Surface Pro 3 announcement and prices

[miketheappleguy]

So, apparently Microsoft will be announcing the next generation of their surface pro tablets this Tuesday as well as their new surface mini. The prices have also been revealed for the surface pro 3 models
i3-4GB RAM-64GB - $799
i5-4GB RAM-128GB - $999
i5-8GB RAM-256GB - $1299
i7-8GB RAM-256GB - $1549
i7-8GB RAM-512GB - $1949

http://www.wpcentral.com/comment/918175

My thoughts on this are these are highly overpriced. $799 just for an I3 and 4gigs of ram to go alongside 64g of storage? I can find quality i5 and 17 with 8gigs of ram laptops on Amazon in the 600-800 dollar range. What your guys opinion on the matter.

 

[MRU]

I won't buy one ever again until windows sorts out hi-dpi screen support. I could barely use photoshop cc or corel painter 13 on the device because of gui issues.

 

[apolloa]

I won't buy one ever again until windows sorts out hi-dpi screen support. I could barely use photoshop cc or corel painter 13 on the device because of gui issues.

haha, you sir give me doubts about getting one, not that I have the money at present. But yeah reading your issues with the display does give me second thoughts!

To the OP, you do realise that is nothing more then a rumour at present? MS have not announced officially what they will be launching or pricing. Wait till Tuesday before complaining, and by the that i3 will be more powerful than an iPad Air for the same price plus they may had expandable storage.

 

[rhinosrcool]

So, apparently Microsoft will be announcing the next generation of their surface pro tablets this Tuesday as well as their new surface mini. The prices have also been revealed for the surface pro 3 models
i3-4GB RAM-64GB - $799
i5-4GB RAM-128GB - $999
i5-8GB RAM-256GB - $1299
i7-8GB RAM-256GB - $1549
i7-8GB RAM-512GB - $1949

http://www.wpcentral.com/comment/918175

My thoughts on this are these are highly overpriced. $799 just for an I3 and 4gigs of ram to go alongside 64g of storage? I can find quality i5 and 17 with 8gigs of ram laptops on Amazon in the 600-800 dollar range. What your guys opinion on the matter.

Way overpriced!

 

[miketheappleguy]

haha, you sir give me doubts about getting one, not that I have the money at present. But yeah reading your issues with the display does give me second thoughts!

To the OP, you do realise that is nothing more then a rumour at present? MS have not announced officially what they will be launching or pricing. Wait till Tuesday before complaining, and by the that i3 will be more powerful than an iPad Air for the same price plus they may had expandable storage.

While I understand these are "rumors", the sooner we get to the actual event the more accurate these rumors are. I also wouldn't compare the ipad and the surface pro to each other since the ipad is a true tablet and the surface pro is a glorified laptop without a keyboard attached to it. The Ipad doesn't run Maverics it runs a mobile operating system. Also the Surface pro uses about 20-30 gigs just for the operating system itself. Which in reality leaves you with around 30-40 gigs for yourself.

Not that I'm bashing the surface pro. I was looking forward to possibly getting one this time around. I've seen people with them and have been able to use them a bit and they're pretty unique. That being said I don't see the value of them at those prices when you can easily get an I5 or I7 laptop for half the cost.

 

[maflynn]

My only hope is to see a Surface pro 2 get some significant price cuts for them to eliminate the inventory.

I think the prices if they hold true are way too high.

 

[apolloa]

While I understand these are "rumors", the sooner we get to the actual event the more accurate these rumors are. I also wouldn't compare the ipad and the surface pro to each other since the ipad is a true tablet and the surface pro is a glorified laptop without a keyboard attached to it. The Ipad doesn't run Maverics it runs a mobile operating system. Also the Surface pro uses about 20-30 gigs just for the operating system itself. Which in reality leaves you with around 30-40 gigs for yourself.

Not that I'm bashing the surface pro. I was looking forward to possibly getting one this time around. I've seen people with them and have been able to use them a bit and they're pretty unique. That being said I don't see the value of them at those prices when you can easily get an I5 or I7 laptop for half the cost.

Some people would find value with a 10" tablet with the same power as a laptop. But you can guarantee mate that the current Surface Pro 2 will drop in price a fair bit once the new ones are out.
Also don't forget the very high likelihood of a small Surface being launched, but they may only run Windows RT from what I've read.

 

[maflynn]

but they may only run Windows RT from what I've read.

Or they kill off windows RT altogether

 

[apolloa]

Or they kill off windows RT altogether

Oooohhhh that's a brave thing to say what would they have on the baby Surface then? Although I think the 8" Lenovo runs full Windows doesn't it?

 

[maflynn]

Oooohhhh that's a brave thing to say what would they have on the baby Surface then? Although I think the 8" Lenovo runs full Windows doesn't it?

I believe the Lenovo does run the full Win8. I just don't see any value in windows RT, but given their new unified experience, I doubt we'll see it

 

[miketheappleguy]

Some people would find value with a 10" tablet with the same power as a laptop. But you can guarantee mate that the current Surface Pro 2 will drop in price a fair bit once the new ones are out.
Also don't forget the very high likelihood of a small Surface being launched, but they may only run Windows RT from what I've read.

What I'm interested to know is other than the rumored 12 inch screen size with the surface pro 3. What would be the difference between the I5 processor in the surface pro 2 and the I5 processor in the surface pro 3 that would justify the $1000 dollar price?

 

[apolloa]

I believe the Lenovo does run the full Win8. I just don't see any value in windows RT, but given their new unified experience, I doubt we'll see it

Then a 8" Surface running full Windows would be very compelling... Be interesting to see what CPU they would put in it, Atom I would guess?

----------

What I'm interested to know is other than the rumored 12 inch screen size with the surface pro 3. What would be the difference between the I5 processor in the surface pro 2 and the I5 processor in the surface pro 3 that would justify the $1000 dollar price?

Well the current Surface Pro 2 is around that price point, as for the difference I'm not sure as I don't know if Intel have launched any new low power CPU's in the last year? Maybe they'll give a performance boost and slightly better graphics?

 

[AppleScruff1]

Way overpriced!

How much is a 64GB iPad Air?

 

[miketheappleguy]

How much is a 64GB iPad Air?

Around 800. But the Ipad Airs OS doesn't take up half of it.
And we should really stop comparing the two. They're completely different beasts.

 

[Technarchy]

I'll be watching for specifics.

Personally I like the Surface, but don't own one. I'm keeping an eye on how it progresses though. Those prices are a bit insane though.

 

[maflynn]

Around 800. But the Ipad Airs OS doesn't take up half of it.
And we should really stop comparing the two. They're completely different beasts.

They are in one sense, but to the consumers they're not. They see a Microsoft tablet and then see an iPad for a lot less. They also are familiar with the volume of apps on iOS. MS is fighting from a position of weakness, they're making their job all the harder by pricing their tablets more then iPad and marketing the Surface as a tablet, not as a replacement for a laptop, in other words they're marketing it as a alternatives to the iPad and and being one, they're pricing themselves out of sales.

 

[rhinosrcool]

How much is a 64GB iPad Air?

The 64 gb iPad Air, although a good tablet, is way overpriced, too.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I don't see the Surface Pro as an alternative to the iPad. They aren't even in the same ballpark, IMO. It should be compared to the MBA from a performance standpoint. It's a hybrid ultrabook/notebook.

 

[rhinosrcool]

I don't see the Surface Pro as an alternative to the iPad. They aren't even in the same ballpark, IMO. It should be compared to the MBA from a performance standpoint. It's a hybrid ultrabook/notebook.

You brought up the Air?

I agree, but that wasn't what I responded to. As for the overpriced comment on the Pro, sales reflect the past pros as overpriced; the pro 3 (if prices are correct), will see similar disappointing sales (imho). Prices are without keyboards, correct?

 

[AppleScruff1]

You brought up the Air?

I agree, but that wasn't what I responded to. As for the overpriced comment on the Pro, sales reflect the past pros as overpriced; the pro 3 (if prices are correct), will see similar disappointing sales (imho). Prices are without keyboards, correct?

I brought up the iPad Air because of the overpriced comments about the Surface Pro. The Air is $800 for a 64GB model. The Surface Pro 2 has an i3 processor, sd slot, USB 3, 4GB of RAM and will run a lot of software that the iPad won't. The Surface Pro 2 pricing is quite inline with Ultrabooks with similar specifications. IMO, if the Surface Pro is overpriced, then the iPad is even more overpriced. And for the record, I own an Air, not a Surface.

 

[apolloa]

I brought up the iPad Air because of the overpriced comments about the Surface Pro. The Air is $800 for a 64GB model. The Surface Pro 2 has an i3 processor, sd slot, USB 3, 4GB of RAM and will run a lot of software that the iPad won't. The Surface Pro 2 pricing is quite inline with Ultrabooks with similar specifications. IMO, if the Surface Pro is overpriced, then the iPad is even more overpriced. And for the record, I own an Air, not a Surface.

Actually the Pro 2 has a very capable Core i5 in it with I tel HD4400 graphics I think, but their are plenty of videos showing it running high end games like Battlefield 4 etc. It will run Photoshop perfectly happily providing you can put up with tiny icons.

 

[maflynn]

I brought up the iPad Air because of the overpriced comments about the Surface Pro. The Air is $800 for a 64GB model. The Surface Pro 2 has an i3 processor, sd slot, USB 3, 4GB of RAM and will run a lot of software that the iPad won't. The Surface Pro 2 pricing is quite inline with Ultrabooks with similar specifications. IMO, if the Surface Pro is overpriced, then the iPad is even more overpriced. And for the record, I own an Air, not a Surface.

I agree, but it seems the marketing I've seen, is that MS is pushing this as an iPad alternative which for the price point, size and weight, is a poor decision imo.

Given my increased MS Office use, need to run certain windows apps for work, the Surface Pro is a good option for me, but not at that price point. I'm hoping to see some steep price cuts on the 2 once the 3 his is announced. I can justify maybe 600 (maybe 800 but that's pushing it) of my own funds for a surface pro 2.

Outside of Mice and keyboards, MS is not known for hardware and its not been very successful in that sector as well (aside for the xbox), this seems to be inline with past missteps where on paper something looks look but their execution is lacking.

 

[Djlild7hina]

I guess MS isn't going to wait for broadwell to release?

I bought my surface pro 1 when it was on sale for $500 and thought it would work as a tablet and laptop replacement... it's been collecting dust

 

[DogmaHunter]

Not that I'm bashing the surface pro. I was looking forward to possibly getting one this time around. I've seen people with them and have been able to use them a bit and they're pretty unique. That being said I don't see the value of them at those prices when you can easily get an I5 or I7 laptop for half the cost.

The value of surface pro, imho, is the flexibility that comes with it and the fact that it can render all your other devices to be pretty much obsolete (besides your phone, off course).

Look here: http://i1.wp.com/thecloudmouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/WP_20130313_002.jpg

That's just one example of course.
Since I got a surface pro, I don't touch my laptop, desktop or tablet anymore. The surface gives me all I need. Sure, it comes at a premium price and I too think it could be cheaper for sure.

Nevertheless, having made my laptop, desktop and laptop obsolete, this premium price is the only cost I have left. Add the costs of a desktop, laptop and tablet together and you'll be looking at a cost far bigger then just this single device.

For reference: I'm a software engineer (not just msft technologies, although it is my main occupation) and I live behind my pc (= surface). This first generation pro actually performs better then the tower pc I previously used.

Needless to say, I'm pretty much hooked.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I won't buy one ever again until windows sorts out hi-dpi screen support. I could barely use photoshop cc or corel painter 13 on the device because of gui issues.

Windows hi-DPI support is surprisingly good. It's the application developers who suck, mainly because they never had to support hi-DPI before, so they used the hi-DPI as a hack for something else.

If you want to see the power of hi-DPI used right, look at MS Office or IE on a Surface.