Microsoft unveils $799 Surface Pro 3, calls it 'the tablet that can replace your laptop'

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  • Reply 81 of 185
    christopher126christopher126 Posts: 4,366member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post







    Here ya' go:








    Thanks Dick. Now every time I see something like this, I'm going to think of MS and the Surface! :)

  • Reply 82 of 185
    drwamdrwam Posts: 38member
    This is an improved product. The 3:2 aspect ratio is a big improvement for tablet function. The pressure sensitive stylus option is a really good one that Apple has refused to pursue (though one has hopes for a larger iPad Pro). Their comparison with the larger screened MacBook Air will cease to make sense if rumors of a lighter 12 inch Retina Air come true. Apple just dropped the price of non-Retina Airs, perhaps to make room for the new model later this year.
  • Reply 83 of 185
    How can MS go so lame? They had everything and they still have so much market and resources and they keep going in the wrong direction. No one knows what Surface is regardless of all the marketing MS did. They talked about creating new categories but besides taking the ipad and modifying into a completely useless product have not done anything else. Disappointing...
  • Reply 84 of 185
    I have a Surface Pro 2 and, while I find it to be an extremely capable device, I never use it. Why? It sucks at being a tablet (too thick and heavy) and it sucks at being a laptop (it won't sit on your lap, and the flap stand is horrid). And Windows 8 makes me want to retch.

    But... but... but... does it make you want to toss it while you dance like an idiot???
  • Reply 85 of 185
    mac-sochistmac-sochist Posts: 675member
    apple ][ wrote: »
    Is there a huge demand for three wheeled vehicles?

    Tablets are like motorcycles (2 wheels), and laptops are like cars (four wheels).

    What MS has done is blended both and come up with a three wheeled vehicle, that's neither better than a motorcycle or a car, and how many three wheeled vehicles do you see on the road?

    There used to be a large market for three-wheeled vehicles. It was a whole category, called "cyclecars". Morgan was just one of the last to enter the market and the only one still around. They eventually went with four wheels, but the three-wheelers were very successful in their day.

    There have been various attempts to revive three-wheel cars, but they all have one thing in common: they put the single wheel on the wrong end! This eliminates the ability to have a real steering mechanism, and causes the vehicles to frequently flip under hard cornering. Nowadays with the majority of family cars being front-wheel drive, where the purpose of the rear wheels is strictly to keep the rear bumper from dragging the ground, a single rear wheel would work just fine. (But it would cut into the trunk space.)

    The reason I bring up this history is that I think MicroSoft is repeating it. Their attempts to combine tablets and laptops are like most three-wheeled cars for the last century—back asswards. They need something light you can carry with you and use as a tablet, which you can attach something heavier to in order to do more...heavy lifting, if you'll pardon the expression.
  • Reply 86 of 185
    9secondko9secondko Posts: 929member
    so...

    MS is avoiding direct comparison with the iPad again.

    Instead choosing to WEIGH their tablet against Apple's laptop.

    LOL.

    Not much a a weight difference to begin with. Beyond that, if you want a laptop, the screen hinge beats the new kickstand by far and the floppy keyboard is going to be annoying while trying to balance both that AND the kickstands tiny contact area on your lap.

    Moral of the story: Get a tablet for tablet use. Get a laptop for laptop use.

    MS Surface dilemma still continues. Jack of all trades, master of none.

    Meanwhile, iPad has mastered the tablet. And Macbook has mastered the laptop.
  • Reply 87 of 185
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac-sochist View Post



    There have been various attempts to revive three-wheel cars, but they all have one thing in common: they put the single wheel on the wrong end! ... Nowadays with the majority of family cars being front-wheel drive, where the purpose of the rear wheels is strictly to keep the rear bumper from dragging the ground, a single rear wheel would work just fine. (But it would cut into the trunk space.)

     

     

    With all due respect to Mark Messier, Can Am has tried this and it still sucks a$$.

  • Reply 88 of 185
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Haha. The iPad has been out since 2010. There's always an opportunity but no one is buying that tripe.

    Years ago it was predicted that China would become a booming economy , 15 or 20 years later it still wasn't reality and nobody believed it would happen.
    But the signs where on the wall and look what's the biggest economy now.
  • Reply 89 of 185

    Let me reiterate for the doubters, the only defender of Windows on a tablet so far in this thread defended it as "maybe" a niche device for video editing. The Windows standard was XP. IT departments force fed us W7, and nobody wants Windows 8.x for anything. The ABA (Anything But Apple) crowd continues to use Windows only out of spite. PC sales are declining, Mac sales are increasing, and people are doing a lot of what they need to do – even at work – on iPhones and iPads.

     

    Never mind about the disparity in apps and the fact that the dogdamn thing is ugly as a mud fence.

  • Reply 90 of 185
    anomeanome Posts: 1,533member
    Well, I know a few tech reviewers who will be happy. I remember a couple of them who decried the iPad's lack of a kickstand as a major flaw (even a "dealbreaker"), so they must really be happy that MS are continuing to include one with the Surface. (To be fair, my mother uses a third party stand to read books on her iPad, because she has problems holding anything for long periods. We got it for her for Christmas for about $30. She still wouldn't switch to a Surface.)

    I still really don't think MS gets tablets yet. Part of this is clear from their approach of "One OS to rule them all", which I kind of hoped would go away after the failure of the original Surface and the departure of Ballmer. For most people, the use cases for a tablet and a PC are different, and the different OSes reflect that. This is why Apple won't merge MacOS and iOS, at least not for a very long time yet, and why Google developed ChromeOS separately from Android. Microsoft, however, are still trying to get everyone to run Windows on everything, which leaves them with a UI that is not quite optimised for either a tablet or a PC (and is downright unusable on a server).
  • Reply 91 of 185
    jungmark wrote: »
    But can you dance with the thing? That's what I want to know!
    reme wrote: »
    any comment on run time? These things need to run for at least 8 hours, preferably 10!

    I wondered that myself when they weighed this turd against a MBA with 12 hours of battery support. Of course if it has a smaller battery and is pushing a fan when it's on, then it really isn't as mobile as either a MBA or a iPad. As long as the Surface is powering a fan motor it might as well be spinning a hard disk too...

    My thinking is that Apple started with a clean slate and developed the iPad (and iPhone) to include as few compromises as possible. Microsoft developed the poorly thought out Surface and is now trying to work some of the bad design issues out of it.

    In a few years or so the Surface could become a serious competitor to the 2013 iPad. However, that assumes Apple will not keep raising the bar, leaving Microsoft continuously chasing behind. Samsung has already staked out their place right behind Apple, so....
  • Reply 92 of 185
    mac-sochistmac-sochist Posts: 675member
    razorpit wrote: »
    There have been various attempts to revive three-wheel cars, but they all have one thing in common: they put the single wheel on the wrong end! ... Nowadays with the majority of family cars being front-wheel drive, where the purpose of the rear wheels is strictly to keep the rear bumper from dragging the ground, a single rear wheel would work just fine. (But it would cut into the trunk space.)

     

    With all due respect to Mark Messier, Can Am has tried this and it still sucks a$$.

    Ha, Ha! Touché. But for racing all bets are off. They've tried six wheels too, remember.
  • Reply 93 of 185
    smarkysmarky Posts: 75member

    You do have to wonder that although Microsoft got it horribly wrong to begin with, they might slowly be getting there.

     

    Surfaces are selling better than ever. Still not great at all. But it is slowly improving.

     

    As is the device itself. The Surface is finding some really good niche uses. They have been looking at doing some interesting audio editing stuff and now with this new version it could be a great device for creatives and Photoshop use. It's still far yet from a mainstream device.

     

    Windows 8 has been out for awhile now and with newer versions getting ever closer, this could be the next big jump the surface makes. With the Hardware getting better, if they fix the software, the next release or two they might actually be onto a real winner.

     

    Gotta hand it to Microsoft to sticking to there plan and refining it. The next couple of years will be make or break for this device... interesting to see where it goes! I admit it's more likely to fail than not, but with the right refinements Microsoft may end up hitting the jackpot after all.

  • Reply 94 of 185
    dws-2dws-2 Posts: 276member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by knowitall View Post





    Years ago it was predicted that China would become a booming economy; 15 or 20 years later it still wasn't reality and nobody believed it would happen.

    But the signs were on the wall and look what's the biggest economy now.

     

    Someday it will probably be possible to make a good combination laptop and tablet, but that doesn't make it smart to do it today.  

  • Reply 95 of 185
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac-sochist View Post





    Ha, Ha! Touché. But for racing all bets are off. They've tried six wheels too, remember.

    I don't remember them when they were running, I was only six at the time.  Ironically I bought my son a Matchbox version not too long ago.  :D

  • Reply 96 of 185
    mpazinasmpazinas Posts: 1member
    I know... Let's do a lame comparison between a tablet and erm... a... laptop and compare the weight. I wonder which one will be the lightest?
  • Reply 97 of 185
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    The Surface Pro 3 genuinely seems like a nice piece of hardware. An i7 processor in a package the size of the original iPad is a fantastic achievements.

     

    However, it seems like Microsoft's marketing team isn't quite as on the ball...

     

    Oops. <img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />

  • Reply 98 of 185
    remereme Posts: 74member

    I watched part of the video, got bored with their defensiveness.  I do agree that they are making improvements but a 25% improvement on the previous model's runtime means nothing if we are in the 4 hour range.  It's 10-12 hours or bust in my book.

     

    I love my Windows PC and Win7, they just took such a wrong turn with Win8 and they are too obtuse, or arrogant,  or both to back away from it and they will pay the price. Too bad, they actually make me wish them ill will.

  • Reply 99 of 185
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Okay, so now take your thumb off the MacBook Air side of the scale.

    In reality, this is the latest Windows world incarnation of a netbook, but too cumbersome to use on your lap to be a laptop. Windows still requires a keyboard to be really usable. And they add a stylus. This is not a product which was designed to be a tablet. The iPad was.

    As Tim Cook said, "Our competition is different - they're confused. They chased after netbooks. Now they're trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they will do next?"

    I don't think you have used recent Windows tablet.

    I'm using my ThinkPad Tablet 2 most of the time without physical keyboard, though I do have Lenovo's keyboard for this unit, and it is quite good quality keyboard. Granted, I'm using it mostly in Metro mode, and that GUI works great without physical keyboard. Browsing, email, all sort of media, FB, touch games (Birds and such) all work really nice, and that covers majority of my tablet needs. I turn my keyboard on only when I want do do something in Office or want to write really long email.

    By the way, my tablet is running 2C Atom and is netbook replacement, kind of. It is my travel machine, and as such it can replace PC for me... short of desktop games (less important on travels) and Lightroom... but it sits at around 590g - not bad for device released 18 months ago - and goes for 8 hours on single charge (10 according to Lenovo, a bit optimistic), and no fans.

    Surface 3 is heavier and does have fan, but it also have Ultrabook hardware inside; it is way above netbook. This machine would have no issue with Lightroom and older desktop games (Left 4 Dead and such) while still being usable as tablet, albeit with weight penalty. I travel overseas relatively often, so idea of one device for both media consummation and more serious work sounds very attractive. To cover all my needs 100%, I'd have to travel with quite a few gadgets - phone, tablet, reader, laptop, camera or two... so reducing that number always feel like a good idea.

    Personally, will keep an eye on it.
  • Reply 100 of 185
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    Awesome! I hope someone here gets one. For myself, I'll pass, my iPad and MBA serve every purpose of this thing just fine.
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