Microsoft Product Launch

[Russ35]

Microsoft have just had there new Surface product launch event.

Normal stuff as expected.
Microsoft Surface Pro X
Surface Pro 7
Surface Laptop 3

They have also entered the earbud market with the Microsoft Surface Earbuds, apparently 24hr battery and work on any platform.

Then something unusual in that they showed devices that will not be available until well into next year.

Surface Neo
Twiin 9inch screens, 360 degree hinge. Running Windows10X

Surface Due
Basically a smaller version of the Neo but running Android.So a folding 2 5.6inch screens phone (not a bendable phone)

Edited by Russ35 on Wednesday 2nd October 17:29

[robbieduncan]

The Duo (don’t call it a phone: it’s a whole new product category don’t you know!) looks really interesting. But the Chinese manufacturers will be on their second or third revision of the concept by Christmas next year. Microsoft need to have product availability now on devices being shown now

[shopper150]

We’ve had a few Surface Laptops at work
Nice machines
Until something goes wrong
The warranty support involves sending the machine to Germany and you’re down for a couple of weeks.

Have they improved their warranty support?
I always prefer Dell for their warranty support. Their call centres aren’t great, but you want work that to your advantage and force a on site call out and repair.

[Bibbs]

Was hoping to see a new Surface Book. I like mine, but a lack of Thunderbolt ports means I can't plug in an external GPU.

[ajprice]

The Surface Pro X keyboard cover with the slim pen and slot above the keyboard will connect to the Surface Pro 7 and older ones back to the Surface Pro 3, but the dimensions will be slightly different.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/dcmikw/t...

[devnull]

robbieduncan said:

The Duo (don’t call it a phone: it’s a whole new product category don’t you know!) looks really interesting. But the Chinese manufacturers will be on their second or third revision of the concept by Christmas next year. Microsoft need to have product availability now on devices being shown now

It doesn't matter if the chinese are already copying it. it will matter if MS manage to make a genuinely useful device that can aid productivity through good hardware and software. Even right now the Samsung Galaxy Fold is a joke because of its terrible reliabiliy and the questioning if the software is really beneficial.

[sjg]

shopper150 said:

We’ve had a few Surface Laptops at work
Nice machines
Until something goes wrong
The warranty support involves sending the machine to Germany and you’re down for a couple of weeks.

Have they improved their warranty support?
I always prefer Dell for their warranty support. Their call centres aren’t great, but you want work that to your advantage and force a on site call out and repair.

My first gen Surface Book was lovely in many ways but had so many issues with the dock, with intermittent USB disconnects (handy when it's a headset or camera during a call!), with bluescreens. Flattened and rebuilt it half a dozen times in 2 years, and once sent off for investigation/warranty but no different when it came back. Ultimately got replaced with a Lenovo.

Wife's Surface Pro 3 has been great though, just that form factor is terrible for smaller desks (like on a train) or on your lap.

[zippy3x]

sjg said:

My first gen Surface Book was lovely in many ways but had so many issues with the dock, with intermittent USB disconnects (handy when it's a headset or camera during a call!), with bluescreens. Flattened and rebuilt it half a dozen times in 2 years, and once sent off for investigation/warranty but no different when it came back. Ultimately got replaced with a Lenovo.

Wife's Surface Pro 3 has been great though, just that form factor is terrible for smaller desks (like on a train) or on your lap.

I was contracting at Microsoft when the Surface book came out. They have an intranet which usually has plenty of information on product roadmaps etc.

The Surface division were notoriously tight lipped and nothing leaked. On the morning of the announcement the presentaion appeared on the intranet, confirming the Surface Pro 4 (i think) which up till then was unconfirmed. The page where the Surface book would be announced was blank.

It turned out that not only had they kept the Surface book secret from the world and rest of Microsoft at large, they have also kept the vast majority of the Windows dev team in the dark. It was widely aknowledged that that was a cause of many of the issues with those early Surface books.

Probably explains why they are now demoing stuff that won't be on sale for 12 months.

[zippy3x]

I've got my eye on the Surface Pro X, but I'm concerned about how powerful it's going to be relative to the Surface Pro 7.

Early (not very scientific) benchmark here seems quite promising.

https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/hardware...

[ajprice]

They have launched a Surface Laptop Go (12.4", i5, £549) and Surface Pro X with an updated processor https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2020/10/01/intro...