All the stuff I can find here in Germany is either much more expensive (Samsung ATIV PC Pro) or has no digitizer (Acer W700). I would love a 1k€ device with a Asus Transformer style keyboard+battery and an active digitizer. :)
Wasn't aware of that. Yeah, that seems like the device I would want, thanks. (I only glanced at many CES articles on Anandtech and from the pictures I wasn't aware that it was a tablet hybrid. I thought it was just an Ultrabook.) Though the price tag doesn't fit for me at the moment :/. 500 to 600USD more expensive for similar innards than the Surface Pro. 430USD more expansive than the US Samsung XE700 (in Germany it costs 1290€ at least compared to amazon.com 1070USD). The battery in the keyboard surely isn't that expansive :D.
Basically a $200 price premium over an iPad, and for that you get an actual PC. Real CPU, awesome by tablet standards GPU, SSD, USB 3.0 (versus nothing), displayport, etc.
Surface Pro (and other tablet PCs) are why my current iPad will be my last, I presume.
This is almost exactly what I wanted Apple to do back in 2009 or whatever...release an actual PC tablet with an optional touch interface. Instead, they basically just released a giant iPod.
This ain't iPad and will not compete with one. As tablet it has too many compromises that will make sure to remind you of their existence daily: - it's heavy (try holding 2lb in hands for more then one minute and then tell us how great this tablet is) - it has short battery life. Just as you get comfortable burning the late evening hours on Netflix session it will tell you that you have 10% battery left - it has fans and yes, you will hear them. - it would nag you to download the latest windows update and restart 2-3 times a week.
As a Windows 8 ultrabook it has screen that is too small. And Windows 8 did not improve much in scaling the desktop. Without trackpad to navigate you would need either an external mouse (here goes portability) or use digitizer all the time and it isn't convenient in regular laptop configuration with screen popped up.
I would still prefer a combination of 13'' ultrabook (the smallest display that I find usable in laptop) for productivity work and lightweight 10'' tablet for night time entertainment.
Security updates for windows are released on the second Tuesday of the month. Non-security updates are usually released on the fourth Tuesday of the month.
That is basically once every 2 weeks a bit different to 2-3 times a week.
You can also fully customise the way you want updates to be done or not.
I'm on the fence with Surface Pro. While I'm not interested in the RT version, the Pro really draws my interest. But the shortcomings you state make me hopeful for the next version, and I may hold out for that before I buy in.
Wish list for the next: Haswell = battery life Refined covers (include one in the price!) Thunderbolt
What should be interesting about Surface devices is that MS can update them whenever they want. I don't know if they will take that approach, but they have off-the-shelf components going into them, so even the 7W* Ivy Bridges could make their way in before too long. Apple has to design its own SOCs, which brings its own risks. MS could use this to their advantage, if only to tier Surface a little better.
I'm wondering if Intel will ever mix up core designs. Imagine a quad-core part, where 2 cores are Atom and 2 are Core. You get battery life and power in one. Tegra 3 already has this concept, but Surface RT can't use the companion core.
Please please please let us know how the digitizer works; if it's pressure sensitive like a Wacom solution or if it is something more akin to using a stylus on an ipad? I've been dying to confirm what Ive seen on other sites about their patents regarding the "inking" tech. If this is an art tablet or not is important for a lot of people to find out!
Everything I read about it is that it is pressure sensitive and works with an extra digitizer layer like a Wacom. It is not a capacitive stylus like the ones found for most android and apple devices.
I am very interested in this as a replacement for my work notebook that I dock but it has no clear docking solution. I cannot believe Microsoft failed to build in a docking solution and accessory, business sales would be through the roof if they had. Big oversight Microsoft.
You can actually use any USB3 docking station i presume. There are several available already. Would have been smart to add a surface-style one, instead of a mouse hahah
I don't see any hands on in this article. Doesn't sound like you touched it at all. Disappointing to see Anand do this "hands on" link bait like the other so called tech journalists. Every tablet needs a kickstand? I don't think so.
We weren't allowed to take our own photos of the hands on experience while at CES, everything used in the article came direct from MS. That being said, we were allowed unrestricted access to using Surface Pro - which is where this post came from.
1. The kickstand is at a different angle, I think it's a little bit lower as a result.
2. Paul Thurrott is saying that the price points now include the touch cover? Not sure if its true or not.
I'd love to get this, but Haswell is such a step for it, that I have to wait for a Haswell version. It's a shame they couldn't push it back for 6 months.
You are completely right about Haswell. I can't justify buying one when they come out, knowing that even a few months later we'll get something substantially more suited for the purpose. Also, I kinda hope there will be design wins with Kabini in similar style tablets/hybrids with a significantly (read: 150USD at least) lower price. :)
Hi Anand, as always I appreciate the articles you and your team pull off every time. However, it would be good to display also metric unit measurements for dimensions and weight. Screen size in inches instead is perfectly acceptable also for Europeans as this is the de-facto standard when you refer to a monitor or TV set. Ganesh wrote temperature measurements in Centigrade degrees in his latest article and I really appreciate that :)
How many of the contributors are American though? I don't think of this as an American website, it has contributors are readers all over the world. And what would be so hard to go with dual units? It's already being done with a lot of articles, just kinda inconsistently.
@InsGadget: That is a very American approach to take and no disrespect intended but that's also why yanks get a bad name. AnandTech may be an American site, but the writers and readers alike are from all over the world and as such it is appropriate to cater for other reader requirements as well. He didn't ask to display metric instead of imperial but instead asked for it in addition to the imperial units. In many of AnandTech articles this has been done in the past anyway so really this is just a request to keep doing this.
Gees guys. Thunderbolt will die soon, replaced by much better and open standards.
I do agree with 16x9 not being the right aspect ratio. Having used 16x10 displays for so many years, I just can't get used to 16x9 on a computer. It works great on a TV, but not on computers where desktop real-estate is much more of a consideration. I'd really like to see the Surface Pro II be a 16x10 display. And really, who gives a rat if a movie has a black bar at the top and bottom? Is it really worth the loss of workable area for that crap?
I've used: 15" CRT 800x600 15" TFT 1024x768 19" TFT 1280x1024 24" TFT 1920x1200 27" TFT 2560x1440 And would not go back to any one of the previous ones any time. Would I get more work done on a 2560x1600? Maybe. But it would be twice as expensive as well. 16:9 still gives black bars in most movies btw. Only most TV shows and animations stuff is really 16:9. Still, the cost savings make me go "meh" concerning going back to 16:10.
The pricing isn't bad, and perhaps Microsoft doesn't want to compete too much with its OEMs, but it could be a bit more aggressive. After all, Microsoft is trying to enter a market. With the type cover, it winds up being slightly more expensive than a comparable MacBook Air or ASUS Zenbook. While it does have the touchscreen, it lacks the extra connectivity that the Air/Zenbook have. I doubt that at 2lbs it will get much actual "tablet" usage, though it could serve that role in a pinch. Road warriors looking to pack a single device might like it, though I think others may prefer a basic touchscreen Ultrabook and a small tablet or iPad mini.
$899 is for 64GB SSD which is a no go on Windows 8 devices. After Windows installation and Intel SmartStart partitioning, you would be lucky to have 25GB left for everything else. 128GB model costs $999 and once you add type cover and tax, you are well into $1,200 territory.
Do we really know if it is a 17W chip though? They still don't have a model# listed on their site and both Microsoft and Intel have been cagey about the question. I'd assume it doesn't have the new ones, but why the delay? 3rd gen i5 tablets have been out since last summer.
It seems that a lot of ultrabooks and Windows tablets have single-channel memory that is not user upgradable / replaceable, which significantly impact the integrated GPU performance (which is already not-that-great to start with).
While this is similar, the stand and floppy keyboard don't really make it optimal for using everywhere. Yes you get the benefit of using it as a tablet, but with something like a Lenovo Yoga design you could have that too.
Tablet PCs exist since years, and only few use one. I own a convertible with a Wacom pen since almost 6 years. I had a daily use to take study notes, but since I don't have to take notes any longer, I barely use the tablet feature and mostly use it as a notebook. The problems in the past and now: - Tablet PCs were very expensive, this has changed with Samsung Series 7 Slate models which were priced competive, still nobody bought those. The Surface Pro is priced very low, but availabilty in retail store will still be very limited. - Windows 7, and so is 8, is horrible on a tablet PC, it lacks a proper UI and proper Software. If you fall back to Metro UI and Metro Apps then you could have bought a Win RT tablet instead which gives you more for much less. So you buy it because you want to use x86 software, thus you'll use the traditional UI because those programs are not Metro apps. But if you use the traditional UI and programs you can forget finger input, only pen input works properly. The programs which make good use of pen are powerful, but rare, such a program is Photoshop or Sketchbook. But people who buy a slate for those tasks have bought one already and such people are rare. Notetaking programs on Windows are non-existent. OneNote is horrible and full of bugs, it's a nightmare and not reliable. Even worse, the UI is totally tablet unfriendly. Lots of great Microsoft research programs (InkSeine) are beta programs which never really got finished. So people are 'stuck' with specialized software, like Photoshop, Sketchbook, PDF Revu, but that's it. - Without a proper note taking app, you still can use the handwriting recognition, but typing is magnitudes faster, more precise and less exhausting. So you won't use the pen for this. You'll use it to draw, sketch, annotate ... or take traditional notes with small drawings, but as already said, this is impossible because Windows lacks a comfortable/versatile/stable software. (Courier might have solved this) I used PDF Revu to take notes, which is much more versatile and stable than OneNote, but misses other features OneNote offers. So far from perfect. - The big Windows advantage, Office, is unusable with a tablet. And this hasn't improved the slightest with Office 2013. - So to use Office (the must have x86 feature) the tablet must be 'transformable', which the Surface clearly isn't, because its flip stand doesn't make it an ultrabook/netbook/notebook like the Asus Transformer or like the Fujitsu Stylistic Q702, and the touch keyboard just has no tactile feedback. - As long as a tablet has a fan, it's crap. Sorry, but even if the fan is quiet, it's still audible, if it's audible, it's annoying. Especially for tablet, which gets used in meetings, lectures, gets used to learn stuff a dead silent system is a requirement. - The battery must last the whole day, 10 hours minimum! If it does not last that long, you won't have joy using the machine. The battery life of my tablet was 12 hours max. which I often made use of. 4 hours is a total no go. A working day just is longer than 4 hours. - The surface Pro is more expensive than ARM tablets, has crappy battery life for a tablet!, has a noisy fan, is heavier and gets hotter than ARM tablets, the software hasn't improved compared to older Windows based tablets which people had few use for, the Samsung Note (without all the disadvantages the Surface Pro has) might offer better note taking software than Windows 8 (that's a shame for MS) and sketching software is available too for Android. You can't use the Surface Pro as a Ultrabook replacement because of the lack of a sturdy keyboard dock.
Why should Surface Pro be more succesful than previous Windows x86 based tablets? The price is still higher than the ARM competition and the software still a nightmare. If you want a couch tablet, get an iPad, or Nexus Tablet. If you want to take notes, get a Samsung Note. If you want to do sketches, get a Samsung Note or maybe, if you don't mind the short battery life and annoying fan (which will ramp up if you use Photoshop) a Surface Pro. If you want to input text, get a Ultrabook. If you want a universal device, with both pen input and keyboard, wait for a ARM tablet from ASUS/Samsung with pen and keyboard dock, they will come. If you want more, buy two devices (Samsung Note + Ultrabook), a good single device doesn't exist yet and won't in the near future.
I am a Tablet PC lover and love the abilty to input text with a pen, but the Surface Pro doesn't offer anything new.
With no word do you mention hybrids. Are they not the cross between ultrabook and tablet you might want? Also, the hands on with the Surface Pro mention that they only hear the air movement of the fans when they stick their ear right next to it. I'm personally thrilled about these new products.
Hybrids: I thought I mentioned them (Asus Transformer/Fujitsu Stylistic Q702). But either they run Android and lack pen or they run Win x86 but use low specs compared to ultrabooks (Atom, no pen input, ...) And even with a proper equipped Hybrid running Windows 8, the main problems: fan, short battery life, no proper pen based note taking software, no proper pen/touch based OS, weight, price, remains. A metro app for pen input is unlikely because Surface RT lacks pen input, but MS seems to have no interest in pen based programs either (buggy/tablet unfriendly OneNote and tablet (touch and pen) unfriendly Office suite) Else, yes, you are right, a hybrid is a cross I might want. A powerful lightweight tablet, which I can use to draw on/take notes on it, which can get converted to a Ultrabook with a sturdy keyboard dock, and in the far future, which at home gets placed on a docking station which then gets connected through thounderbolt to a dedicated GPU/larger monitor/HDD/... But proper software is a requirement. Microsoft does not offer them, neither with Windows 8 nor with Office 2013. Google with Android and Samsung with their Premium Suite do a far better job in my opinion right now. Tight integration of the pen in the Android OS. Not perfect, but much more versatile and useful.
The hands on says: 'Surface Pro features two fans that are audible under heavy load'. Regardless that a fan is always audible and annoying the magnitude of how annoying the fan is depends on 1. The fan control software: If it ramps up as soon as you tax the CPU, after the tablet got used for half an hour, thus the body is warm (so use it at least half an hour, then judge how loud the fan is in normal use), and the fan varies its speed in short time, which such small systems often do because they lack a proper sized heatsink as puffer, then it's totally annoying. 2. The software you use: If you intend to use Photoshop, expect an always running fan.
You mentioned those specific devices but didn't make a comment about the device class in general. :) As for fan noise: yeah, we'll have to wait and see and probably hear for ourselves. I have no issues with a few fans in the design though. If you want fanless, you can't get powerful. It's a trade off I'm willing to make. Win8 tablets with a powerful Core i5 will have short battery life compared to ARM tablets (3 to 6 hours depending on usage is my guess). But that is why I talked about a hybrid which should have a backup battery in the keyboard dock, doubling capacity. 6 to 10 hours isn't short for me. :) If it is for you, then yeah, powerful Win8 tablets aren't your thing. :D I don't see how you are comparing Android and iOS to Win8. The first two are clearly toy OSes in my opinion. I have an Android 10.1" tablet and a Galaxy Nexus, but they just don't compete with a Win8 device in terms of capabilities for me. And I can use a lot of Win8 with touch input. But that's the beauty of it, I don't have to. With the keyboard dock I can use it like I use my current laptop and do many more different things. Android and Samsung might have good Pen integration for the few products they offer. But they are still driven by slow ARM SoCs running a mobile OS. That is not appealing to me. And I wasn't talking about Atom Win8 tablets, those aren't strong enough in my opinion to be interesting to me (I'm currently using a laptop with a Core i3-330UM which is not fast but still crushed any Atom). With the introduction of Haswell and Kabini we will likely see better battery life and/or lower cost for those tablet/hybrids as well.
So is there any kind of option for this? I would like a windows tablet, but have to say if I could get an ipad with 3G/4G connectivity for the same price, I would give that strong consideration. When I first bought my Android tablet I thought I would not miss 3G, but it is a major weakness when on a trip and you want to use the tablet (we drive from Minnesota to Ohio and back a few times a year to visit family). And no, I would never even consider another android tablet. I suppose you could use a hotspot, but that is just another device to bother with, and has battery life concerns of its own.
Agreed. Manufactures have completely dropped the ball in regards to offering Tablets and Hybrids with 3G\4G connectivity. A friend of mine has been on a tight lookout and can't find a single decent device that offers this.
I have been a Windows user since the very first version was released and my laptop is running Windows 8 Pro. That said, I can see how a tablet could make good use of the Metro interface but when it comes to using legacy applications, which you would be required to do, you lose the tablet's whole point which is to be a touch device -- not a keyboard or even a stylus device.
Microsoft has gone after a completely different market segment here. This device is heavy, cumbersome, runs hot due to the legacy processor design and requires a fan and vent openings, and gets lousy battery life. The display is large but the pixels per inch is less than competitors.
All of this and they couldn't build in mobile connectivity? Not even 3G? I'll tell you why. The wireless carriers wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole. It's a non-starter. This is not a mobile tablet device.
It's not even a notebook device. It's some strange beast that Microsoft cooked up in their laboratories trying to compete with Apple and Android tablets but trying to hold on to Windows using Windows 8 that's just not really ever going to be tablet friendly because the developers and users just won't ever put down their styluses and give up their tactile keyboards.
And yes I own and love an Apple iPad. It is truly a tablet. It handles 80% of my daily needs which turns out to be web-based. I do almost all of my email correspondence on it. It even has Office compatible apps loaded so I can edit and create spreadsheets, or write a Word document and email them back to my office or in my case I use Dropbox. I read the latest news, get the latest updates on my stocks, the weather, texting all without special applications and even when my tablet is asleep. I get all of this, 3G and 4G wireless, and over 10 hours of battery life.
I don't want a tablet. I think a tablet is a waste of money and time. If all one wants to do is surf the web and check email OK then a tablet, be it iPad or Android, will do. The screen size will make it difficult to do anything with major PC apps but I am sure one can work with them in a pinch. What I want is what Surface Pro is and that is to include Samsung Slate 7 that I only found out about a few months ago. I want a full blown PC that I can take and use like a tablet. I will be able to code, create powerful Excel apps using VBA, and anything else a PC can do. Windows 8 is designed for a touch screen so it works here.
I have been doing my homework and I have devised a docking system for Surface Pro or for that matter Samsung Slate 7 or similar. When I want to work on a PC app I will connect a blue tooth keyboard and mouse, I will use a product from Matrox call DualHead2Go to connect two large monitors and magically I have a docking system for a full PC. Now when I am on the go I just take Surface Pro and use it like a simple tablet; however, if I need to run a full PC app while I am out I can. I can't do that with and iPad, or Asus Tranformer Prime.
As for battery life, it is a full blown PC and one has to power that hardware. I can live with the current battery life. I think most people think and iPad is a productive device, I for one think it is too limiting. My fellow workers have gone the iPad route and I only seen one person find a single use for one and he had to gel break it to get more functionality. He uses his to carry all the manuals he needs for his job in PDF form while traveling.
The next big thing will be when one can carry a monitor the size of a wrist watch and project a 24" display in front of the person or on a wall. Then Surface Pro and others in this form factor will be truly portable.
I also hear everyone talking about the next version will have this or that. That the next version will be better. No one can keep up with technology. If you can buy it then it is already obsolete. So I say buy today what you think will work for you and use it. Yes tomorrow someone will come out with the next big thing. Unless you have megabucks one cannot keep up with the megabytes.
If I can find the funds I will buy Surface Pro and create a docking station as I have described. Right now my $4K 2007 Sager laptop is still working for me.
This is my reason I think the surface pro is a better alternative tablet/PC to a lot of the competitors it makes a great road warrior one and all alternative I have owned the samsung series 7 slate for a year and I hated the separate docking station setup with the external bluetooth keyboard you could not do work on a plane because of the setup going through the airport security was a pain and packing and carrying the tablet,dock,and bluetooth keyboard and power adapter and setting it up on a table becomes cumbersome after awhile thats why the samsung is on ebay now as i post this message what the surface offers that other windows tablets dont is portability all you have to carry is the tablet and power adapter the keyboard doubles as a smart cover open keyboard tablet awakes from sleep close keyboard tablet goes to sleep when I left meetngs with the samsung I had to grab power adapter,docking station and bluetooth keyboard thats why the surface pro is good for road warriors.
Gosh, road warrior needs more then 4 hours of runtime, mobile connectivity and a keyboard that you can use with laptop on your lap. Surface Pro may be anything but it ain't road warrior.
The problem is that it costs less to purchase a separate tablet and a separate PC than it does to purchase a tablet PC and a dock. A good dock is outrageously expensive. Why not just buy a kindle fire (or whatever) for only a fraction more. And you dont have to mess with all the problems that docks bring.
Are we going to see a Windows 8 Tablet Roundup? There are a number of them out there, but this is the first one I've seen you guys review, unless I missed it.
Any chance of rounding up some Pro tablets and comparing them? I'm not interested in RT.
the comparison is between a $900 X64 powered computer and a $500 ARM powered tablet that only runs Apps.
It's like comparing a garden trowel to a shovel. They both are similar in function, but one can do significantly more work at the end of the day.
If Apple had a similar product, it would most likely sell for at least $1,200. IMO.
At the end of the day, anyone who knows what their needs are, will make the purchase based on those needs. If they haven't a clue, then they will most likely buy the IProduct.
Finally, a tablet-form hybrid that hopefully ("fingers-crossed") satifies many business-related needs.
I unfortunately work in a job that requires doing random tasks with short notice on weekends - which means that essentially if I go anywhere farther than 30-minutes from home, I have to bring a laptop with me.
If this represents an opportunity for me to get rid of my laptop and have something more portable, where I can access excel and powerpoint locally, or log into a virtual desktop environment, I am definitely excited by it.
Needs haswell + thunderbolt for me to be interested at all. Haswell for performance, battery life, and GPU, thunderbolt for an easy to connect dock + desktop GPU. Stick those on there and you could replace most computers with 2 cables (I dont think thunderbolt can supply enough power on its own).
Nice summary, just have to disagree about the connections.
I think the Surface Pro has an excellent choice of connections, using the modern PC standards of Displayport and USB 3.0.
Thunderbolt would require an extra chip, since it is not integrated in Ivy Bridge, and so more power consumption and more cost, and quite likely lower reliability. And all it would do is provide an alternate way to use displayport and USB, since few people use the expresscard slot these days.
This is a really neat concept, but we're still probably two generations of hardware out from it really being viable on a large scale. So say 2016 we'll be looking at really effective tablets running a full OS. Not sure if that means a beefed up android on arm, or windows on x86, but we'll get to the point where the average person only needs a single computing device.
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solipsism - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I think I'd rather just go for an Ultrabook. Even one of the convertible Ultrabook tablets look like a better deal.Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
All the stuff I can find here in Germany is either much more expensive (Samsung ATIV PC Pro) or has no digitizer (Acer W700). I would love a 1k€ device with a Asus Transformer style keyboard+battery and an active digitizer. :)MrSpadge - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Thinkpad Helix for you, maybe? Not sure about the digitizer, though.Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Wasn't aware of that. Yeah, that seems like the device I would want, thanks. (I only glanced at many CES articles on Anandtech and from the pictures I wasn't aware that it was a tablet hybrid. I thought it was just an Ultrabook.) Though the price tag doesn't fit for me at the moment :/. 500 to 600USD more expensive for similar innards than the Surface Pro. 430USD more expansive than the US Samsung XE700 (in Germany it costs 1290€ at least compared to amazon.com 1070USD). The battery in the keyboard surely isn't that expansive :D.ananduser - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Are you honest in your comment ? I thought you were a macuser so you'd always go mac because of OSX mainly.Wolfpup - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
Basically a $200 price premium over an iPad, and for that you get an actual PC. Real CPU, awesome by tablet standards GPU, SSD, USB 3.0 (versus nothing), displayport, etc.Surface Pro (and other tablet PCs) are why my current iPad will be my last, I presume.
This is almost exactly what I wanted Apple to do back in 2009 or whatever...release an actual PC tablet with an optional touch interface. Instead, they basically just released a giant iPod.
Netscorer - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
This ain't iPad and will not compete with one. As tablet it has too many compromises that will make sure to remind you of their existence daily:- it's heavy (try holding 2lb in hands for more then one minute and then tell us how great this tablet is)
- it has short battery life. Just as you get comfortable burning the late evening hours on Netflix session it will tell you that you have 10% battery left
- it has fans and yes, you will hear them.
- it would nag you to download the latest windows update and restart 2-3 times a week.
As a Windows 8 ultrabook it has screen that is too small. And Windows 8 did not improve much in scaling the desktop. Without trackpad to navigate you would need either an external mouse (here goes portability) or use digitizer all the time and it isn't convenient in regular laptop configuration with screen popped up.
I would still prefer a combination of 13'' ultrabook (the smallest display that I find usable in laptop) for productivity work and lightweight 10'' tablet for night time entertainment.
iamezza - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
Security updates for windows are released on the second Tuesday of the month. Non-security updates are usually released on the fourth Tuesday of the month.That is basically once every 2 weeks a bit different to 2-3 times a week.
You can also fully customise the way you want updates to be done or not.
Houdani - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I'm on the fence with Surface Pro. While I'm not interested in the RT version, the Pro really draws my interest. But the shortcomings you state make me hopeful for the next version, and I may hold out for that before I buy in.Wish list for the next:
Haswell = battery life
Refined covers (include one in the price!)
Thunderbolt
MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
What should be interesting about Surface devices is that MS can update them whenever they want. I don't know if they will take that approach, but they have off-the-shelf components going into them, so even the 7W* Ivy Bridges could make their way in before too long. Apple has to design its own SOCs, which brings its own risks. MS could use this to their advantage, if only to tier Surface a little better.I'm wondering if Intel will ever mix up core designs. Imagine a quad-core part, where 2 cores are Atom and 2 are Core. You get battery life and power in one. Tegra 3 already has this concept, but Surface RT can't use the companion core.
Taristin - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Please please please let us know how the digitizer works; if it's pressure sensitive like a Wacom solution or if it is something more akin to using a stylus on an ipad? I've been dying to confirm what Ive seen on other sites about their patents regarding the "inking" tech. If this is an art tablet or not is important for a lot of people to find out!Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Everything I read about it is that it is pressure sensitive and works with an extra digitizer layer like a Wacom. It is not a capacitive stylus like the ones found for most android and apple devices.Mustang66 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
This preview has more details about the stylushttp://winsupersite.com/windows-8/microsoft-surfac...
Dug - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
It is a Wacom digitizer. You will have pressure and once its released you will be able to get better pens for it.Jhlot - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I am very interested in this as a replacement for my work notebook that I dock but it has no clear docking solution. I cannot believe Microsoft failed to build in a docking solution and accessory, business sales would be through the roof if they had. Big oversight Microsoft.radmax - Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - link
You can actually use any USB3 docking station i presume. There are several available already. Would have been smart to add a surface-style one, instead of a mouse hahahdarwinosx - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I don't see any hands on in this article. Doesn't sound like you touched it at all. Disappointing to see Anand do this "hands on" link bait like the other so called tech journalists.Every tablet needs a kickstand? I don't think so.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
1. This is a pipeline post.2. You must have read a different article than I, it clearly looks to me like he handled a device for some time at least.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
We weren't allowed to take our own photos of the hands on experience while at CES, everything used in the article came direct from MS. That being said, we were allowed unrestricted access to using Surface Pro - which is where this post came from.kyuu - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
"Every tablet needs a kickstand? I don't think so."Hell yes they do. What's the downside, exactly?
QuesoLoco - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
1. The kickstand is at a different angle, I think it's a little bit lower as a result.2. Paul Thurrott is saying that the price points now include the touch cover? Not sure if its true or not.
I'd love to get this, but Haswell is such a step for it, that I have to wait for a Haswell version. It's a shame they couldn't push it back for 6 months.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
You are completely right about Haswell. I can't justify buying one when they come out, knowing that even a few months later we'll get something substantially more suited for the purpose. Also, I kinda hope there will be design wins with Kabini in similar style tablets/hybrids with a significantly (read: 150USD at least) lower price. :)agentsmithitaly - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Hi Anand,as always I appreciate the articles you and your team pull off every time.
However, it would be good to display also metric unit measurements for dimensions and weight. Screen size in inches instead is perfectly acceptable also for Europeans as this is the de-facto standard when you refer to a monitor or TV set.
Ganesh wrote temperature measurements in Centigrade degrees in his latest article and I really appreciate that :)
InsGadget - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
American website should use American units. Sorry but this just makes sense.Death666Angel - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
How many of the contributors are American though? I don't think of this as an American website, it has contributors are readers all over the world. And what would be so hard to go with dual units? It's already being done with a lot of articles, just kinda inconsistently.AncientWisdom - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
@InsGadget:That is a very American approach to take and no disrespect intended but that's also why yanks get a bad name.
AnandTech may be an American site, but the writers and readers alike are from all over the world and as such it is appropriate to cater for other reader requirements as well. He didn't ask to display metric instead of imperial but instead asked for it in addition to the imperial units. In many of AnandTech articles this has been done in the past anyway so really this is just a request to keep doing this.
augustofretes - Thursday, January 31, 2013 - link
People from all over the world write and read this site.But... let's be honest, America needs to ditch their uncivilized units.
scottwilkins - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Gees guys. Thunderbolt will die soon, replaced by much better and open standards.I do agree with 16x9 not being the right aspect ratio. Having used 16x10 displays for so many years, I just can't get used to 16x9 on a computer. It works great on a TV, but not on computers where desktop real-estate is much more of a consideration. I'd really like to see the Surface Pro II be a 16x10 display. And really, who gives a rat if a movie has a black bar at the top and bottom? Is it really worth the loss of workable area for that crap?
Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I've used:15" CRT 800x600
15" TFT 1024x768
19" TFT 1280x1024
24" TFT 1920x1200
27" TFT 2560x1440
And would not go back to any one of the previous ones any time. Would I get more work done on a 2560x1600? Maybe. But it would be twice as expensive as well. 16:9 still gives black bars in most movies btw. Only most TV shows and animations stuff is really 16:9. Still, the cost savings make me go "meh" concerning going back to 16:10.
KPOM - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
The pricing isn't bad, and perhaps Microsoft doesn't want to compete too much with its OEMs, but it could be a bit more aggressive. After all, Microsoft is trying to enter a market. With the type cover, it winds up being slightly more expensive than a comparable MacBook Air or ASUS Zenbook. While it does have the touchscreen, it lacks the extra connectivity that the Air/Zenbook have. I doubt that at 2lbs it will get much actual "tablet" usage, though it could serve that role in a pinch. Road warriors looking to pack a single device might like it, though I think others may prefer a basic touchscreen Ultrabook and a small tablet or iPad mini.Netscorer - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
$899 is for 64GB SSD which is a no go on Windows 8 devices. After Windows installation and Intel SmartStart partitioning, you would be lucky to have 25GB left for everything else. 128GB model costs $999 and once you add type cover and tax, you are well into $1,200 territory.tonyn84 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Do we really know if it is a 17W chip though? They still don't have a model# listed on their site and both Microsoft and Intel have been cagey about the question. I'd assume it doesn't have the new ones, but why the delay? 3rd gen i5 tablets have been out since last summer.MrSpadge - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Could be a standard 17 W TDP chip with configurable TDP set for 13 W.ssiu - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
It seems that a lot of ultrabooks and Windows tablets have single-channel memory that is not user upgradable / replaceable, which significantly impact the integrated GPU performance (which is already not-that-great to start with).tipoo - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
While this is similar, the stand and floppy keyboard don't really make it optimal for using everywhere. Yes you get the benefit of using it as a tablet, but with something like a Lenovo Yoga design you could have that too.UpSpin - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Tablet PCs exist since years, and only few use one. I own a convertible with a Wacom pen since almost 6 years. I had a daily use to take study notes, but since I don't have to take notes any longer, I barely use the tablet feature and mostly use it as a notebook.The problems in the past and now:
- Tablet PCs were very expensive, this has changed with Samsung Series 7 Slate models which were priced competive, still nobody bought those. The Surface Pro is priced very low, but availabilty in retail store will still be very limited.
- Windows 7, and so is 8, is horrible on a tablet PC, it lacks a proper UI and proper Software. If you fall back to Metro UI and Metro Apps then you could have bought a Win RT tablet instead which gives you more for much less. So you buy it because you want to use x86 software, thus you'll use the traditional UI because those programs are not Metro apps. But if you use the traditional UI and programs you can forget finger input, only pen input works properly. The programs which make good use of pen are powerful, but rare, such a program is Photoshop or Sketchbook. But people who buy a slate for those tasks have bought one already and such people are rare. Notetaking programs on Windows are non-existent. OneNote is horrible and full of bugs, it's a nightmare and not reliable. Even worse, the UI is totally tablet unfriendly. Lots of great Microsoft research programs (InkSeine) are beta programs which never really got finished. So people are 'stuck' with specialized software, like Photoshop, Sketchbook, PDF Revu, but that's it.
- Without a proper note taking app, you still can use the handwriting recognition, but typing is magnitudes faster, more precise and less exhausting. So you won't use the pen for this. You'll use it to draw, sketch, annotate ... or take traditional notes with small drawings, but as already said, this is impossible because Windows lacks a comfortable/versatile/stable software. (Courier might have solved this) I used PDF Revu to take notes, which is much more versatile and stable than OneNote, but misses other features OneNote offers. So far from perfect.
- The big Windows advantage, Office, is unusable with a tablet. And this hasn't improved the slightest with Office 2013.
- So to use Office (the must have x86 feature) the tablet must be 'transformable', which the Surface clearly isn't, because its flip stand doesn't make it an ultrabook/netbook/notebook like the Asus Transformer or like the Fujitsu Stylistic Q702, and the touch keyboard just has no tactile feedback.
- As long as a tablet has a fan, it's crap. Sorry, but even if the fan is quiet, it's still audible, if it's audible, it's annoying. Especially for tablet, which gets used in meetings, lectures, gets used to learn stuff a dead silent system is a requirement.
- The battery must last the whole day, 10 hours minimum! If it does not last that long, you won't have joy using the machine. The battery life of my tablet was 12 hours max. which I often made use of. 4 hours is a total no go. A working day just is longer than 4 hours.
- The surface Pro is more expensive than ARM tablets, has crappy battery life for a tablet!, has a noisy fan, is heavier and gets hotter than ARM tablets, the software hasn't improved compared to older Windows based tablets which people had few use for, the Samsung Note (without all the disadvantages the Surface Pro has) might offer better note taking software than Windows 8 (that's a shame for MS) and sketching software is available too for Android. You can't use the Surface Pro as a Ultrabook replacement because of the lack of a sturdy keyboard dock.
Why should Surface Pro be more succesful than previous Windows x86 based tablets? The price is still higher than the ARM competition and the software still a nightmare.
If you want a couch tablet, get an iPad, or Nexus Tablet. If you want to take notes, get a Samsung Note. If you want to do sketches, get a Samsung Note or maybe, if you don't mind the short battery life and annoying fan (which will ramp up if you use Photoshop) a Surface Pro. If you want to input text, get a Ultrabook.
If you want a universal device, with both pen input and keyboard, wait for a ARM tablet from ASUS/Samsung with pen and keyboard dock, they will come. If you want more, buy two devices (Samsung Note + Ultrabook), a good single device doesn't exist yet and won't in the near future.
I am a Tablet PC lover and love the abilty to input text with a pen, but the Surface Pro doesn't offer anything new.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
With no word do you mention hybrids. Are they not the cross between ultrabook and tablet you might want?Also, the hands on with the Surface Pro mention that they only hear the air movement of the fans when they stick their ear right next to it.
I'm personally thrilled about these new products.
UpSpin - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Hybrids: I thought I mentioned them (Asus Transformer/Fujitsu Stylistic Q702). But either they run Android and lack pen or they run Win x86 but use low specs compared to ultrabooks (Atom, no pen input, ...) And even with a proper equipped Hybrid running Windows 8, the main problems: fan, short battery life, no proper pen based note taking software, no proper pen/touch based OS, weight, price, remains. A metro app for pen input is unlikely because Surface RT lacks pen input, but MS seems to have no interest in pen based programs either (buggy/tablet unfriendly OneNote and tablet (touch and pen) unfriendly Office suite)Else, yes, you are right, a hybrid is a cross I might want. A powerful lightweight tablet, which I can use to draw on/take notes on it, which can get converted to a Ultrabook with a sturdy keyboard dock, and in the far future, which at home gets placed on a docking station which then gets connected through thounderbolt to a dedicated GPU/larger monitor/HDD/...
But proper software is a requirement. Microsoft does not offer them, neither with Windows 8 nor with Office 2013. Google with Android and Samsung with their Premium Suite do a far better job in my opinion right now. Tight integration of the pen in the Android OS. Not perfect, but much more versatile and useful.
The hands on says: 'Surface Pro features two fans that are audible under heavy load'. Regardless that a fan is always audible and annoying the magnitude of how annoying the fan is depends on
1. The fan control software: If it ramps up as soon as you tax the CPU, after the tablet got used for half an hour, thus the body is warm (so use it at least half an hour, then judge how loud the fan is in normal use), and the fan varies its speed in short time, which such small systems often do because they lack a proper sized heatsink as puffer, then it's totally annoying.
2. The software you use: If you intend to use Photoshop, expect an always running fan.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
You mentioned those specific devices but didn't make a comment about the device class in general. :)As for fan noise: yeah, we'll have to wait and see and probably hear for ourselves. I have no issues with a few fans in the design though. If you want fanless, you can't get powerful. It's a trade off I'm willing to make.
Win8 tablets with a powerful Core i5 will have short battery life compared to ARM tablets (3 to 6 hours depending on usage is my guess). But that is why I talked about a hybrid which should have a backup battery in the keyboard dock, doubling capacity. 6 to 10 hours isn't short for me. :) If it is for you, then yeah, powerful Win8 tablets aren't your thing. :D
I don't see how you are comparing Android and iOS to Win8. The first two are clearly toy OSes in my opinion. I have an Android 10.1" tablet and a Galaxy Nexus, but they just don't compete with a Win8 device in terms of capabilities for me. And I can use a lot of Win8 with touch input. But that's the beauty of it, I don't have to. With the keyboard dock I can use it like I use my current laptop and do many more different things. Android and Samsung might have good Pen integration for the few products they offer. But they are still driven by slow ARM SoCs running a mobile OS. That is not appealing to me.
And I wasn't talking about Atom Win8 tablets, those aren't strong enough in my opinion to be interesting to me (I'm currently using a laptop with a Core i3-330UM which is not fast but still crushed any Atom). With the introduction of Haswell and Kabini we will likely see better battery life and/or lower cost for those tablet/hybrids as well.
frozentundra123456 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
So is there any kind of option for this? I would like a windows tablet, but have to say if I could get an ipad with 3G/4G connectivity for the same price, I would give that strong consideration. When I first bought my Android tablet I thought I would not miss 3G, but it is a major weakness when on a trip and you want to use the tablet (we drive from Minnesota to Ohio and back a few times a year to visit family). And no, I would never even consider another android tablet. I suppose you could use a hotspot, but that is just another device to bother with, and has battery life concerns of its own.AncientWisdom - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Agreed. Manufactures have completely dropped the ball in regards to offering Tablets and Hybrids with 3G\4G connectivity. A friend of mine has been on a tight lookout and can't find a single decent device that offers this.mnbob1 - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
I have been a Windows user since the very first version was released and my laptop is running Windows 8 Pro. That said, I can see how a tablet could make good use of the Metro interface but when it comes to using legacy applications, which you would be required to do, you lose the tablet's whole point which is to be a touch device -- not a keyboard or even a stylus device.Microsoft has gone after a completely different market segment here. This device is heavy, cumbersome, runs hot due to the legacy processor design and requires a fan and vent openings, and gets lousy battery life. The display is large but the pixels per inch is less than competitors.
All of this and they couldn't build in mobile connectivity? Not even 3G? I'll tell you why. The wireless carriers wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole. It's a non-starter. This is not a mobile tablet device.
It's not even a notebook device. It's some strange beast that Microsoft cooked up in their laboratories trying to compete with Apple and Android tablets but trying to hold on to Windows using Windows 8 that's just not really ever going to be tablet friendly because the developers and users just won't ever put down their styluses and give up their tactile keyboards.
And yes I own and love an Apple iPad. It is truly a tablet. It handles 80% of my daily needs which turns out to be web-based. I do almost all of my email correspondence on it. It even has Office compatible apps loaded so I can edit and create spreadsheets, or write a Word document and email them back to my office or in my case I use Dropbox. I read the latest news, get the latest updates on my stocks, the weather, texting all without special applications and even when my tablet is asleep. I get all of this, 3G and 4G wireless, and over 10 hours of battery life.
And yes I wrote this on my iPad.
ATimson - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
If you want a mobile tablet device, get the Surface RT, not the Surface Pro.AncientWisdom - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Sadly the RT doesn't answer half of what he does on his iPad. And in any way why would he switch from one tablet to another?jdperk - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
I don't want a tablet. I think a tablet is a waste of money and time. If all one wants to do is surf the web and check email OK then a tablet, be it iPad or Android, will do. The screen size will make it difficult to do anything with major PC apps but I am sure one can work with them in a pinch. What I want is what Surface Pro is and that is to include Samsung Slate 7 that I only found out about a few months ago. I want a full blown PC that I can take and use like a tablet. I will be able to code, create powerful Excel apps using VBA, and anything else a PC can do. Windows 8 is designed for a touch screen so it works here.I have been doing my homework and I have devised a docking system for Surface Pro or for that matter Samsung Slate 7 or similar. When I want to work on a PC app I will connect a blue tooth keyboard and mouse, I will use a product from Matrox call DualHead2Go to connect two large monitors and magically I have a docking system for a full PC. Now when I am on the go I just take Surface Pro and use it like a simple tablet; however, if I need to run a full PC app while I am out I can. I can't do that with and iPad, or Asus Tranformer Prime.
As for battery life, it is a full blown PC and one has to power that hardware. I can live with the current battery life. I think most people think and iPad is a productive device, I for one think it is too limiting. My fellow workers have gone the iPad route and I only seen one person find a single use for one and he had to gel break it to get more functionality. He uses his to carry all the manuals he needs for his job in PDF form while traveling.
The next big thing will be when one can carry a monitor the size of a wrist watch and project a 24" display in front of the person or on a wall. Then Surface Pro and others in this form factor will be truly portable.
I also hear everyone talking about the next version will have this or that. That the next version will be better. No one can keep up with technology. If you can buy it then it is already obsolete. So I say buy today what you think will work for you and use it. Yes tomorrow someone will come out with the next big thing. Unless you have megabucks one cannot keep up with the megabytes.
If I can find the funds I will buy Surface Pro and create a docking station as I have described. Right now my $4K 2007 Sager laptop is still working for me.
tablet - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
This is my reason I think the surface pro is a better alternative tablet/PC to a lot of the competitors it makes a great road warrior one and all alternative I have owned the samsung series 7 slate for a year and I hated the separate docking station setup with the external bluetooth keyboard you could not do work on a plane because of the setup going through the airport security was a pain and packing and carrying the tablet,dock,and bluetooth keyboard and power adapter and setting it up on a table becomes cumbersome after awhile thats why the samsung is on ebay now as i post this message what the surface offers that other windows tablets dont is portability all you have to carry is the tablet and power adapter the keyboard doubles as a smart cover open keyboard tablet awakes from sleep close keyboard tablet goes to sleep when I left meetngs with the samsung I had to grab power adapter,docking station and bluetooth keyboard thats why the surface pro is good for road warriors.Netscorer - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
Gosh, road warrior needs more then 4 hours of runtime, mobile connectivity and a keyboard that you can use with laptop on your lap. Surface Pro may be anything but it ain't road warrior.Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
The problem is that it costs less to purchase a separate tablet and a separate PC than it does to purchase a tablet PC and a dock. A good dock is outrageously expensive. Why not just buy a kindle fire (or whatever) for only a fraction more. And you dont have to mess with all the problems that docks bring.KaRRiLLioN - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Are we going to see a Windows 8 Tablet Roundup? There are a number of them out there, but this is the first one I've seen you guys review, unless I missed it.Any chance of rounding up some Pro tablets and comparing them? I'm not interested in RT.
GotThumbs - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
the comparison is between a $900 X64 powered computer and a $500 ARM powered tablet that only runs Apps.It's like comparing a garden trowel to a shovel. They both are similar in function, but one can do significantly more work at the end of the day.
If Apple had a similar product, it would most likely sell for at least $1,200. IMO.
At the end of the day, anyone who knows what their needs are, will make the purchase based on those needs. If they haven't a clue, then they will most likely buy the IProduct.
Best Wishes,
Artanis3 - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
Finally, a tablet-form hybrid that hopefully ("fingers-crossed") satifies many business-related needs.I unfortunately work in a job that requires doing random tasks with short notice on weekends - which means that essentially if I go anywhere farther than 30-minutes from home, I have to bring a laptop with me.
If this represents an opportunity for me to get rid of my laptop and have something more portable, where I can access excel and powerpoint locally, or log into a virtual desktop environment, I am definitely excited by it.
ilkhan - Saturday, January 26, 2013 - link
Needs haswell + thunderbolt for me to be interested at all.Haswell for performance, battery life, and GPU, thunderbolt for an easy to connect dock + desktop GPU. Stick those on there and you could replace most computers with 2 cables (I dont think thunderbolt can supply enough power on its own).
CSMR - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - link
Nice summary, just have to disagree about the connections.I think the Surface Pro has an excellent choice of connections, using the modern PC standards of Displayport and USB 3.0.
Thunderbolt would require an extra chip, since it is not integrated in Ivy Bridge, and so more power consumption and more cost, and quite likely lower reliability. And all it would do is provide an alternate way to use displayport and USB, since few people use the expresscard slot these days.
Midwayman - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
This is a really neat concept, but we're still probably two generations of hardware out from it really being viable on a large scale. So say 2016 we'll be looking at really effective tablets running a full OS. Not sure if that means a beefed up android on arm, or windows on x86, but we'll get to the point where the average person only needs a single computing device.jiang su - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
All of surface are made in JiangSu(China)FPY is a problem for us , we can only made 4000 each day for 24 hours.
1 millions surface in Feb9 is a joking ， actually we only send about 40000 to America and Canada.
hope u guys can take one............
http://xiangce.baidu.com/picture/detail/53582bfee5...
Jasonclark1985 - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
go ahead take all my money right now I want this. but http://bit.ly/1sVtta1