Another unmemorable, ambiguous product name from Microsoft. This one actually contains "Laptop" -- maybe the next will be "Surface Computer"?
Introducing Surface Laptop
551–560 of 613 posts
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#552Earlier quoted context omitted.
The pricing is one thing I don't understand. If you're asking a customer to pay the same price as a MacBook air, which comes with productivity apps and a basic cloud service for free, why don't you let them use O365 for free, in perpetuity, at least on that machine? The other thing I don't understand is the overarching message. The line we've been fed from Microsoft's marketing team is that the "convertibility" of th…
I heard from a surface book user that he never use the tablet mode in practice, outside sometimes to make it a tablet in a plane. I owned a surface pro myself, and I tend to agree. It's a terrible device as a tablet. Slow to wake up, buggy, low battery life, not really the kind of device you can carry around and check something on it quickly. And if you use it as a laptop, it's better to have a proper laptop with mor…
I use my surface book as a tablet only occasionally, for watching videos or playing one particular game.
But it's well worth it just treated as a laptop with a touchscreen. Little things like being able to tap a button occasionally, or sign a PDF with the pen rather than printing and scanning, all add up. And the dock works really nicely - I leave everything plugged into my desk for a proper gaming/development setup, but I can disconnect one cable and take it on a train or plane and it's small enough to work there.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#553Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the target market (schools) I think not being able to install downloaded software is only a good thing. Also, did you see the performance demo? 10s was significantly faster than 10 Pro. Not sure about the $999 for the cheapest model however. Does it include an Office 365 subscription?
I wonder why 10S is faster than Pro? It can't be doing anything significantly different - perhaps some .NET runtime startup cache or bypassing many of the Win32 APIs regarding RPC? I am genuinely curious - ideas?
It's more that OEMs(and the user) can't do shit on them. (and also not having to sync classic app profiles with AD)
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#554Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Since 16:9 and 21:9 took over, I've dealt with it by placing as many 'toolbars' vertically as I could. Windows taskbar, Tree-Style Tabs for Firefox, and so on.
I've seen some UI designers move in the same direction, e.g. Visual Studio Code with its side drawer, Edge and Firefox both putting its menus in a side panel.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#555Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh that's pretty interesting, I didn't know that. So I guess it kind of comes with real windows after all (in a roundabout way)
It's definitely interesting. Where everyone expected a new ARM SKU, Microsoft delivered a new x86 SKU, with an easy upgrade path. Through the lens of Windows 10 S as an "educational" SKU, it's particularly interesting in that idea that you could start the device locked down with S and eventually (plus $50 one time charge) "graduate" the device to "real" Windows 10 as the people themselves age into device ownership or…
The next ARM SKU is also Windows 10 S, and yes, it can run x86 apps when updated to Pro.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#556Do any of you have children at a school using Google Chromebooks and Google Drive? Calling Windows S a Chromebook competitor completely misses the point. Chromebooks are instant on, and your profile/data is 100% cloud based. You can grab any Chromebook from the rack in the back of the classroom, open it up, log in and immediately get to work on your report or whatever. I got an original Chromebook from Google I/O yea…
I think Chromebook is great for when you have wifi, I don't have when traveling. For this, I am thinking on a Macbook Air and this Microsoft surface seems nice (a copycat but OK). I have a business app that needs Windows and I work on Mac.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#557Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is Google drive still free for only three years? Are you past three years yet, and, if so, what is the monthly cost per user / per Chromebook?
When you get a chromebook you can redeem an offer for 100gb free for 2 years. When your 2 years is up, files aren't deleted but you can't upload anything else until you're below the 15gb. Drive is always free up to 15gb.
Of course, these days the Google Drive storage limit is shared with GMail so you also can't receive emails until you're back below the 15GB limit.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#558Earlier quoted context omitted.
The model supported by coreboot is the first generation X1 Carbon, which is 4-5 years old now. I'm talking about the 5th generation, which has only been available for a few months.
Any idea if the trackpad is better? I have three Thinkpads (including the previous Carbon), all running Linux, and the trackpads are just terrible. I'm spoiled because I'm used to the MacBook trackpad.
I don't use it (I'm a big fan of the trackpoint), but the trackpad's surface feels very pleasant. Can't comment on the accuracy, I probably wouldn't even be able to properly judge or compare it to the MacBook, but I've heard good things from other people.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#559I'm a MS fanboy of sorts, but I'll never buy any piece of hardware that has that stupidly horrifying crooked logo of theirs.