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Surface Devices

Do you own a Surface device

  • Yes I own a Surface Pro or Surfacebook - it’s great

    Votes: 165 51.2%

  • Yes I own a Surface laptop - it’s great

    Votes: 36 11.2%

  • No - i’m not a fan

    Votes: 69 21.4%

  • Not anymore I had a bad experience

    Votes: 52 16.1%
  • Total voters
    322
Queen6 said:
When Surface beats the M series Mac's I'll revisit, as 4-5 hours is not remotely close to what I need or now used to. Microsoft was on the right path with the Surface Book but dumped it in in favour of pursuing a worse performing MBP clone.

TBH Surface has rather fizzled out into much to do about nothing. At this point Microsoft really needs to dig in and go...

Q-6
Click to expand...

LeeW said:
Yes, this. It's why I have been avoiding it. Six hours is not a full day, and I need a battery capable of a full day. Ten hours would be fine. I am spoiled with the MBA these days on battery, but I still like the SP's form factor and versatility.
Click to expand...

Yeah see I need like zero battery life like 95% of the time. I use my SP9 at like 2 different desk setups so for me it's just fine. And when I travel, that is enough time. I lower the performance and brightness and get like 6 hours so it's all good for me. That said, yes, it is absolutely the one thing I have thought about with the upcoming Snapdragon X Elites. The battery life! I can't wait to see how good it is! Of course the possible performance boost helps as well, but really with what we are doing on ultralight laptops, which is what the surface pro kinda is LOL, that is secondary to me.
 
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eltoslightfoot said:
Yeah see I need like zero battery life like 95% of the time. I use my SP9 at like 2 different desk setups so for me it's just fine. And when I travel, that is enough time. I lower the performance and brightness and get like 6 hours so it's all good for me. That said, yes, it is absolutely the one thing I have thought about with the upcoming Snapdragon X Elites. The battery life! I can't wait to see how good it is! Of course the possible performance boost helps as well, but really with what we are doing on ultralight laptops, which is what the surface pro kinda is LOL, that is secondary to me.
Click to expand...
Hopefully they will on both counts as the Mx series Mac's are very performant given their formfactor. Surface suffers the same issues Mac's had as the thermal envelope is too small to deal with powerful processors & high workloads. The Mx Mac's simply dont have that issue for the most part on or off the mains.

If the new ARM SOC's come close to Apple's Mx series they will radically change Surface and many other ultralight's. They will also push Apple to get off it's laurels and have a little more imagination other than iterative updates to it's HW.

Q-6
 
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LeeW said:
I will wait and see what comes of the X Elite. I feel like I have finally reached an age where impulse purchasing is behind me :)
Click to expand...
Same here, I will stick with my SP9 until it breaks honestly, but I don't use the SP9 for anything crazy...but when I can get a Snapdragon X Elite tablet (surface or OEM) on Swappa.com? Ohhhhhh it will be nice.
 
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eltoslightfoot said:
Has an i5 with 8/256 that I upgraded to 512. Battery life is about 4-5 hours. I could probably get 6 if I cared to push it.
Click to expand...
And you were referring to your Surface 9.

Strange that the PC Magazine review reckons iPad Pro battery sucks:

They say the iPad lasted 5.28, while the Surface Pro 9 was 15.5 hours and with the non Intel chip, up to 19 hours.

Who knows what to believe?
au.pcmag.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 vs. Apple iPad Pro: High-End Tablets Face Off

The Surface Pro 9 is the most powerful Surface tablet yet, with two CPU options, but the M1-powered Apple iPad Pro is tougher competition than ever. Which comes out on top?
au.pcmag.com au.pcmag.com
Battery LifeUp to 15.5 hoursUp to 19 hoursUp to 10 hours (tested at 5:28)
 
Melbourne Park said:
And you were referring to your Surface 9.

Strange that the PC Magazine review reckons iPad Pro battery sucks:

They say the iPad lasted 5.28, while the Surface Pro 9 was 15.5 hours and with the non Intel chip, up to 19 hours.

Who knows what to believe?
au.pcmag.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 vs. Apple iPad Pro: High-End Tablets Face Off

The Surface Pro 9 is the most powerful Surface tablet yet, with two CPU options, but the M1-powered Apple iPad Pro is tougher competition than ever. Which comes out on top?
au.pcmag.com au.pcmag.com
Battery LifeUp to 15.5 hoursUp to 19 hoursUp to 10 hours (tested at 5:28)
Click to expand...
Well, all I can tell you is what I literally got. :)

Interestingly I had an ARM windows tablet and that did get well over 10 hours. (Robo and Kala...it crapped out and I had to get a refund though.)
 
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eltoslightfoot said:
Well, all I can tell you is what I literally got. :)

Interestingly I had an ARM windows tablet and that did get well over 10 hours. (Robo and Kala...it crapped out and I had to get a refund though.)
Click to expand...
Oh I believe you.

I do not believe the Australian PC magazine's review though.

But then a PC magazine doesn't get much revenue from Apple.
 
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TSE said:
Seems like Surface products are on life support. A lot of them out of stock, the newest models only available to corporate account holders, and not much innovation the past few years.
Click to expand...

Surface Hardware line
If Bowden's reports are accurate - Microsoft basically reduced the Surface product line to 3ish existing products - those that sell well in the business/enterprise and education. Forget "Surface Duo/Neo" and inovations for years to come.
  • Surface Pro tablet
  • Surface Laptop*
  • Surface Go tablet.
*it's unclear if the Laptop Go and Laptop Studio will continue


---


Consumers aren't a primary target - since a while
The consumer market - Xbox aside - is not a primary market for Microsoft, that's been happening ever since Steve Balmer left.

The new Windows leadership is from/under their services division, their focus is on (ads and) services, hence the 180 turn as to offer some new services backports and extended security updates to Windows 10 - the later albeit for $ only, but it's open to consumers aswell.

Qualcom's new (Snapdragon Elite Plus/X) ARM CPUs do supposedly finally offer a somewhat competitive overall performance in relation to Apple's M products. Yet I think those ARM based "consumer" versions of Surface Pro's, along with the improved WindowsOnARM are basically a "proof of concept" showcase for business/enterprise world.



TSE said:
I've read multiple legitimate sources that their reliability was among the lowest of any brand.
Click to expand...

Hardware quality/reliability
I work for a global airline and deal with crew hard- and software on a daily basis.
User-error/accidents aside - the Surface's lines product quality noticeably decreased (lots of board-, screen- and fan defects, more bloated batteries) than with earlier versions.
We do have a lot less hardware issues with iPads, though Apple has other issues on the software/management side... Fingers crossed iPadOS and changes due to EU regulations can help in those regards.
 
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It's insane to me that Microsoft is keeping today's Surface event so hush-hush. No livestream, nothing on social media advertising the event. Do they want the Surface line to fail? How weird. It feels anti-consumer.
 
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drinkingtea said:
It's insane to me that Microsoft is keeping today's Surface event so hush-hush. No livestream, nothing on social media advertising the event. Do they want the Surface line to fail? How weird. It feels anti-consumer.
Click to expand...
Watching live blog on Engadget :)

www.microsoft.com

Meet the Surface Pro – A powerful AI 2-in-1 laptop tablet | Microsoft Surface

Experience all-day battery life and versatility in AI-powered Surface Pro 2-in-1 device. This detachable laptop turns into an AI tablet and is our most powerful Surface Pro ever.
www.microsoft.com
 
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I saw why MS was being super hush hush.

They aren’t really talking specifics with these Qualcomm chips.

They’re claiming great battery life but at what performance expense? And they aren’t talking about battery life on higher performance tasks.

The Surface Laptop line is running about $200 less than an equivalently configured MacBook Air. Microsoft is squarely taking aim at the Air because the Qualcomm chips don’t have an equivalent Pro/Max/Ultra equivalent and only max at 16 gb RAM (the M3 can go to 24 gb). Edit: I just realized the processor and RAM configurations are tied to specific colors of the computer…anything more than a 16 Gb Elite 15” can only be had in black…what?!

The AI features Microsoft showed off are useless fluff except for Recall, which is a complete and total privacy nightmare and an example of “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.”

Windows 11 chokes on a high speced Intel PC (ask my work computer) so I can’t imagine it doing well on Qualcomm ARM chips. Windows hasn’t been and still isn’t ARM ready and given the performance overhead from all of Windows’ underlying cruft, I think these devices are going to underwhelm when all is said and done.
 
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c84216 said:
The AI features Microsoft showed off are useless fluff except for Recall, which is a complete and total privacy nightmare and an example of “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.”
Click to expand...
This sums up the real issue for me. As if I didn't have enough telemetry to disable already. The privacy issues here are real. I am done with Surface (and I have a Pro 9).
 
drinkingtea said:
It's insane to me that Microsoft is keeping today's Surface event so hush-hush. No livestream, nothing on social media advertising the event. Do they want the Surface line to fail? How weird. It feels anti-consumer.
Click to expand...
Is it really "hush-hush" to invite a bunch of journalists to it? I think it probably just lets things be more relaxed and low-key. I imagine only a teeny diehard of fans watch these
c84216 said:
I saw why MS was being super hush hush.

They aren’t really talking specifics with these Qualcomm chips.

They’re claiming great battery life but at what performance expense? And they aren’t talking about battery life on higher performance tasks.

The Surface Laptop line is running about $200 less than an equivalently configured MacBook Air. Microsoft is squarely taking aim at the Air because the Qualcomm chips don’t have an equivalent Pro/Max/Ultra equivalent and only max at 16 gb RAM (the M3 can go to 24 gb). Edit: I just realized the processor and RAM configurations are tied to specific colors of the computer…anything more than a 16 Gb Elite 15” can only be had in black…what?!

The AI features Microsoft showed off are useless fluff except for Recall, which is a complete and total privacy nightmare and an example of “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.”

Windows 11 chokes on a high speced Intel PC (ask my work computer) so I can’t imagine it doing well on Qualcomm ARM chips. Windows hasn’t been and still isn’t ARM ready and given the performance overhead from all of Windows’ underlying cruft, I think these devices are going to underwhelm when all is said and done.
Click to expand...
The new Pros and Surface Laptop support 64GB RAM.

It's not like Apple Silicon laptops get 20 hour battery life going full tilt either so I don't understand why people are surprised?
 
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c84216 said:
I saw why MS was being super hush hush.

They aren’t really talking specifics with these Qualcomm chips.

They’re claiming great battery life but at what performance expense? And they aren’t talking about battery life on higher performance tasks.

The Surface Laptop line is running about $200 less than an equivalently configured MacBook Air. Microsoft is squarely taking aim at the Air because the Qualcomm chips don’t have an equivalent Pro/Max/Ultra equivalent and only max at 16 gb RAM (the M3 can go to 24 gb). Edit: I just realized the processor and RAM configurations are tied to specific colors of the computer…anything more than a 16 Gb Elite 15” can only be had in black…what?!

The AI features Microsoft showed off are useless fluff except for Recall, which is a complete and total privacy nightmare and an example of “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.”

Windows 11 chokes on a high speced Intel PC (ask my work computer) so I can’t imagine it doing well on Qualcomm ARM chips. Windows hasn’t been and still isn’t ARM ready and given the performance overhead from all of Windows’ underlying cruft, I think these devices are going to underwhelm when all is said and done.
Click to expand...
Think you should read some of the postings of this event as stats given were same if not better than typical Apple ones LOL

It was stressed how these new AI features are done on device and not cloud for privacy and how much Win 11 for arm is even further optimised etc etc

Use of AI is strictly dependent on the user, some think Excel is bloatware on their devices yet others make a living from it, so YMMV.

The new surface pro certainly has my interest again and firmly kicks the new IPad pros down to the bottom of my list of usable devices and places a cloud over my smallest Mac laptop

I wait for further reviews to emerge :)
 
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I used to own a Surface Pro 6 and I loved it. The only reason I got rid of it was because it lacked a dedicated graphics card. Microsoft makes really good computers, imo. I've also used Macs and the Surface products are up their with MacBooks.
 
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I was looking at these new Surface laptops and the ones with the elite Snapdragon X have the same RAM & storage as a baseline on the 13” models as my six year old Dell 13” laptop that was not even top of the range when it was brought. You’d of thought at least they’d be offering more than 16GB RAM as the baseline model. Also a lot of applications will have to run in emulation as they don’t have support for ARM chips. These laptops cost more for the same hardware mostly as I brought six years ago.

With their new XPS range Dell only offer the snapdragon on their baseline 13 model which says a lot about what they think of it.
 
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super chimp said:
I was looking at these new Surface laptops and the ones with the elite Snapdragon X have the same RAM & storage as a baseline on the 13” models as my six year old Dell 13” laptop that was not even top of the range when it was brought. You’d of thought at least they’d be offering more than 16GB RAM as the baseline model. Also a lot of applications will have to run in emulation as they don’t have support for ARM chips. These laptops cost more for the same hardware mostly as I brought six years ago.

With their new XPS range Dell only offer the snapdragon on their baseline 13 model which says a lot about what they think of it.
Click to expand...
A pure guess :) but I assume Intel users are not so sold on Arm yet where Apple users had no choice :D also with OEM's like Dell a big % of sales are corporate who also maybe shy on Arm based laptops
 
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super chimp said:
I was looking at these new Surface laptops and the ones with the elite Snapdragon X have the same RAM & storage as a baseline on the 13” models as my six year old Dell 13” laptop that was not even top of the range when it was brought. You’d of thought at least they’d be offering more than 16GB RAM as the baseline model. Also a lot of applications will have to run in emulation as they don’t have support for ARM chips. These laptops cost more for the same hardware mostly as I brought six years ago.

With their new XPS range Dell only offer the snapdragon on their baseline 13 model which says a lot about what they think of it.
Click to expand...
We are still waiting on prices for a lot of the custom orders around these devices, but I'm definitely curious to see how much they will ask for 32GB
 
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