Surface Pro 3 Announcement

Except of course that it does:

Still, a pretty staggering price.

The $999 SurPro3 looks to be roughly equivalent spec-wise to the base rMBP at $1299... add on the type cover and you're at ~$160 savings to the SurPro3. At that point, it really comes down to preference in form-factor and OS.

Same goes for the i7/8gb/512gb SurPro3 at $1949+cover vs a similar rMBP at $1999... the rMPB gets the edge by ~$90 but, again, they're so close it comes down to OS and form-factor preference.

And at the low end, the base 11" MBA edges out the base SurPro3+cover on specs (better processor, more storage) but I'd consider them close enough for general productivity and light multimedia work that you could buy on OS and form-factor preference. Compare the same 13" base MBA configuration and the SurPro 3 has the spec edge, but still fairly comparable.

I don't think either the SurPro3 or anything from Apple is going to win out on pure value at a given spec level. If you're buying either it's likely because you like the form factor, the OS, or both enough to justify the up-sell.

Almost Apple like in Price!

I wonder if people would rather opt for a $999 Macbook Air and a $499 ipad?

Or a loaded $1749 MBA and no ipad....?

The Surface Pro 3 seems too expensive and too heavy to me. With the keyboard cover and kick stand, it's not far off from carrying a laptop.

Broadwell is supposedly launching this year so many more laptops should be going fan-less and getting a battery life boost. There are already laptops with touchscreens (I don't like those by the way) so what exactly is the advantage of a tablet that wants to replace a laptop? It's not cost, and physical attributes seem to be a wash as well.

Probably comes later.

I don't get the whole "iPad Air killer" stuff on the blogs. Someone in the market for an iPad Air will not consider a Surface (or the other way around).

First look at SP3, seems mostly incremental improvements but not a huge change, other than the screen, though in various metrics, it trails various Apple products including the iPad Air:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8037/m...rmance-preview

Microsoft themselves are implying it. "96% of people have a laptop and a tablet." Inferring that now you only need one device. The "laptop" (Surface). The trouble is that for what a Surface costs you can easily get a decent laptop and an iPad or Android tablet.

Microsoft doesn't get that most of the people most of the time want a laptop/desktop experience at their desk and a tablet experience when moving around. At my company, people typically create content they are at their desk, and at their desk they want a mouse, monitor and a keyboard. When moving around, from meeting to meeting (or when travelling) they typically consume content. They take notes, read and annotate docs, browse the web or watch TV. They want broadband, they want all day battery and they don't want to carry a power supply. An iPad fits the bill.

The Surface, like most Wintel Tablets are a slower than iPad or Android tablets to boot, only have a 5-6 hour battery life, and without broadband don't fit the mobile use case. Too many compromises.

I'm more interested in seeing if someone can produce a broadband enabled, fanless, instant boot Windows slate when Broadwell comes out...but I'm doubtful. I'm irritated that RT didn't work out. That might have been the iPad competition.

Spot on. I do have a 12" tablet, and a nice ultrabook, but I'd never consider ditching them for a single device, and certainly not for a Surface. I've been burned three times on those things (RT, Pro, Pro2).

As for RT - that needs to die very quickly.

I was quite happy to converge tablet and ultrabook into one device and did so at first with the Asus T100 (Atom Z3740, 2gb RAM, 64gb SSD, $300) and then with an original Surface Pro. Before that, I had been traveling with a 12" ultrabook (by no means a heavy-weight) and an Asus T300 android tablet. I couldn't edit powerpoint slides on the Android tablet and be confident the formatting would come through when presented. I also couldn't do quick edits to macro-heavy excel files. The tablet became for pure consumption (video, games, light email) and the laptop for editing/creation (powerpoint, excel, heavy email).

Between the two devices I had ~4.5lb of device plus chargers. Now I have ~2lb of device and a single charger that is also my phone charger.

My ONLY complaint with the Asus T100 was the chintzy build quality. Performance and battery were both perfectly acceptable and it was capable of being my only device for travel. I upgraded to the Surface Pro for better build quality and performance, but at the cost of battery life. I did end up adding a Power Cover for long flights and long days of meetings... with a Pro 2 or Pro 3 I wouldn't even need that.

To me, the PERFECT device would be something with the internals of the Asus T100 (Atom Z3740, 2gb RAM, 64gb SSD) and the form-factor/build-quality of the Surface RT... call it the "Surface Home". It would have all the power and battery I would need in a form-factor and build-quality I want and the ability to run full Windows apps, create and consume content, and be perfectly portable. I would GLADLY pay the current Surface 2 MSRP ($499 for 64gb) for this device... that's s $200 premium over the Asus T100 (which includes keyboard and office home/student) just for the build quality and form factor. The margin should exist for MS to sell such a device, though it would likely cannibalize a lot from the Surface Pro 3 for people who don't need the size, power, and resolution. THAT is the device that would signal the end of RT.

The end of RT has already been signaled.

I can't fathom why Microsoft hasn't put a freakin' LTE chip inside their x86 Surfaces. iPad users have become used to broadband on their tablets. One of the many reason that Surface isn't selling...and people wont move to "one device."

I think the 3G and 4G tablets form a small percentage of all tablets sold. For one thing, they raise the price so that dissuades a lot of people.

Looks like a nice improvement over the Surface 2... and a better screen size, although it's still pricy (especially once you add the keyboard) and at a weight and price where it's really more an ultrabook with an occasional tablet mode than a tablet with occasional keyboard use.

ULV i3 chips are kind of underpowered for general PC use, too, and it's still bordering on very pricy with the more reasonable (for PC rather than tablet use) i5.

I still don't see anything with this that would make me ditch my ThinkPad Tablet 2 w/ internal pen and the portable bluetooth / trackpoint keyboard. I certainly wouldn't ever want a tablet replacing my laptop as a primary device - but if I'm only going to bring one on vacation, a power sipping atom processor in a slim package, a pen that can right click, a keyboard I can take out of my suitcase if and when I need it and will be suitable for typing whatever I need, and my full blown outlook with 15yr of history is a good balance. I think a lot of the tablet makers need to focus less on specs and more on balance....

Yes, at the low end of the market, for a $499 iPad. But at the high end, do you think $130 is going to dissuade anyone buying a $2000 Surface Pro 3 with an i7 and 512gb SSD?