Posted on 10/06/2015 1:59:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its first laptop: the Microsoft Surface Book, a 13-inch touch-screen device that also comes apart to become a tablet.
"This is the ultimate laptop," Microsoft's Panos Panay said.
It has two processors and a dedicated graphics-card system. Microsoft says the laptop is twice as fast as a Macbook Pro.
Pricing starts at $1,499, and the laptop will be available on October 26.
As with many devices in the Surface line, the Surface Book can detach from its keyboard to become a tablet. The keyboard can then dock on the back of the tablet to keep it all together. It also uses the Surface Pen stylus that comes with Surface tablets.
It's designed to add more power than the Surface Pro 4, also announced Tuesday. It's for gamers and any enterprise worker who needs more graphical horsepower under the hood. In fact, the Xbox team contributed its graphical expertise, Panay said.
Panay showed off how smoothly Windows 10 games like "Gears of War" and "Gigantic" ran on the Surface Book, even while using video-editing software to record game footage.
Interestingly, the graphics card lies in the keyboard unit, which means you will lose some horsepower while it's unplugged at a likely gain to battery life.
Plus, it has a super-quiet, backlit keyboard, Microsoft promises, with a great typing experience. It also sports a promised 12-hour battery life.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Mice and keyboards aren’t computers.
This is like comparing a 12 bedroom mansion to a camping tent.
maybe let others develop their OS as well...............
More comments here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3345358/posts
Wish MAC would bring back the 17-inch laptop.
Could only improve it.
Oh the other hand, we get way too many OS releases from Microsoft. Every other release from MS is garbage — ME, Vista, 8 and probably 9/10 (yet to be seen).
ummm, there’s a market for Kia, Chevys and BMWs.
Microsoft is the Chevy of the computing world.
I own ‘em all. (Linux, Macs, Windows).
I do admit I am currently down to 1 (old) copy of windows because I refuse to spend 1 day out of 10 fixing issues that should not occur with the OS/Apps/viruses, etc.
It’s a good thing that Msoft is pushing the HW for their platform - somebody had to do it! In general for the last 10 years, the PC crowd has been 1-3 years behind apple in innovation.
BTW, I think outboard GPUs are a good idea — I personally like USB-3 (C) tethered dedicated graphics devices - plug em in only when you need the graphics boost.
Not a fan of detachable keyboard/tablet though. But that’s just me.
Back in the Clinton years, the politicians were on a witch hunt for monopolies. Remember when Bill was having his cronies look into breaking MSFT off into 3 different companies (OS, Office and other products).
This frightened companies like Intel, who made motherboards. If Intel made PC or Servers under the Intel label; then it could be argued that they were a monopoly.
Now, how long before some political hack makes the case that MSFT has a world-wide domination on OS and Office apps; and now is leveraging their dominance by making tablets and laptops; and thus needs to be busted apart into smaller companies?
The Windows OS is rapidly losing its monopoly powers. Apple is, of course, a huge vertically-integrated threat. Hardware manufactures, which were once solidly tied to Windows, are becoming increasingly promiscuous, with Android, Chrome, and variation of Unix or Linux operating systems.
Microsoft cannot just chose a strategy or business model in isolation — it has to consider the ever-more-rapidly-changing environment it operates within.
That never happens with Apple!
They’ve been making Surface tablets for a couple of years now and they’re on Gen 4, so this isn’t exactly uncharted territory for them. If your eval benchmark begins and ends with the label, they all had the Microsoft logo on them.
The case for a MS monopoly has gotten weaker, as the fortunes of Apple and Google have increased. In the Clinton-era, Apple was nearly a defunct company — kept on life-support by Microsoft, as a hedge against further monopoly-busting. Today, Apple’s market cap is bigger than MSFT’s.
If you buy it you’ll have to “update” it the next day.
The price is a down payment for a car. I like the idea of the Surface Pro and Book but geez they are too expensive compared to others that can do 95% of what you will do.
#19 The story (as I make it up...) is that Bill Gates left a normal keyboard in his car on a hot day. When he saw how the keyboard melted it into the shape you see today he figured he could sell it to others thing it was ergonomic.
He was right.
BTW, I think that Macs are overpriced.
If that were true you should see them heavily discounted at year end, and you don't. They are too expensive for me because I don't have a real need for one. I use a 2009 Mac Pro and a couple iMacs and two Mac Minis, all brought as used or refurbed.
This is revolutionary enough to make SwordMaker go rogue and leave the Apple cult
Chromebooks are cool! I don’t own one but I like its concept. The irritating downside is google mining everything you do and selling this data to advertisers
I thought that was the point. Looks like a clone with a detachable keyboard
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.