EduTech Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) For those of you who are waiting for the Surface Pro Pricing, It appears that they have announced the pricing in the USD but I can't see anything at present for GBP. TechNet Blogs :-) What are you thoughts on that outcome? James. Edited November 29, 2012 by EduTech
Tallwood_6 Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Means it will probably be around £600 here which is just to much.
TotalGeek Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) We are yet to find out what the market will offer but Asus has been doing this for years with its Tranformer Android Devices. This is an article saying circa $499 for the Vivo Smart or $799 for the all singing Vivo Tab. Asus introduces VivoTab, VivoTab Smart Windows 8 tablets for $499 and up - Liliputing Also Samsung are bringing to market the AITV Smart but that looks a little pricier at the moment. Don't forget this isn't Apple (A Dictatorship), we will have choice (A Free Market) and Hardware manufacturers will compete to bring prices down,increase choice and bring innovation too improve on design. Never be the first adopter of technology always wait a little you'll save oodles of cash and if you can wait for SP1 save alot of pain! Edited November 29, 2012 by TotalGeek
jmak Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Too expensive. Dell latitude 10 looks more realistic. $600
FN-GM Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Too expensive. Dell latitude 10 looks more realistic. $600 You will also get them cheaper than that if you deal with your account manager directly.
flyinghaggis Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 To be fair those are pretty much the prices we were expecting. MS were never going to undercut other OEMs by any kind of margin and the surface pro was always positioned to be a high end product. I'm surprised they bothered releasing a 64Gb version of it though. Windows 8 Pro, a full office install plus a couple of apps will just about fill that on its own! It'll be interesting to see how the i5 fares in the battery/performance tests compared to the atom CPU's. I think the biggest problem for the Surface Pro is that Haswell CPU's are about to launch in a couple of months time and it's hard to contemplate spending a grand on it knowing that it'll be out of date in a month or two. Tegra 4 is also out in Q1 2013 so I'm betting on a MS Surface RT/Pro hardware refresh within the next 6 months!
localzuk Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Really, you're thinking about £600 would be too expensive for a tablet with an i5 processor and 4GB RAM, with a 1080p screen is too expensive? Seems like it'd be a good price to me. The Dell Latitude is a much more poorly specced machine being 1366x768 resolution, with an Atom processor and 2GB RAM. For the first time with a tablet type device, since UMPCs, I'm tempted by one.
flyinghaggis Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) Microsoft says the Surface Pro will have 'approximately half the battery life' of the Surface RT | The Verge Hmmmm, looks like my worst fears are confirmed. 4 hours battery life for a tablet/laptop these days is pretty much useless TBH. Roll on Haswell..... Edited November 29, 2012 by flyinghaggis
jmak Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 The Dell is 600 of Uncle Sam's best, so probably ~£400. The Surface Pro isn't outrageously priced for what it is - I just don't think there'll be many buyers. The Dell goes head to head with an iPad. The question is whether it's good enough at what people want from an iPad to win a place in managed networks.
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 It's way too expensive for a tablet. I don't think people are willing to pay that much, no matter what its specifications are on paper. The RT was more reasonably priced and that's already turned out to be a massive flop with manufacturers halving their production
flyinghaggis Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) It's way too expensive for a tablet. I don't really understand the comments saying it's 'too expensive for a tablet'. I mean it's a full on ultrabook spec windows x86 PC with core i5, 128Gb SSD and a 1080p touch-screen. It has a detachable keyboard/stand that basically turn it into a full on laptop and any ultrabook with similar spec would probably retail for that price or higher? It's just a shame that the battery life seems so poor. Edited November 29, 2012 by flyinghaggis
localzuk Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 They really should be selling it as a loss leader, go in and seriously undercut their competition and force their way into the market, but that doesn't seem to be their plan.
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 I don't really understand the comments saying it's 'too expensive for a tablet'. I mean it's a full on ultrabook spec windows x86 PC with core i5, 128Gb SSD and a 1080p touch-screen. It has a detachable keyboard/stand that basically turn it into a full on laptop and any ultrabook with similar spec would probably retail for that price or higher? It's just a shame that the battery life seems to poor.. I dont think that's how joe public sees it. Its not going to be any better on facebook. And would you really want a tablet as your gaming machine? or to use at work 8hrs per day on a screen like that? Id rather spend less on a secondary device.
flyinghaggis Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 I dont think that's how joe public sees it. Its not going to be any better on facebook. And would you really want a tablet as your gaming machine? or to use at work 8hrs per day on a screen like that? Id rather spend less on a secondary device. Apart from gaming I reckon if you connected the Surface pro to a large monitor it would be perfectly usable as your only computer. To be fair the Surface Pro was never really aimed a Joe Public in general as most folks aren't willing to spend more than £400-500 on a computer unless it has an fruit themed logon on the front ! If you want to see expensive look at what Dell are trying to peddle for £1000 and tell me the surface still sounds expensive.... XPS 12 convertible 12" touch Ultrabook
localzuk Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) I dont think that's how joe public sees it. Its not going to be any better on facebook. And would you really want a tablet as your gaming machine? or to use at work 8hrs per day on a screen like that? Id rather spend less on a secondary device. It isn't aimed at Joe Public though is it, and it certainly isn't aimed at gaming as the HD 4000 GPU is good but not *that* good? Its aimed at business, where most of the time, it'd be 'docked'. It wouldn't be a secondary device, it'd be a portable desktop. So, in the office you stick it on the desk, plugged into a monitor, and then when you're out and about, you've still got all that power but in a small form factor. Very much like their future vision ideas - where everything is a peripheral to your single device. Whilst at the same time being manageable through existing infrastructure and without a massive learning curve to integrate into your network. EDIT: Also, this same idea would also make them ideal as a replacement for teacher's laptops. Schools are dabbling with iPads but regularly bump into issues of compatibility or flexibility, but with one of these, they would work with IWBs, projectors, would be able to have the keyboard for periods of extended typing, and would also have the tablet interface when they want to wander round the room with it in their hand. The possibilities are actually pretty good IMO. I'm probably going to try and get one for work to have a play with (first time I'll ever have asked for a piece of 'new' kit to play with like this, in a purely 'blue skies' manner). Edited November 29, 2012 by localzuk
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Apart from gaming I reckon if you connected the Surface pro to a large monitor it would be perfectly usable as your only computer. I guess. If you really wanted to and didn't care about things like storage space. Im a low end user anyway and my work pc only ever struggles if its running more than 4 virtual machines simultaneously. Its a higher spec than a surface pro and cost about £500
localzuk Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 I guess. If you really wanted to and didn't care about things like storage space. Im a low end user anyway and my work pc only ever struggles if its running more than 4 virtual machines simultaneously. Its a higher spec than a surface pro and cost about £500 You can't carry that thing around easily though can you... Plus, the Surface Pro has a USB port, so if you really need more storage, you can plug in an external drive. 128GB is fine for a portable device IMO. Most storage for business is done on a server anyway, and anything 'extra' can go on that external drive, or be accessed via DirectAccess or a VPN etc...
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 EDIT: Also, this same idea would also make them ideal as a replacement for teacher's laptops. Schools are dabbling with iPads but regularly bump into issues of compatibility or flexibility, but with one of these, they would work with IWBs, projectors, would be able to have the keyboard for periods of extended typing, and would also have the tablet interface when they want to wander round the room with it in their hand. The possibilities are actually pretty good IMO. I'm probably going to try and get one for work to have a play with (first time I'll ever have asked for a piece of 'new' kit to play with like this, in a purely 'blue skies' manner). I don't understand your logic at all. Rather than fix an infrastructure problem which causes compatibility issues with non windows devices you'd be prepared to buy touch screens at £600 a piece. I would recommend buying cheaper laptops and spend some money on a more flexible infrastructure.
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 You can't carry that thing around easily though can you... I can remote to it
localzuk Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 (edited) I don't understand your logic at all. Rather than fix an infrastructure problem which causes compatibility issues with non windows devices you'd be prepared to buy touch screens at £600 a piece. I would recommend buying cheaper laptops and spend some money on a more flexible infrastructure. We currently pay £600 a piece for staff laptops... But these don't have touchscreens or the 'small' size that people like about iPads. iPads don't have the flexibility needed for longer term working. We *have* the infrastructure for Windows, projectors, IWBs, Smart notebook etc... So, switching to these is no different than buying the next batch of replacement laptops. Whereas iPads require much faffing and retraining to be able to do less than they can on their existing machines. The cost of changing to use iPads all around would outweigh these devices significantly. Especially considering the iPad is simply not robust enough to survive in a school, especially in a 'plug in to screen' way (we've already had 1 need to be repaired as the connector port wore out through normal use, and that's after around 9 months use). I can remote to it On what? An iPad? Costing you £300? So, your cost has suddenly become £800... Edited November 29, 2012 by localzuk Maths fail!
Arthur Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 It's a higher spec than a surface pro and cost about £500 http://i.imgur.com/HDXgF.jpg
CyberNerd Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Ok enough already. I just think its too expensive when you can put a sub £300 desktop in a classroom and get staff to bring in their own tablets if they want them.
EduTech Posted November 30, 2012 Author Posted November 30, 2012 It might be too expensive for schools etc. to start throwing cash at but from a personal perspective I am actually very tempted at purchasing the Surface Pro and for the first time in a very long time I think I am actually going to make sure that I do get one. For me the RT just wouldn't work but with this tablet being able to be used a Windows 8 PC also then I would not need anything else (in theory i guess it would just replace my laptop, but with the touch screen ability etc.) as I only have an 120GB SSD anyhow and so with the i5 processor & 4GB RAM it would be perfect for everything that I need from a laptop and I think what most IT Pro's would want from such a machine never mind consumers. Ok if your a gamer then a specialist machine you would have anyway, if your a graphic designer then again this may not be suitable and likewise if you like to run various VMs on your laptop then again it probably wouldn't work but for me i can get around those with the likes of a dedicated machine for such VMs or by using Windows Azure via MSDN :-) James.
SYNACK Posted November 30, 2012 Posted November 30, 2012 I want one but not willing to pay the 3k it would probably be in NZ, shame it is not Haswell, guess Intel have not quite got all the bugs out of it yet.
rich_tech Posted November 30, 2012 Posted November 30, 2012 I really like the look of the device (shame about the os lol) but I saw the prices last night and felt that it was immediately too expensive for me, which is a shame
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