Microsoft announces the Surface Laptop - aimed at students

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, lilbman said:

They're trying to compete with Apple because a large amount of college students use Macbooks.  If they didn't have Windows S I'd be down to buy one just to have.

Well, you can get Windows 10 Pro for free (until Dec 31st, then it will be $49 US).

[dexT]

23 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

And what laptop that would be?

Lenovo 310. Doesn't look like a millennial hipsters wet dream but it stomps this in a butthole.

[Guest lilbman]

12 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Well, you can get Windows 10 Pro for free (until Dec 31st, then it will be $49 US).

I'm tempted

 

I might buy the base i7 model for when I go on business trips.  I love my Alienware but it's a pain in the ass to use on a lap.

[shermantanker]

1 hour ago, dexT said:

So $1000 for a dual-core i5 with 4GB or RAM? Is this for Apple enthusiasts?

 

My Lenovo with Kaby i7 7500U and 12GB DDR4 was less than $500 BTW.

Same price and specs as a surface pro. I see. I see no problem with the price, and it comes with a keyboard

[shermantanker]

I just bought the newest model of the HP Spectre x360 13.3" and am loving it (i7, 16gb/512gb), but I would have considered this then if it were an option.

[GoodBytes]

11 hours ago, dexT said:

Lenovo 310. Doesn't look like a millennial hipsters wet dream but it stomps this in a butthole.

Ok, but dude, beside the RAM, and the CPU (well.. we need to see the exact model of the Surface Laptop), the rest is sadly vastly inferior. Not to mention how big your system is, and low battery life. You can't compare. Sure you system is fantastic to do what one needs, but a premium system (any) makes the experience more.. enjoyable... What I mean, is that the battery life is long, the system light, the system is quiet operating (including keyboard key pressed), it features Microsoft Precision Drivers touchpad, a good to really good  touchpad, good to really good keyboard,solid build quality, high resolution screen for a good work space, and high-DPI display to have smooth and nice text, system never gets hot or even loud when pushed to the max.

 

Its not only about looks. A premium system makes the computer experience for the user better.

[dexT]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Ok, but dude, beside the RAM, and the CPU (well.. we need to see the exact model of the Surface Laptop), the rest is sadly vastly inferior. Not to mention how bug your system is, and low battery life. You can't compare. Sure you system is fantastic to do what one needs, but a premium system (any) makes the experience more.. enjoyable... What I man is that the battery life is long, the system light, the system is quiet operating (including keyboard key pressed, features Microsoft Precision Drivers touchpad, a good to really good  touchpad, good to really good keyboard, build quality, high resolution screen for a good work space, and high-DPI display to have smooth and nice text, system never gets hot or even loud when pushed to the max.

 

Its not only about looks. A premium system makes the computer experience for the user better.

I only care about speed. I'd compute on a sardine can if it goes fast.

[Dabombinable]

11 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Ok, but dude, beside the RAM, and the CPU (well.. we need to see the exact model of the Surface Laptop), the rest is sadly vastly inferior. Not to mention how bug your system is, and low battery life. You can't compare. Sure you system is fantastic to do what one needs, but a premium system (any) makes the experience more.. enjoyable... What I man is that the battery life is long, the system light, the system is quiet operating (including keyboard key pressed, features Microsoft Precision Drivers touchpad, a good to really good  touchpad, good to really good keyboard, build quality, high resolution screen for a good work space, and high-DPI display to have smooth and nice text, system never gets hot or even loud when pushed to the max.

 

Its not only about looks. A premium system makes the computer experience for the user better.

A system that looks premium but has inferior hardware to a non premium system improves the user experience?

That's like saying my Asus U38N - which looks and is built like a premium - provides a better experience than my HP Pavilion DV6 3010AX (and in my Mum's case, the HP Touchsmart TM2 that it was supposed to replace). Despite the U38N relying on 3GB of usable RAM (1GB shared) and an A8 4555M instead of the 3010AX's 4GB RAM (+1GB DDR3 vRAM+64MB DDR2 vRAM) with a Phenom II N970 and MR HD5650+HD4250.

Edit: Laptops mentioned; https://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/U38N/ , https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Pavilion-dv6-3010AX.34174.0.html (upgraded to Phenom II N970), https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c02544058 (upgraded to a 240GB SSD+8GB RAM)

[Guest lilbman]

1 hour ago, Abyssal Radon said:

Personally, if I get a new laptop. I'm looking at a Razer Blade Stealth for grad. school, as a gift to myself. Currently my MSi laptop is making its own path to its demise. Who knows. 

I would get a Blade Stealth but it's not something I want to take into a board room.  My main laptop can pull it off because without it's lights on, it looks like a nice computer, but the Blade lines have that tri snake on the back.

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

DisplayPort can be converted down to VGA.

Yeah that's true but it means students have to carry around dongles which I realy hate. 

[JohnnyCorporalTech]

58 minutes ago, lilbman said:

I would get a Blade Stealth but it's not something I want to take into a board room.  My main laptop can pull it off because without it's lights on, it looks like a nice computer, but the Blade lines have that tri snake on the back.

All you need to do is put a Dbrand skin on it without the logo cut out and set the keyboard back light to white or another neutral colour. 

[mach]

1 hour ago, lilbman said:

I would get a Blade Stealth but it's not something I want to take into a board room.  My main laptop can pull it off because without it's lights on, it looks like a nice computer, but the Blade lines have that tri snake on the back.

lol you've got the alien head on the back!!

I'll set it to pulse through 4 colours in the board room because your presentation is 40% more persuasive with RGB

[Mihle]

Well, it probably won't be buyable in Norway 1,5 years later than everywhere else, if we are lucky

[mrchow19910319]

No one is gonna mention the whole product is very apple like? 

From the product itself, to its ads, its price, its target audience? everything? 

[LAwLz]

Wow... That's way higher price than I expected. How can OP say that it is "low"?

 

Only 1 USB port.

The only video output is miniDP.

Only 4GB of RAM as base.

Proprietary charging port.

Does it cost unlocking Windows 10 Shit edition to non-handicapped Windows 10?

 

It's like Microsoft is trying to appeal to the rich and/or more money than sense college crowd, but don't understand that they will just get a Macbook instead, because it's more hipster cred.

[mr moose]

Does this laptop come with a beard wig and fedora or bow tie and suspenders?

[Droidbot]

27 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Only 1 USB port.

The only video output is miniDP.

Only 4GB of RAM as base.

Proprietary charging port.

Does it cost unlocking Windows 10 Shit edition to non-handicapped Windows 10?

 

It's like Microsoft is trying to appeal to the rich and/or more money than sense college crowd, but don't understand that they will just get a Macbook instead, because it's more hipster cred.

- Fair point

- Easy to change into VGA, DVI, HDMI, compatible with Mac accessories

- Agreed

- Been on the last Surface machines, chargers are ubiquitous for these machines

- No, not at all. It unlocks to Pro for $0. 

 

 

[LAwLz]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

- Easy to change into VGA, DVI, HDMI, compatible with Mac accessories

Yes, because adapters are great!

Everybody loves carrying 10 adapters with them.

(That's sarcasm by the way)

 

2 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

- Been on the last Surface machines, chargers are ubiquitous for these machines

That's still pretty bad.

 

3 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

- No, not at all. It unlocks to Pro for $0. 

I looked it up and apparently you can unlock it for free until 2018. After that it will cost.

[Techicolors]

1 hour ago, mrchow19910319 said:

No one is gonna mention the whole product is very apple like? 

From the product itself, to its ads, its price, its target audience? everything? 

well ever since the surface line launched Microsoft has been going for the Apple approach. it's pretty much a given why they chose to make it look this way, so they can draw in people torn between macOS or Windows. plus some competition 

[Dabombinable]

34 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Wow... That's way higher price than I expected. How can OP say that it is "low"?

 

Only 1 USB port.

The only video output is miniDP.

Only 4GB of RAM as base.

Proprietary charging port.

Does it cost unlocking Windows 10 Shit edition to non-handicapped Windows 10?

 

It's like Microsoft is trying to appeal to the rich and/or more money than sense college crowd, but don't understand that they will just get a Macbook instead, because it's more hipster cred.

Its actually got less I/O than my 2011 tablet, which may have a proprietary charging connector, but said connector can be adapted so that total I/O=

• Micro SD (64GB, inside tablet)
• SD (64GB, inside dock)
• 2x USB 2.0 ports, both in the dock or 1 off the tablet itself if you have the adapter for the charging/data connector, which can read off an NTFS formatted HDD (if updated manually to Android 6)
• 1x mini HDMI
• 1x audio jack

[Droidbot]

4 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Yes, because adapters are great!

Everybody loves carrying 10 adapters with them.

(That's sarcasm by the way)

 

That's still pretty bad.

 

I looked it up and apparently you can unlock it for free until 2018. After that it will cost.

Not so carrying adapters with them - I go to a school where most of us have SP3/4, and some of the art students have Macs of various sorts. There is miniDP on the table in EVERY room, allowing all students to use the projector.. It's just there - not carrying around with them. I'd imagine it's the same for a lot of schools that use a similar system. 

 

Yeah, but it's actually a good charger and easy to adapt into. And it allows backwards compatibility with the Surface Dock. Still, I'd like USBC, but whatever. 

 

Most users will be buying from now to around 2018, so whatever. 

[LAwLz]

12 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Not so carrying adapters with them - I go to a school where most of us have SP3/4, and some of the art students have Macs of various sorts. There is miniDP on the table in EVERY room, allowing all students to use the projector.. It's just there - not carrying around with them. I'd imagine it's the same for a lot of schools that use a similar system. 

Well that might be true for your school. When I was at uni we did not have miniDP adapters everywhere.

Since this is a laptop allegedly designed for students, I think it should have everything a student can be expected to need.

 

12 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Most users will be buying from now to around 2018, so whatever. 

Then they should have just put Windows 10 Pro on it to begin with.

Let's be honest here. Windows 10S is a gimped version of Windows 10. It's Windows 10 Pro minus a bunch of things. So anyone with half a brain will upgrade to Windows 10 Pro as soon as they get this computer (but then again, if they had half a brain they would probably not get it to begin with).

So why? Why deliberately make your product worse? I can't imagine it costs Microsoft something to put Windows 10 Pro on it. Especially not since the upgrade is free.

 

So it just becomes one more unnecessary step before you can use your computer. For something that people will argue has a justifiable price based on the "experience" you get, that is a massive drawback.

[Droidbot]

Just now, LAwLz said:

Then they should have just put Windows 10 Pro on it to begin with.

Let's be honest here. Windows 10S is a gimped version of Windows 10. It's Windows 10 Pro minus a bunch of things. So anyone with half a brain will upgrade to Windows 10 Pro as soon as they get this computer (but then again, if they had half a brain they would probably not get it to begin with).

So why? Why deliberately make your product worse? I can't imagine it costs Microsoft something to put Windows 10 Pro on it. Especially not since the upgrade is free.

They're pulling a 'Chromebook Pixel' with this one

Make a device with high end specs, high end display, etc. 

But gimp it with a shit OS that you can get rid of

[suicidalfranco]

24 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

No, not at all. It unlocks to Pro for $0

IF you are a student

IF you buy it before december 31st

 

And for 1000$, for a laptop made by MS themselves, don't see how it can be resoanable to ship a cripled version of windows in it

[Droidbot]

9 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

IF you are a student

IF you buy it before december 31st

 

And for 1000$, for a laptop made by MS themselves, don't see how it can be resoanable to ship a cripled version of windows in it

No idea where you got the student thing from

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-s-faq