"

Asus has touchscreen laptops for less than half of the price, and convertible laptops have been around for at least a decade.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#50

Post by seanmcdirmid »

majormajor wrote: post #18

With an active digitizer and the ability to run full apps, this looks like the perfect photography/graphic work portable workstation, that you can then dock at your desk at home. Extremely interested in it for that alone. But I might wait a round or two, or look for similar 3rd party convertible things... At $1000, currently, it would need to be something that could do everything I wanted when traveling, and I'm skep…

Active digitizers aren't cheap, and are really great with one note (I have the Samsung tablet). My problem with this tablet is also that I can't use it as a laptop (literally, I like working on sofas at starbucks). On the other hand, the resolution looks quite promising, its almost retina!

The good old tablet PCs have good digitizers on them, and they are still being made. I'm not sure what I will replace my EliteBook with...I like the digitizer but would prefer something thinner and bigger (like a Samsung Series 9 or a Carbon X1).

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