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Microsoft unveils Surface Pro 2 tablet, Windows 8.1 and 'faster than 95 per cent of laptops'
Pocket Lint ^ | 09/23/2013 | By Rik Henderson

Posted on 09/23/2013 8:23:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Microsoft has announced the Surface Pro 2 as part of its New York tablet-centric press event.

According to the company, it is "faster than 95 per cent of laptops on the market today". Microsoft claims that it's actually a full PC in a tablet's body and the screen is 50 per cent more accurate in colour reproduction than the last model so can be used by design professionals more effectively.

The company claims that it performs 20 per cent faster, with a 50 per cent hike in graphical ability.

When coupled with a new Power Cover, the whole device gets two and a half times the amount of battery life than just the tablet alone, but that even is 60 per cent more efficient than the first-generation Surface Pro.

Other features include a fourth generation Intel Core i5 processor and the tablet will be offered in different configurations. The 64GB and 128GB models will come with 4GB of RAM, while the Pro 2s with storage space of 256GB or 512GB will sport 8GB of RAM. They will retail from $899 in the US, £719 in the UK and available in many countries around the world from 22 October. China will follow in November.

(Excerpt) Read more at pocket-lint.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: ipad; micorosft; surface; tablet
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To: Political Junkie Too

That product has me interested.


21 posted on 09/23/2013 11:38:08 AM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: SeekAndFind
Probably my next hardware buy. Got a little netbook that's starting to wheeze a bit and this looks to have resolved the objections I had to its predecessor (which I nearly bought anyway but I'm glad I didn't) - Win8 and low battery life.

Tools for jobs. I wouldn't run high-end graphics or protein folding on it but for a day-to-day personal portable it's almost there.

22 posted on 09/23/2013 11:46:24 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: GeronL

RE: how long would it take to write a novel on a touch screen?

It has a slideable keyboard.


23 posted on 09/23/2013 11:55:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It won’t make me type faster. It won’t make me think what to search for faster. No, thanks. I’ll put those few hundred dollars toward the utility bills.


24 posted on 09/23/2013 11:59:49 AM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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To: HamiltonJay

Be curious to see how it does in the Enterprise, many which still run on Windows Office products.


25 posted on 09/23/2013 12:00:33 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: bgill

I gather you won’t be using any Tablet devices any time soon?


26 posted on 09/23/2013 12:01:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: nascarnation

I almost never wander into the mall after running into a dept store, but I went to pick up my daughters laptop from Apple which was having the motherboard replaced. Hardly anyone was in the mall itself, as it was 2PM on a weekday, but the Apple store was filled. To be fair, they also use the store to give one on one classes to people on how to use their products.. I saw to elderly people sitting at the tables.

They also have excellent customer service... my daughters notebook was a few months out of warranty and they still replaced the logicboard (motherboard) for free. $550 savings!


27 posted on 09/23/2013 12:10:43 PM PDT by Katya (Homo Nosce Te Ipsum)
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To: dangerdoc
Me, too. I was interested in the Infinity Transformer TF700T, but was waiting for the TF701T to be announced. The Book surprised me.

-PJ

28 posted on 09/23/2013 12:14:57 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: SeekAndFind

nope


29 posted on 09/23/2013 12:28:25 PM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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To: GeronL

A wireless keyboard might be nice.


30 posted on 09/23/2013 1:59:43 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (The Presidency is broken.)
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To: dfwgator

I work for a huge enterprise, in fact it is the single largest employer in my state, (even bigger than wal mart) and the surface is DOA. Official mobile platform is iPad.

In other orgs I’ve worked for they are all persuing or implementing BYOD (bring your own device) models.

There is no strong market argument, if you are going to provide a tablet, to choose the tablet that brings nothing serious to the table. Cheaper and easier to just provide laptops to your users, if you need that. Every org I’ve been in that has had a formal standard tablet its been iPad, others are BYOD.

MS is making a product with no market, spending billions to market it, and going nowhere.

Its at best a niche/fanboy product, and will never be anything more.

Why buy a tablet who’s only real claim to fame is it runs windows? When you can buy a laptop that runs windows for the same price or less and not stuck with a 10” form factor?

I’m completely ignoring the RT since its just a punchline looking for a joke.

There is nothing different going at MS today than what went on in the 90s... MS completely missed the internet, and has missed the smart phone and tablet boats. The difference was in the 90s they still owned the desktop and could and did engage in illegal activities to recover once they realized how badly the missed the internet.

Today they can’t leverage the desktop to win at mobile, and they are doomed in those markets. They will never be a serious player there, at least not in market share, and are just burning cash on a fools errand.

MS should be focusing on their software side of things, instead they have been so busy trying to protect the desktop they have been left in the dust.


31 posted on 09/23/2013 2:53:29 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Katya

As far as customer service goes in the tech world, Apple is in a class all their own.

The closest comparison I can offer to people who aren’t involved in tech is to say when it comes to customer service Apple is to tech, what Chick Fil A is to the quick service industry. They are in a class all their own, no one else is even close.


32 posted on 09/23/2013 2:55:58 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

Sounds like you’re holding a long-ago grudge against MS, and it also sounds like you have a heavy bias against MS, which is not a healthy way to make decisions for anyone or for a company at which you might be working.

Fact is that, the iPad was what people looked at for BYOD, when it was the only game in town for a few years. Fact now is that, the iPad is no longer the only game in town, and Android tablets have overtaken it, and MS tablets are a lot better, not only specs-wise, but, productivity-wise. Most enterprise players won’t be using iPads when they have a device which plays a lot better with their current platforms and which would allow people to be a lot more productive than with iPads or any other tablet which doesn’t have productivity software and/or productivity peripherals. iPads in businesses are like trying to pound a square peg into a round circle. It’s just not a good workable solution for the enterprise, and the only people who do want iPads in businesses are people like you who start out with a preference for iPads and a hate for Microsoft.

Your rants are very familiar all over the internet, because you sound just like a lot of other “ABM” proponents everywhere.

You have no credibility regarding what businesses need or want, since in no case whatsoever are iPads better than any of the Surface tablets.


33 posted on 09/23/2013 4:30:58 PM PDT by adorno (Y)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the PC-based world windows was a “must have”.
In the post PC-based, mobile world windows is a “don’t want”.
MS has some uphill sledding to do IMHO.


34 posted on 09/23/2013 4:34:39 PM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: HamiltonJay

I use an Asus Transformer every day, I’m typing on one now. I have two laptops that out perform it but the 10 inch form factor is much easier to carry.

I am very interested in the new Transformer coming out that runs Android (I use the apps extensively when traveling) and Windows. I really like the 10 inch form factor when I’m not sitting at my desk.


35 posted on 09/24/2013 5:46:44 AM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: Political Junkie Too
How will this compare to the ASUS Transformer Book that's coming out next month?

I want one of those Asus Transporters so bad.

But I'm still working on the Missus to release funding for a Moisin Nagant purchase...so the Transporter will have to wait.

36 posted on 09/24/2013 7:57:40 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (So Obama "inherited" a mess? Firemen "inherit" messes too. Ever see one put gasoline on it?)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

The gun will last longer and is a better investment.

I am using a two year old transformer, in the computing world, it is a dinosaur and not worth much. Still works well though.


37 posted on 09/24/2013 9:32:22 AM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
I'm just waiting to see if ASUS fixed the data bus problems that crippled the Tegra 3 version. High speed processor coupled to a low speed connection to the other components.

-PJ

38 posted on 09/24/2013 9:58:07 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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