Microsoft Cuts the Price of the Surface Pro Again
Microsoft's second generation of Surface tablet just went on sale earlier this week. The only problem is that the first model isn't even a year old, and Microsoft still has some of those first generation Surface Pros to sell. As such, the company has cut the price of the Surface Pro again.
Microsoft dropped the price of the Surface Pro by $100 in August. The discount was originally advertised as a temporary offer but Microsoft soon made the price drop permanent. Now, the company is shaving another $100 off the price of the Surface Pro.
A new deal on the Microsoft Store (online) offers $100 off the Surface Pro, bringing the regular entry-level price of $799 down to $699. This second price drop isn't permanent, as Microsoft says it's only good until the end of the year, but we can't imagine many people will still be buying the first generation Surface come January. It's also worth noting that this deal only applies to those living in the United States and Canada.
The original Surface Pro packs Windows 8 Pro, a dual-core 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, up to 256 GB of storage (entry-level model comes with 64 GB), 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1600 RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000, a 10.6-inch 1920 x 1080p display, two 1.2-megapixel cameras (720p with AF on the rear), WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, and Mini DisplayPort.
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At that price, these things sell like they're going out of style... Which, I guess, they are. I wouldn't expect to find them at this reduced price for long. Frankly, while I like the Surface Pro 2's updates, I don't find any to be game changing ones, so costing several hundred dollars less makes the original Surface Pro well worth it.
The Surface Pro was a good product when they released it in... January, was it? Heck, a great product - an ultrabook hardware, tablet form factor. Of the people I know who have them, their assessment is almost entirely positive. Go on to Amazon and read the Surface Pro reviews - very, very positive. With how much people love to crap on MS for things that other companies get a free pass on, if people are largely saying positive things about a product MS puts out, it *has* to be pretty damned good.
Even here at Tom's, the general word I see going around is "That's a slick unit - I'd get one for a second if the price wasn't so high" or the praise of a happy user. Say what you will about MS as a whole, but they got something right with the Surface Pro.
Because they want one now and don't want to wait 10 months? For a lot of people, the price difference is a fraction of a day's wages and, frankly, it ain't worth the wait to get a product you want.
I seriously don't see why anyone would pay $500 plus for something that has less power than an entry level laptop and worse battery life than a table. It's suppose to be the best of both worlds but it seems to be coming off as the worst of both worlds.
I really wish proper keyboard docks would come out for any of the Surface tablets, ala the ASUS Transformer sort--though I hate ASUS' TF keyboards, they're all far too compact with poor design. I don't know why MS didn't release docks with the next revision of the Surface. The kickstand is more of an afterthought than a good product design IMHO.
Well as others have mentioned here, it is awful heavy to be using in a lot of situations where a tablet shines such as laying down reading or watching videos. Battery life is also crap compared to most tablets.
As a laptop, it can't really be used on a lap because it requires a flat surface to use the keyboard. As a hybrid, the click in keyboards are a much better design because they can be locked in place to create a true clamshell. The touch/type cover design just doesn't make sense in that respect. It's not really any more portable than most of the smaller Utrabooks either.
The only thing it really does well is provide mid-range laptop performance in a tablet form factor. I'm curious what applications would take advantage of that though. Gaming? Nope, need a keyboard and mouse. Photo editing? Maybe but could be hard on a touch screen alone.
Wouldn't someone be much better off with a $600 thin notebook with a slightly larger screen and similar or better specs specs and something like a Nexus 7 for tablet use?
Much thinner and lighter models using Bay Trail and a clamshell keyboard dock would seem to make a lot more sense for a Windows Tablet. What could you do on this in tablet mode that you couldn't accomplish with a Bay Trail based unit?
Panos used it on his lap at the demo, I thought it was a bit staged so I tried myself with a colleagues unit and its pretty good. The screen is pretty good, not as good as a Shield but still one of the best. Weight is subjective, my personal opinion is that if a Surface 'fatigues' a user after holding it then they need to work out a bit more, it's a tablet, not an anvil. And as far as gaming, I agree that a mouse can help with control, but for playability about a third of my Steam collection works on a Surface Pro, the Surface Pro 2 will add to that. So far, if I resort to tired car analogies, it is comparing a Ferrari to a Prius, ok it's heavier, bigger and has shitty gas mileage - but it is still a Ferrari and will burn the Prius at the lights
At that point My Alienware M17x or Clevo or Sager Performance laptop is a better deal. Give me the best you can at a $499.99 price point for a tablet and I will consider it, anything more and I will take the laptop.
Yeah I'm in the market for a new tablet. I'm heavily debating between getting a Surface Pro or an iPad Air. Both are about the same price. I had a Surface RT for a couple of days and while I really liked it, I found the RT version of Windows 8 was just too freaking limiting to what it could do. The Surface Pro runs full Windows 8 and has the hardware to match. I'm leaning more toward the Surface Pro than I am the iPad Air.
Oh no, in terms of hardware the Surface Pro wins every single time.
Touch keyboard yes, Type keyboard no, you either haven't used one and are trolling hard or have spent too much time using a real cherry mx keyboard and have no idea about comparing ultrabook or laptop keyboard