Surface Laptop - The Surface Portfolio expands
On May 2nd at MS's EDU event in NYC, MS introduced the Surface Laptop. Focused towards the UltraBook market, this 13.5" laptop supports the capabilities of Windows 10 like touch, pen, hello, dial etc.
Available in Core i5 and i7 variants with 4 - 16GB of RAM and 128 - 512GB of SSD and a somewhat odd 2256 x 1504 dpi PixelSense display that maintains the 3:2 aspect ratio that MS has maintained through the Surface line. Core i5 units use Intel HD 620 and Core i7 use Iris Plus 640 GPUs
As with most Ultrabooks, the device has a limited number of ports with USB 3.0, Mini Display Port and 3.5mm Audio. MS claims upwards of 14.5 hrs of battery life based on Intel Kaby Lake U series processors.
One unique feature is a new Alcantara fabric-covered keyboard. This Italian fabric is supposed to provide a unique feel and sense of luxury. The device is also available in 4 colors, Platinum, Graphite Gold, Burgundy and Cobalt.
Prices range from $999.00 for the Core i5/4Gb/128GB model to $2,199 for a Core i7/16GB/512GB model.
By default these new laptops come with Windows 10 S. This new variant of Windows 10 limits users to app installation only from the Store. You do have the option to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free by Dec 31, 2017 and for the introduction includes a 1 year Office365 Personal subscription.
So with Windows 10 S, MS kind of violates it's own rules - since you can not purchase Office or an Office 365 subscription via the Store and are actually side loading Office from the office site.
The laptop fills a niche between a traditional surface pro device with it's hybrid 2-in-1 format and 11" screen and the Surface Book line which is more oriented towards high end workstation.
But does it matter ?
In MS's most recent quarter, they announced Surface sales were down nearly 26%. And while this laptop may appeal to some buyers, things like the Alcantara fabric keyboard may actually be a turn off. And there are a lot of choices out there from Dell, HP, Apple, etc at similar price points that every bit as good if not better.
When MS first introduced the Surface line back in October of 2012 it was a revolutionary device and MS positioned Surface as a vision of the future of the PC and to influence OEMs in to changing their platform line-ups.
But the reality is that Surface never sold in large enough numbers to really change the status quo. That first Surface line lost $900M.
Will this new laptop sell - of course it will - but it will not turn the tide. Outside of XBox, MS has not really proven to me that they are truly a hardware player.
I know of several Surface and Surface Pro owners who were frustrated with driver/firmware and compatibility issues with MS's own OS. Most don't use a lot of the touch/pen features and the primary use case for them is simply an ultra-light notebook.
When compared to a Dell, HP or Lenovo, MS just doesn't have the engineering and support structure to support large scale hardware sales. Surface devices are built by contract from Pegatron (who also builds devices for other OEMs) but otherwise it's kind of a badge engineered device.
Personally I can't see buying one...
On another note - one recent announcement that came as a surprise is that MS plans to de-couple Edge from Windows 10 in Redstone 3 and offer it as a store app. The rational behind this is that it will allow MS to provide more rapid updates to the beleaguered browser than if it was bundled as a part of the OS.
So that may be true, but it also provides the option to never load it or to at least uninstall it.
The reality is that MS bundles quite a few "store" apps into Windows 10 when you install from scratch including what many call "sponsor" apps from 3rd parties as well as two browsers - Edge and IE. If they didn't the UI would look pretty bare after install.
I for one never use Edge and only use IE when I need some level of backwards compatibility into a backend system that Chrome can't provide.
In my opinion MS has made a mess of the browser situation in Windows 10 and with their continuing loss of market share to Chrome will not be able to recover.
Available in Core i5 and i7 variants with 4 - 16GB of RAM and 128 - 512GB of SSD and a somewhat odd 2256 x 1504 dpi PixelSense display that maintains the 3:2 aspect ratio that MS has maintained through the Surface line. Core i5 units use Intel HD 620 and Core i7 use Iris Plus 640 GPUs
As with most Ultrabooks, the device has a limited number of ports with USB 3.0, Mini Display Port and 3.5mm Audio. MS claims upwards of 14.5 hrs of battery life based on Intel Kaby Lake U series processors.
One unique feature is a new Alcantara fabric-covered keyboard. This Italian fabric is supposed to provide a unique feel and sense of luxury. The device is also available in 4 colors, Platinum, Graphite Gold, Burgundy and Cobalt.
Prices range from $999.00 for the Core i5/4Gb/128GB model to $2,199 for a Core i7/16GB/512GB model.
By default these new laptops come with Windows 10 S. This new variant of Windows 10 limits users to app installation only from the Store. You do have the option to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free by Dec 31, 2017 and for the introduction includes a 1 year Office365 Personal subscription.
So with Windows 10 S, MS kind of violates it's own rules - since you can not purchase Office or an Office 365 subscription via the Store and are actually side loading Office from the office site.
The laptop fills a niche between a traditional surface pro device with it's hybrid 2-in-1 format and 11" screen and the Surface Book line which is more oriented towards high end workstation.
But does it matter ?
In MS's most recent quarter, they announced Surface sales were down nearly 26%. And while this laptop may appeal to some buyers, things like the Alcantara fabric keyboard may actually be a turn off. And there are a lot of choices out there from Dell, HP, Apple, etc at similar price points that every bit as good if not better.
When MS first introduced the Surface line back in October of 2012 it was a revolutionary device and MS positioned Surface as a vision of the future of the PC and to influence OEMs in to changing their platform line-ups.
But the reality is that Surface never sold in large enough numbers to really change the status quo. That first Surface line lost $900M.
Will this new laptop sell - of course it will - but it will not turn the tide. Outside of XBox, MS has not really proven to me that they are truly a hardware player.
I know of several Surface and Surface Pro owners who were frustrated with driver/firmware and compatibility issues with MS's own OS. Most don't use a lot of the touch/pen features and the primary use case for them is simply an ultra-light notebook.
When compared to a Dell, HP or Lenovo, MS just doesn't have the engineering and support structure to support large scale hardware sales. Surface devices are built by contract from Pegatron (who also builds devices for other OEMs) but otherwise it's kind of a badge engineered device.
Personally I can't see buying one...
On another note - one recent announcement that came as a surprise is that MS plans to de-couple Edge from Windows 10 in Redstone 3 and offer it as a store app. The rational behind this is that it will allow MS to provide more rapid updates to the beleaguered browser than if it was bundled as a part of the OS.
So that may be true, but it also provides the option to never load it or to at least uninstall it.
The reality is that MS bundles quite a few "store" apps into Windows 10 when you install from scratch including what many call "sponsor" apps from 3rd parties as well as two browsers - Edge and IE. If they didn't the UI would look pretty bare after install.
I for one never use Edge and only use IE when I need some level of backwards compatibility into a backend system that Chrome can't provide.
In my opinion MS has made a mess of the browser situation in Windows 10 and with their continuing loss of market share to Chrome will not be able to recover.
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