[Mikes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jozTK-MqEXQ

The Pro version has me drooling like no tomorrow...

Pretty much the piece of hardware I've been looking for for the last years... if the pen is any good.

[BloodEagle]

Summary, please.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Well, it sure took them a while.

Speaking of which...

[Klaustrophobia]

video length: 47 minutes.  abort.

Summary, please.

this.

[Jeff Vader]

Summary, please.

A Windows 8 tablet from Microsoft. Has
- 10.6" screen (resolution depends on the model)
- some kind of magnesium alloy case
- microSD, USB 2.0 and micro HD Video ports
- 32-128GB storage depending on the model
- an ARM or an Intel processor, depending on the model
- a cover lid that contains a touch keyboard or a more physical keyboard, depending on the model
- a hefty price, or so the rumours tell.

[Mikes]

missing the most important bit: i.e. the "Pro" Modell being a fully featured Ivy Bridge I5 based Win8 PC with dual active digitizer for touch and pen input - all in a 10" tablet.

That makes it not just more portable but also more powerful than my current 12" Win7 Tablet.

I'll certainly buy - as said before, if the Pen is any good. (i.e. Wacom or comparable)

[Grizzly]

- a cover lid that contains a touch keyboard or a more physical keyboard, depending on the model

And suddenly my interest in touchpads was piqued. I HATE touchscreen keyboards (I never found them to work well with my 10-finger blind-typing skills), but if the thing has a decent keyboard worked into it...

Also, dat i5.

[The E]

I doubt it'll come with a "decent" keyboard; however, a functional one (i.e. one that you can use without too much swearing) would be a great improvement over onscreen keyboards. In any case, since this thing is a full PC, it'll probably come with one or two full USB ports, so plugging in a decent keyboard will be easier than doing the same thing with an iPad.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I'm curious to know if they can win over a portion of the market share, though. Samsung's a competitor too, I believe.

[The E]

I don't think that's the point of this exercise. I think MS' goal here is to provide reference hardware for people to get an idea what to expect from Windows-powered tablets. It's the same thing Google did with the Nexus phones and tablets.

Since MS, unlike Apple, does not manufacture hardware itself, they have a reasonable fear of the market getting fragmented as hell as soon as more than one manufacturer starts shipping those tablets.

[Mikes]

From my perspective... just the form factor + the I5 is already an achievement in engineering.

At the very least.... this combines the power of a full fledged ultrabook/subnotebook with the form factor of something that's smaller than the average netbook.
And then it's quite a bit more on top of that... With touch, but especially with the pen and with this form factor, this allows true "computing on your feet" with an unheard of combination of portability and power.

[Dragon]

This does indeed sound neat. While I personally have no need for it, I guess it might become irreplaceable (at least until the new version comes along) to some other people who need this kind of device. It certainly sounds more comfortable to use than a normal tablet, while being more compact than a netbook.
One question though: How long does the battery last on that thing?

[Mikes]

My current 12" Win7 Tablet with Wacom Pen, together with OneNote, is indeed very much irreplacable to me.

Until that Surface comes along anyways

My guess on Battery Life would be anywhere from 4-7 hours.

Currently getting 4-6 hours (depending on whether WLAN/WWAN is enabled/disabled and screen brightness) on my 12" Win7 I5 (the older vPro Version) Tablet with daylight readable screen, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD - that's with 2x 30wh batteries.

The surface has a smaller battery (I believe something around 40+wh was mentioned), but it also has a smaller screen, the new 22nm Intel CPU and  Windows 8 going for it, which all hopefully will result in less power consumption. Who knows... if Intel and MS brought their A game we might see 8hours+ for office use.

[Black Wolf]

I'm struggling to know what to buy next to replace my netbook. Given that I'll probably be buying a windows phone (Nokia), this is a very real potential purchase... if it'll play FSO with a plugged in keyboard and mouse.

[LHN91]

On somewhat of a side tangent, the Surface Pro is one spot where I can see Windows 8 actually shining. I'm still not sold on the UI on traditional systems, though I've been using it off and on for a bit now; but on a tablet (I've fiddled with it a bit on an older tx2000) it's pretty much spot-on.

[SypheDMar]

The video makes it look pretty nifty. I think I want one.

[Mika]

Microsoft introducing a tablet is now breaking an older rule they have held on for a very long time: they have not been competing with the computer hardware manufacturers before. This is a stab in the back for their computer hardware partners, and they will react on this by offering and supporting alternative operating systems. Microsoft knows this also, but they seem to rely on the demand coming from the consumer side, I expect a lot of advertisements and enthusiastic previews coming up for the Surface. And hey, it might be a great piece of technology, but I can't help but to think that Microsoft is now fighting a losing battle in the long term.

The reason is, they are very late for the mobile and do not actually have an ecosystem yet. Android is currently the most sold operating system in the world, even if you count the PCs. While they could get the consumers interested in their stuff, their recent actions have pretty much closed the doors on the mobile side to all directions. They would have to do it all by themselves, starting from relay antennae and ending up to stores for selling that all.

[Mikes]

Ah... the Pro most definitely has an already existing and rather huge ecosystem... call it an ecouniverse... that makes the Ipad as well as Android look like the toys they are.

Also, I've tried "working" with either device and even compared to current Windows Tablets with a Wacom digitizer and OneNote... Apples as well as Googles offerings are a joke.
Apple and Google don't have a single leg to stand on in the business world - aside from being a "hip" device.

As pointed out before: Ipads and Android Tablets are quite limited content consumption devices. Neat for what they do... but the problem is you can't do all that much with them.

The Surface Pro comes in Tablet format... but allows content creation on par with an actual laptop. That's a gamechanger.

[Mika]

I wouldn't be wagering anything on the operating system that doesn't exist on the markets yet which runs on unproven hardware. Being "hip" seems to have worked pretty well so far. There seems to be a lot of versions being launched of Windows 8, fragmentation comes to mind. So I wouldn't call it an ecosystem until the things are actually out - I don't assume that all Windows PCs actually belong to the MS ecosystem. I'm not sure how quickly the majority of companies are going to upgrade from Windows 7, quite a bit of corporate PCs are running Windows XP and 7 is next on the list as it seems to be functional. Windows 8, I don't know.

Also, what's the difference between a laptop and a tablet? Then again, what's the difference between a thinned laptop and a tablet? For me, Microsoft seems to aim to their own version of MacBook Air, but that's just me. It is of course, better to enter the market sooner than later - and later better than never, but I can't help the feeling that Surface seems to be something that has been sold for years already in the form of thinned laptops.

[Mikes]

Also, what's the difference between a laptop and a tablet? Then again, what's the difference between a thinned laptop and a tablet?

That's the whole point that I am so excited about: With the Surface Pro, finally, there will not be a difference.

It's a fully featured computing device... not merely a stunted media consumption device ala Ipad/Android.


As for the ecosystem... the Pro will run fully featured windows applications.
Compared to that... the Ipad or Android ecosystems are not just tiny... they simply can't compete feature wise.
I find it funny that with all the craze about apps and ecosystems and comparing the "number of apps available" like penis sizes ...   few people focus on the rather essential fact that Android or iOS don't have anything to even remotely be able to compete with the professional software suites available for the windows platform. They are childs in grownup country... and right now they get by by being smaller and cuter than the competition.

For my workflow and daytoday life I certainly do need a fully featured computer (which happens to be a 12" Tablet in my case ). A "media" tablet like the Ipad or Android ones simply won't do. Such a tablet is a convenient extra device to have for simple tasks... but as a "main computing device"?
I like my Android tablet... but i mean, seriously, whom are we kidding? They are cute, convenient toys, but that's about it. As an actual "replacement" for a device with a "real OS", be it Windows, OSX or Linux or whatever, an iOS/Android Tablet would be as suitable as a toy car as a "replacement" for the real thing.

That's what has me excited about the Pro: It looks the perfect mobile device for all my work and entertainment needs - in one small/convenient package.
I.e. One device for all my needs.... instead of 2 like now.