microsoft to make own tablets

Bennie-Mac · 19 Jun 2012 at 02:19

anyon said:
Android tablets and the ipad of course have 1200p and above displays at the $500 level. I'll give you better connectivity such as USB3 and multicard reader, but Android tablets are coming out with 2GB of RAM. SSD drives again I'll concede.

I don't see why this should reach $1000 and above.

You cant think of this as a tablet though, this is a full blown ultrabook in an even smaller package. The cost to design and produce such a machine would be huge, it takes some serious design work to squeeze all those components into such a small space.

The entire screen is only 0.67mm thick, that alone would have taken a huge amount of research and design. You've got to remember that there are other costs involved other than the cost of all the parts added together

manveruppd · 19 Jun 2012 at 02:25

Wow, it's like they time-travelled from the past to this afternoon, read this thread about how we all wanted them to get a move on and stick a full x86 experience onto a tablet, and then went back to the past and said "we'll show those morons on the internet!"

I'm impressed, genuinely!

muon · 19 Jun 2012 at 02:35

Bennie-Mac said:
You cant think of this as a tablet though, this is a full blown ultrabook in an even smaller package. The cost to design and produce such a machine would be huge, it takes some serious design work to squeeze all those components into such a small space.

The entire screen is only 0.67mm thick, that alone would have taken a huge amount of research and design.

The design work shouldn't appear as an amazing feat unless you somehow believe this is harder to do than in the creation of the iPad and other tablets. The groundwork has been done by Apple, Samsung and other OEMs. They don't have high prices to recoup high development costs.

Also it does appear as to be expected the price of Ultrabooks will tumble.

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ultrabook/book-of-do/

$749 for a second gen ultrabook. At that price this tablet would be perfect.

Again, the Galaxy Note 10.1 will have a large battery, a 1920*1200 display, a stylus compatible display for $549. Don't underestimate the engineering feat in the creation of this and the iPad 3 which has a 42Whr battery crammed in.

Why do I compare this to tablets? The key components are the same. Touch screen display? Battery? RAM? SoC?

Certain things are better, USB3, SSD support, a better SoC.

I wasn't expecting a $1000+ price tag, is my summary.

McPhee · 19 Jun 2012 at 02:42

Bennie-Mac said:
Better screen, an Ivy Bridge CPU, more RAM, bigger hard drives, better cooling, a full version of the OS, bigger battery, more connections, more RAM etc etc etc

All those things add up to £££s. There is a reason why ultrabooks are over double the price of a bog standard PC World special laptop. Im sure Microsoft could have made it cheaper with the same rough internal specs, but the design would have suffered as a result.

What is going on with the screens? I keep reading conflicting reports; some say both are the same 1080p panel, others say the RT model is lower resolution. I think it's the former, but that's just based on Engadget's hands-on with the RT model (they specifically mention being relieved to finally use a Windows 8 tablet with a decent resolution screen).

Bennie-Mac · 19 Jun 2012 at 02:56

anyon said:
The design work shouldn't appear as an amazing feat unless you somehow believe this is harder to do than in the creation of the iPad and other tablets. The groundwork has been done by Apple, Samsung and other OEMs. They don't have high prices to recoup high development costs.

Also it does appear as to be expected the price of Ultrabooks will tumble.

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ultrabook/book-of-do/

$749 for a second gen ultrabook. At that price this tablet would be perfect.

Again, the Galaxy Note 10.1 will have a large battery, a 1920*1200 display, a stylus compatible display for $549. Don't underestimate the engineering feat in the creation of this and the iPad 3 which has a 42Whr battery crammed in.

Why do I compare this to tablets? The key components are the same. Touch screen display? Battery? RAM? SoC?

Certain things are better, USB3, SSD support, a better SoC.

I wasn't expecting a $1000+ price tag, is my summary.

I think were both getting a bit ahead of ourselves here

Nothing has been announced yet and im sure that Microsoft know better than anyone the trends in Ultrabook pricing. Like you say they are already falling in price, and im sure Microsoft will want the Surface to be as competitive as possible. I can see it being well priced but it will be on the expensive side of things, $1000+ though? Perhaps for the top of the line version with the biggest hard drive, but who knows!

satchef1 said:
What is going on with the screens? I keep reading conflicting reports; some say both are the same 1080p panel, others say the RT model is lower resolution. I think it's the former, but that's just based on Engadget's hands-on with the RT model (they specifically mention being relieved to finally use a Windows 8 tablet with a decent resolution screen).

The only thing I know for sure is that on Microsofts own spec sheet, the RT version says "ClearType HD Display", and the Pro version says "ClearType Full HD Display". Engadget were impressed like you said with the RTs screen, which hopefully means the Pro version will have something comparable to Apple's Retina Display.

Edit - I just re-read the Engadget article and they are saying the RT version has a Full HD screen... Now im very confused!

cu3ed · 19 Jun 2012 at 03:04

I assumed they meant 720p and 1080p respectively.

Bennie-Mac · 19 Jun 2012 at 03:12

cu3ed said:
I assumed they meant 720p and 1080p respectively.

Me too but engadget says Full HD on the RT version which to me means 1080p...

McPhee · 19 Jun 2012 at 03:19

Maybe it's a mistake on Microsoft's spec sheet? I can't see Engadget making that sort of error, especially when they bemoan other vendor's screen resolutions in the same sentence.

delpy8 · 19 Jun 2012 at 07:00

wow better than i ever imagined I'm getting one,

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/hands-on-with-microsoft-surface-for-windows-rt/

delpy8 · 19 Jun 2012 at 07:01

full spec with Windows pro below

http://gdgt.com/microsoft/surface/for-windows-pro/specs/

delpy8 · 19 Jun 2012 at 07:02

full spec with RT

http://gdgt.com/microsoft/surface/for-windows-rt/specs/

topgun06 · 19 Jun 2012 at 10:35

Does look very smart, I must say!

Only heard about this today. I'll have to do some more investigating.

Amp34 · 19 Jun 2012 at 15:11

Temi_D said:
"Pro coming in 64GB and 128GB models, will be priced on par with Ultrabook-class PCs" Well that kinda sucks...

satchef1 said:
I'm hoping that means the low-end ultrabooks, so anything from £700 through to about £900. Anything more than that and it's a definite 'no' for me, purdy as it might be.

Shamikebab said:
No way it'll be higher than that. Saying that this is the first tablet that could actually replace a laptop really, mighty impressive product so far.

Why? With the tech squashed in a little more and the build quality up there with the high end ultrabooks you're going to be looking at £900+ easily, unless MS subsidise them. The RT version will be priced at the cheaper price point. It'll be most interesting to see if the pro versions come with 4 or 8 GB of RAM.

You're not going to get a high end tablet for the same as a cheap laptop, there is a reason ultrabooks and other high end laptops (yep, including apples) cost the amount they do.

manveruppd · 20 Jun 2012 at 11:50

Microsoft WILL subsidise them if they're sensible: when you're trying to break into a market where your main competitor has 80% and many consumers think ALL tablets are "iPads", then you have to be both cheaper and better than your competitor to break in. That's why the iPad is still outselling all Android tablets combined - they gave Apple too much of a head start.

Deleted member 77746 · 20 Jun 2012 at 11:54

Bennie-Mac said:
Two versions available, Windows RT and Full Windows complete with Intel chips

Edit - The full Intel one is larger than the RT, "Less than 2lbs and less than 14mm"

Edit 2 - "This has specs that rivals that of the best ultrabooks that have ever been announced."

Holy Moly! This may be a game changer if the price is right! Tempted.

delpy8 · 22 Jun 2012 at 06:56

will be expensive

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/201...-for-windows-rt-999-for-windows-8-pro-models/

Robbo · 22 Jun 2012 at 07:18

So about a grand for the Pro model, will your average person (sofa browser/emailer) think it's worth that much more than an iPad? I doubt it.

The RT just isn't as exciting.

Battery life might not be quite as great on the Pro too.

LostPhil · 22 Jun 2012 at 08:17

Robbo said:
So about a grand for the Pro model, will your average person (sofa browser/emailer) think it's worth that much more than an iPad? I doubt it.

The RT just isn't as exciting.

Battery life might not be quite as great on the Pro too.

Judging by their comparitives for the Macbook Air and 32GB Wifi iPad, we'll be looking at roughly £480 and £850 for the RT/Pro models respectively in the UK. I think £850 will be a decent price point for the pro. I'd consider it. Anything higher then it's priced me out of the market.

It also looks like one of the keyboard covers is included, which eases the "pain" somewhat.

bastic · 22 Jun 2012 at 08:20

LostPhil said:
Judging by their comparitives for the Macbook Air and 32GB Wifi iPad, we'll be looking at roughly £480 and £850 for the RT/Pro models respectively in the UK. I think £850 will be a decent price point for the pro. I'd consider it. Anything higher then it's priced me out of the market.

It also looks like one of the keyboard covers is included, which eases the "pain" somewhat.

dont expect many to sell for £850...

Defiant306 · 22 Jun 2012 at 09:47

The Pro version will be a big seller in Corporate market, my work will eat them up with gusto as we can fully manage and integrate it into our MS back end with out fear of security and lack of controls. Also we for clarity we cant get access to iOS's source code so its a no no for us.

Hell even I'm thinking of one of the Pro's for myself, its an ultra book in tablet form that you can be basically cradled and turn into a full blown medium performance PC.
Also the price will be fine at about £800, this isn't no iPad.

Arm processors are NOT a patch on the performance of a i5 processor, they are great at being light wight viewing and processing devices but for the performance user they get annoying fast.

I do think RT will have a harder time of it in the consumer market at the start but its going to punch through as time goes on due to Win 8 slowly replacing older versions on other PCs. You will see more migrate to tablets rather than replace PCs and such, windows is known quantity and that's what a lot of people want when buying a PC.

If they start hitting the £200-250 mark then I think Amazon, BB and Google might have things to worry about. But its possible that might not happen due to the extortionate price MS are demanding even for the RT version of the OS.