Microsoft Surface (new tablet)

Well it looks cool. Been very happy with my Motorlla Xoom tablet for over year now though. Love the thing. Probably wont get a new tablet until the next major hardware leap.
 
If the Windows 8 Pro Surface with the Intel i5 can run Diablo 3 count me in. I sold my Asus Transformer TF101 recently with the intentions of getting a Tegra 3 tablet, but not I am curious to see what Windows 8 tablets will do.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']Touch screen Diablo 3...ehh count me out. Can't do Inferno on that.

Tablet looks nice, though.[/QUOTE]

It's got a USB port so mouse support maybe and the flap can be used as a keyboard.
 
[quote name='Habbler']It's got a USB port so mouse support maybe and the flap can be used as a keyboard.[/QUOTE]

Also has a touchpad built in which you can just barely see below the keyboard. I have to say I think that blue is hideous, as are most of the colors they showed. I'd probably just get a black one.
 
I still hate Metro, and full Windows OS tablets have always been horrible, don't see how having 8 would make the Pro version any better. I'd just get an ultrabook.
 
16x9 screen kills it for me. I do a ton of reading (PDFs, books, newspapers, magazines etc.) on my iPad and much prefer at 4x3 screen for that.

16x9 screens are just two narrow in portrait. Particularly for letter sized documents.
 
Dynamic document formats Are the answer to that. Just as with most modern web pages, they can resize to fit whatever you're using. Unfortunately most documents aren't dynamic. I remember trying to read a college text book on my Nook Color, it was a PDF. Of course the book was at least letter sized, so that was a bit difficult. Hopefully that will change in the coming years, so it will be easier to read things across different devices.
 
"iPad killer?" They're a few years too late to be claiming that already. I won't lie, it does look very nice. But this is typical Microsoft -- wait a few years after another company innovates, then imitate with a few extra features to claim originality.
 
[quote name='Clak']Dynamic document formats Are the answer to that. Just as with most modern web pages, they can resize to fit whatever you're using. Unfortunately most documents aren't dynamic. I remember trying to read a college text book on my Nook Color, it was a PDF. Of course the book was at least letter sized, so that was a bit difficult. Hopefully that will change in the coming years, so it will be easier to read things across different devices.[/QUOTE]

Yep. A lot of what I'm reading on my iPad are PDFs of scholarly journal articles which aren't dynamic/reflowabe. Even if they were, that doesn't really work for research articles due to the tables and figures needing to be preserved and readable.

Even without such problems, I just find it weird reading on a narrow 16x9 screen in portrait even when it's say a Kindle book that can be reflowed with no problems. Just odd after being used to books and documents that are closer to 4:3 in ratio.
 
It's actually two tablets. One with an ARM processor that runs a slimmer version of windows 8 (windows RT) and comes in 32GB and 64GB sizes. The other has an intel processor, is a little heavier, thicker and runs full windows 8. Comes in 64GB and 128GB. They've said they're committed to pricing them competitively with ARM based tablets and ultrabooks, respectively. Expect $500-$600 for the RT tablet and probably $800-$1000 for the 8 Pro tablet.

Both designs look great to me. They have a slight industrial edge to them like the Zune HD had while being incredibly sleek, well-designed and pushing technical boundaries. It looks like the kick in the ass the tablet market needed. Microsoft is making full-featured PCs in a tablet package and price structure.
 
With HDMI and USB support, I could see using it to replace a tablet, laptop, and a desktop. Right now I need to see the price and battery life.
 
It will probably just end up being a passable laptop but little more. I doubt it is going to be regarded as a super tablet for most people because with its keyboard and backstand it turns too far into the "laptop" area of things.
 
[quote name='Thekrakrabbit']It will probably just end up being a passable laptop but little more. I doubt it is going to be regarded as a super tablet for most people because with its keyboard and backstand it turns too far into the "laptop" area of things.[/QUOTE]

But the keyboard/cover isn't required and the kickstand is transparent if you don't need it.
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']But the keyboard/cover isn't required and the kickstand is transparent if you don't need it.[/QUOTE]

It just doesn't strike me as a full fledged tablet, personally, like the Ipad clearly is. We'll see what it ends up being and how people primarily use it when it comes out though.
 
I'm most interested in seeing what the graphics performance and battery life is like. Hopefully neither one sucks too bad, although I'd gladly sacrifice some battery for better graphics capability. If these can really replace even a moderate laptop and have a decent battery life I may seriously consider one.

It'll also be interesting to see what other PC vendors come up with as a counter response.

By the way, in the press showing yesterday the demonstration Surface tablet they were using crashed, and they had to quickly swap it out for another one! :lol:
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yep. A lot of what I'm reading on my iPad are PDFs of scholarly journal articles which aren't dynamic/reflowabe. Even if they were, that doesn't really work for research articles due to the tables and figures needing to be preserved and readable.

Even without such problems, I just find it weird reading on a narrow 16x9 screen in portrait even when it's say a Kindle book that can be reflowed with no problems. Just odd after being used to books and documents that are closer to 4:3 in ratio.[/QUOTE]
I think I've said this before, but it's not as awkward with a something the 7 inch size. The Nook Color/Tablet, Kindle Fire, etc. are all 16:9 and 7 inches, which ends up about the size of a paperback. Though that does no good for articles and everything.
 
Just looking around a little, seems to me that MS hasn't made it easy for anyone to port their stuff over to the Metro UI. If they've made it such a pain for developers they may have limited support for the RT version of this.
 
Everyone's talking how slick the ad is, but I don't understand why they bothered if they weren't going to immediately start selling these. Do they honestly think the announcement itself will cut into iPad sales? Or do they just want to reassure people that there will be at least one device on the market that takes Win 8 seriously?

I'm not saying that you have to do it like Apple and keep everything hush-hush before announcing a product and then dumping a shitload of that product on people on the same day. But the way they're doing it now pretty much assures that 50-60% of the people who hear about it are going to forget it sometime between now and whenever the hell it comes out.

I'm still stumped by the idea of a tablet itself, and I don't think I'm the only one. MS had a chance to clarify the tablet market, and define it for consumers who didn't identify with the Apple upper crust or the Android geeks. Instead they go for some slick ad that announces a product people can't buy at a price they don't know.
 
It's pretty slick to have the keyboard built into the case and I really like the design.

I just think, this will fall to the iPad because the iPad owns all in the tablet market. Sure some google tablets are making at least a small dent, but I don't think this Windows Tablet will be the iPad killer.

Although I do love the design of it a lot.
 
Hats off to Microsoft for cramming high-end tech into a tablet—but I'm not interested in a tablet that can run Diablo 3 at the expense of battery life. I have a laptop and PC for gaming. Even my netbook (newer model Aspire 722), after a few upgrades, runs a nice looking Civ 5. Furthermore, I have nothing but hate for Windows 8. It's cumbersome and clunky, and Windows Me: The Sequel.

I have the latest ASUS Transformer. (Chose it over the latest iPad.) I'm a fan and will continue to support ASUS going into the future (unless they adopt Windows 8). Flash support had a sizable influence in my decision. Yeah, HTML5 is the better format, but Flash is far more prevalent—and no stream website uses HTML5.

In general, the iPad 3 has a better, higher-resolution screen and a stronger marketplace, but the Transformer Prime is a more complete package with a stronger graphics processor and CPU while weighing less and being thinner.

(Can you tell I pieced together this post on my iPhone over the span of the last couple hours? ;) )

But yeah, woo-hoo, more competition for Apple. Competition is usually good for the consumer.
 
I was afraid that the Metro UI wold be forced on Windows 8 users at first, but it seems that MS did the sensible thing and is not forcing it onto the desktop. On one of these tablets I'd say it's fine, a mobile OS works better, but there's no reason to need it on a desktop or even laptop.
 
[quote name='Clak']I think I've said this before, but it's not as awkward with a something the 7 inch size. The Nook Color/Tablet, Kindle Fire, etc. are all 16:9 and 7 inches, which ends up about the size of a paperback. Though that does no good for articles and everything.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I've read some on a friends Kindle Fire. Still found it a bit narrow relative to my Kindle 3 or iPad 2.

That's just me though. I hate 16x9 screens for anything other than TVs and monitors. I don't have any interest in watching video on a tiny tablet screen when I have a 50" TV, so 16x9 tablets just hold no appeal to me.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']The price would have been nice to been revealed with the product, as well as the CPU choice on the Windows 8 tablet.[/QUOTE]

It's an ivy bridge part. Most certainly one of their ULV parts. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5872/intel-dual-core-ivy-bridge-launch-and-ultrabook-review

If you were referring to the RT tablet, they said "Nvidia ARM" which almost certainly means the Tegra 3. Tegra 4 isn't due out until next year, months and months after RTM for windows 8/RT.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='shrike4242']The price would have been nice to been revealed with the product, as well as the CPU choice on the Windows 8 tablet.[/QUOTE]

they said i5... being that though, probably nothing on the market now, probably some ULV version that can scale very slow to very fast.

It will only have Intel HD 3000 graphics, so all gamers can pass, unless you're playing Angry birds or flash.

There won't be any other options.

I'm curious if maybe AMD could somehow squeeze in one of their processors... at least you'd be able to play D3 on those.
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']All Ivy Bridge family processors have HD 4000, which is a significant improvement over 3000.[/QUOTE]

Then the chart I read was wrong.

Should be able to play D3 then.
 
[quote name='Clak']Just looking around a little, seems to me that MS hasn't made it easy for anyone to port their stuff over to the Metro UI. If they've made it such a pain for developers they may have limited support for the RT version of this.[/QUOTE]

WP7 has been around for awile and there's not much complaint on incorporating Metro there.

To be honest, developers are little bitches. Anything MS incorporates that requires them to do something different they will whine about costing them resources/training.

I'll never forget how MS gave a lead time of at least a year in open beta for the upcoming driver changes in Vista, and even longer in the specs/requirements. Vista came out and all of the big vendors, including HP/etc tried to play it up as if this was some big surprise that their old shit did not work with Vista. Same thing happened when MS switched to the old 3.0 to 95 driver model.

I love the Metro design for my phone I think it'll work well with a tablet.
 
I like the look of the it (design) and the keyboard case however I wonder how the apps will shape up.. because thats one of the key reasons the iPad is so successful.
 
looks really nice, but I still haven't been convinced about needing one of those vs just using my laptop. I already have an iphone, what is the point of getting a tablet?
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']looks really nice, but I still haven't been convinced about needing one of those vs just using my laptop. I already have an iphone, what is the point of getting a tablet?[/QUOTE]

For me its mainly for reading stuff--PDFs, newspapers, magazines etc.

I hate reading on a laptop or PC, and a phone is too small (as is my Kindle 3) for documents etc.

If you don't care about that, probably not much use for a tablet for you. Especially if you already have a very light laptop (or just don't need to carry a laptop around very often).

I do a lot of web surfing, e-mail, checking my calender etc. on it as well. But that's all stuff I could do on my laptop. I just often do it on the iPad since it's lighter and always around usually.
 
[quote name='BigPopov']WP7 has been around for awile and there's not much complaint on incorporating Metro there.

To be honest, developers are little bitches. Anything MS incorporates that requires them to do something different they will whine about costing them resources/training.

I'll never forget how MS gave a lead time of at least a year in open beta for the upcoming driver changes in Vista, and even longer in the specs/requirements. Vista came out and all of the big vendors, including HP/etc tried to play it up as if this was some big surprise that their old shit did not work with Vista. Same thing happened when MS switched to the old 3.0 to 95 driver model.

I love the Metro design for my phone I think it'll work well with a tablet.[/QUOTE]
Well to be fair, a company like MS lives and dies by the developer community. If nobody writes software for it, nobody will want to buy it because of how limited the available software is. And what triggered that post was a thread I was reading about VLC being ported.
 
[quote name='Clak']Well to be fair, a company like MS lives and dies by the developer community. If nobody writes software for it, nobody will want to buy it because of how limited the available software is. And what triggered that post was a thread I was reading about VLC being ported.[/QUOTE]
VLC is going to be ported to the Win tablet platform? They haven't even beta'd the Android version yet!:lol:
 
[quote name='eLefAdEr']"iPad killer?" They're a few years too late to be claiming that already. I won't lie, it does look very nice. But this is typical Microsoft -- wait a few years after another company innovates, then imitate with a few extra features to claim originality.[/QUOTE]

Microsoft first had tablets out in the early 2000s, 8-9 years before the iPad. They were a lot clunkier, but the idea was there.


I can't decide if I want to go for an Android tablet or a Windows 8 tablet to replace my old and slow notebook. I have an Android phone and like the OS, but it would be nice to have my Steam library in a more portable format (my notebook can run only 3-4 of my 174 games). I haven't tried Windows 8 yet, though, so I'll have to demo that before I decide.
 
I'm not a tech person but aren't most programs windows based? I see very little reason as to why it would be difficult to make windows based applications.

I'm sure things have changed a little but most software was always made for windows AND it was also Mac compatible. I'm sure there are a few Mac Os specific programs and applications out there but I always thought everything was made to work for Windows and if it was popular as well then it a Mac Os version was made.

But outside of iPods I haven't used and apple products since iMacs were forced on school systems... so I could be way out of tune.
 
[quote name='dohdough']VLC is going to be ported to the Win tablet platform? They haven't even beta'd the Android version yet!:lol:[/QUOTE]
Didn't mean that. It was someone posting on their forum about wanting to use the source and port it. VLC's creator mentioned about why that would be difficult. Something about only being able to access certain things through APIs. Doesn't mean it's impossible, just more difficult than it would be with a normal copy of Windows. I wasn't really looking for it, just happened upon it randomly.
 
[quote name='Clak']Didn't mean that. It was someone posting on their forum about wanting to use the source and port it. VLC's creator mentioned about why that would be difficult. Something about only being able to access certain things through APIs. Doesn't mean it's impossible, just more difficult than it would be with a normal copy of Windows. I wasn't really looking for it, just happened upon it randomly.[/QUOTE]
I know, I was just being facetious.;)
 
[quote name='dohdough']I know, I was just being facetious.;)[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I don't want anyone else getting their feathers ruffled.

edit- Well I guess I won't be buying it if those prices are true.
 
Ahh, that's some good youtube. You can see the fear in brother v-neck's eyes, he's thinking, "What else on this fucker isn't going to run?" The pessimist in me believes he's goofing on the teleprompter to buy time for a stealth reboot.

Jesus, MS is lousy at product reveals and launches. I guess I'm just basing this on the 360 stuff, the Zune, and now this. Who knows.

Also, I hate v-neck sweaters. Especially with a t-shirt underneath. I don't like them much with dress shirts, but with t-shirt only? That is not appropriate, mister.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top