Administrator DKT27 Posted October 16, 2012 Administrator Share Posted October 16, 2012 Keyboards to cost $119.99 and $129.99 Magenta is obviously the best keyboard color. After maintaining almost complete radio silence about its Windows RT Surface tablets since first revealing them in June, Microsoft has announced pricing and availability. The cheapest way to buy into Surface will be the $499 base model. This will give you 32GB of storage, but won't come with a Touch Cover membrane keyboard-cum-cover. $599 will get you a 32GB model with a black Touch Cover, and $699 a 64GB unit, also with a black Touch Cover. Standalone Touch Covers in black, white, magenta, cyan, and red will retail for $119.99. Type Covers—a clicky keyboard with actual key switches—will come in black only, and cost $129.99. Redmond maintains that specs aren't really the point of a device like Surface, and that what matters is the overall user experience. Nonetheless, the specs have been published too: it has a 1366x768 10.6-inch screen with five-point multitouch, it's 0.37 inches (9.4mm) thick, and it weighs 1.5 pounds (0.68kg). The processor is an NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30, which is a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex A9 part coupled with a 520MHz NVIDIA GPU, and it has 2GB RAM, and either 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash storage. Surface also has two 720p cameras (front and rear), two microphones, an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a compass. Connectivity is provided with 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4, a microSDXC slot, mini-HDMI, and a USB 2.0 port. The Surface will run Windows RT. As is the case with all Windows RT devices, it includes previews of four Office 2013 apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. With the recent RTM of Office 2013, buyers can expect to see these previews updated to final versions starting in November. Surface preorders open today, at 9am Pacific, with delivery on October 26th, the same day as Windows 8's general availability. Initially, Surface will be available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the US, Surface will be available exclusively through Microsoft's own channels: its brick-and-mortar stores and its online store. To supplement its permanent storefronts, the company is opening 34 "pop up" stores for the holiday season to help promote the Surface tablet. These stores will open on October 26th. By starting at $499, Microsoft is undercutting the other Windows RT devices that have been announced, such as the $599 Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx, and the $599 Asus Vivo Tab RT. Those other tablets typically have more expensive keyboards, too (although arguably more capable keyboards, as they often include batteries or additional ports), so even at $599, the Surface is giving you more for less. The pricing is also competitive with the iPad; Apple's "new" iPad starts at $499 for a 16GB model, though the 16GB iPad 2 is still available for $399. It unfortunately turns out that it won't necessarily come with a keyboard after all. The $499 unit is, however, something of an odd duck. Microsoft's previous publicity material said that Surface would include a keyboard, which the cheapest model obviously doesn't. Microsoft's new Surface ad campaign also implores buyers to —which the $499 unit can't do. Without the keyboard, they have nothing to click in. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 16, 2012 $499 for Surface? (Right now) Available only in 8 countries? What a joke. -_- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 16, 2012 Microsoft Surface RT 32GB has ~20 GB of free storage Microsoft has opened the Surface flood gates today and we are learning more every minute about the new device from Microsoft including how much free storage will be available on the devices. Microsoft is continuing its Surface PR train today and is currently answering questions on Reddit about the new Surface RT which you can now pre-order. One of the questions that was unknown until this AMA was how much free storage would be available to consumers after Windows RT is installed along with Office and the default apps? Ricardo Lopez, Test Manager for Surface RT has indicated that after all of that software (which comes pre-loaded) is installed, consumers will have more than 20 GBs of free storage available. Additionally, with the SD card slot, you can add additional capacity but it can only be used for music, photos, movies; you cannot install Windows 8 apps directly to the SD card. So, if you were worried that Windows RT would consumer too much storage space and that 32GBs would not be enough for your needs, ~20GBs of storage should suffice for most users. If you have any questions that you would like to ask the Surface team, make sure to head over to Reddit (link below) as they team will likely respond to you if you ask an insightful question. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kadrex Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 The concern that many have is that MS hasn't allowed reviewing websites to get their hands on them and test them out. So they're coming out soon but the performance is really an unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 If the specs are anything to go by, performance shouldn't be a major concern (by tablet standards), but just 32GB for Windows apps sounds positively unappetizing. Unless of course, 'Windows for ARM' apps consume a tenth of 'Windows for x86' apps' installation space :dunno:What I like 'bout these things is the proper 16:9 aspect ratio oriented correctly - the landscape way rather than portrait - compared to the iPad :) I'm pretty sure that with time, they'll be forced to come out with a cheaper 7 incher as well what with the popularity of the Nexus 7 and the hype surrounding the upcoming iPad Mini :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 17, 2012 If the specs are anything to go by, performance shouldn't be a major concern (by tablet standards), but just 32GB for Windows apps sounds positively unappetizing. Unless of course, 'Windows for ARM' apps consume a tenth of 'Windows for x86' apps' installation space :dunno: What I like 'bout these things is the proper 16:9 aspect ratio oriented correctly - the landscape way rather than portrait - compared to the iPad :) I'm pretty sure that with time, they'll be forced to come out with a cheaper 7 incher as well what with the popularity of the Nexus 7 and the hype surrounding the upcoming iPad Mini :yes: RT version contains Tegra 3, while Pro version contains 3rd gen i5 with Intel HD 4000, which I think should be fine when it comes to performance. To add to that, 2GB and 4GB RAM respectively. Have you used Android? Except some games, lot of softwares seem small sized to me. It is, however, to be seen how WinRT apps would be sized at. Also, as said above, only 20GB is available from 32GB. The great thing however is, unlike iPad 3, Surface RT and Pro contains microSD card support, which is great, cause as someone told me, having a microSD card support is harder to implement than HDMI support. iPad Mini is coming/going to be announce on October 26. Which makes me sad, as more people will start using Apple products. It is, however, to be seen how Apple will get used to less profits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Except some games, lot of softwares seem small sized to me. It is, however, to be seen how WinRT apps would be sized at...........The great thing however is, unlike iPad 3, Surface RT and Pro contains microSD card support, which is great Yeah, that's why I said that for Windows apps, 32GB may not be enough. Android and iOS apps on ARM don't take up as much space as Windows and OSX programs on x86 (Think iTunes :o :wtf: ) As for the micro SD cards, they'll only store pics, vids & music. You can't install apps on them. MS has intentionally disabled that/not implemented that so as to save the app developers from piracy ;) iPad Mini is coming/going to be announce on October 26. Which makes me sad, as more people will start using Apple products. It is, however, to be seen how Apple will get used to less profits. More competition is always good. If Apple can really compete at this price point, good luck to them. I still can't afford a $300 tablet (Rs. 15,000), but next month, when the Nexus 7 launches here, I might be interested if they can hold the US pricing of $199 (how does Rs. 9995/- sound? ), which is unlikely though. It'll prolly come at a hefty premium :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 17, 2012 I see.Damn, I didn't know about MS disabling installation on SD cards. :omg: That sucks big time.Apple already has iPad Mini, it's called iPod Touch. :PComputer parts are expensive here because, one shipping charges, two, they want more profits cause they are taking more efforts for selling here, three, the most important, taxes. Also, not to forget, the wholesalers and retailers want more profits. So in the end, whenever a new product comes to India, the price is double of the original US price, and it doesn't change for quite some time. I have faced all this when I was making a computer, had to pay double, even that was cheap compared to others selling it, about two years ago, only because some parts were brand new (3-4 months). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Apple already has iPad Mini, it's called iPod Touch. :PLOL! So true :lol: Computer parts are expensive here because, one shipping charges, two, they want more profits cause they are taking more efforts for selling here, three, the most important, taxes. Also, not to forget, the wholesalers and retailers want more profits. So in the end, whenever a new product comes to India, the price is double of the original US price, and it doesn't change for quite some time. I have faced all this when I was making a computer, had to pay double, even that was cheap compared to others selling it, about two years ago, only because some parts were brand new (3-4 months). Annoys the cr@p outta me :mad2: Lower end mobos etc. are 'bout the same price or even a few bucks cheaper, but the higher up you go, especially higher end boards, graphics cards, power supplies, processors, custom cooling, etc. it starts getting ridiculous! :( As for the shipping part, they all come from China, Taiwan, Thailand which are closer to India than the US. A couple of years ago, import duties on essential life saving medical equipment (like MRI scanners etc.) was reduced in the budget as was that of 'educational electronics' like PC's and tablets. Also, India has a FTA with Thailand, so no import duty :yes: Yet, in a non-competitive market, they have no reason to reduce prices. Just like televisions, cell-phones and automobiles. A Camry or an Accord in the US costs just over half of what they cost here. You can actually get a Range Rover in the US for the price of a Camry here in India. Albeit that is because of high import and excise ;) Also, the monopolistic trade practices (prevention) act is not properly implemented, which is why we have higher than US/Europe aviation fares, restaurant covers, broadband charges and banking rates. The monopolistic uncompetitive collusion between the corporates is the actual reason, not so much the 2-3% extra duties the Govt. charges. That's just a lie perpetuated by the crony capitalists to further their causes and it will continue to happen as long as the competition commission isn't allowed by the politicians to operate properly ;) The reason why things are cheap in the US (even cheaper than the Eurozone) is because of a strong and stable currency and the fact that everybody wants to do business there. And the regulators are ever vigilant. Also, the market is over-saturated in just about every product category. That makes price gouging next to impossible more often than not apart from natural disasters etc. when prices of essential commodities like Gasoline etc. tend to go through the roof, like what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ;) / Rant :rant: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 18, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 18, 2012 Yup. Seeing the prices limited my computer's budget. So, I had to by a cheap ATI 5450, which me being a gamer, biggest purchase mistake of my life. In the end, 5450 died within 1 and a half year, so, to not to waste money for future investment, I bought 4870 for Rs.1500 ($28) as an exchange. The hell I've gone through with 5450, only because 5xxx series was new that time and all the graphics card costed bloody double of US. prices. 4870, is 10 times powerful than 5450. The problem? It has only DirectX 10.1, and the day I come across a game that works only on DirectX11, I'll have to buy a new graphics card, for which, I'll have pay "premium price" as I always like to buy the latest.You know what's worse (well, you already have mentioned it in your post, but anyway)? The economy. In US and EU, the economy is so powerful, that they earn atleast 3-4 times of a Indian counterpart. An Indian call center guy will earn 20,000 per month. Whereas in US, he will earn 80,000 per month. For that matter, a 10,000 Graphics Card for an Indian is "like" just 2,000 to 2,500 for an American or an European. In other words, with our economy, we are already paying the premium rates at quite higher rate than even what premium rates should be.And then they complain about piracy in developing countries. :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ck_kent Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I feel your pain buddy. :)BTW, apart from the 32GB Nexus, Google is rumored to release a $99 Nexus with a single core CPU. :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 BTW, apart from the 32GB Nexus, Google is rumored to release a $99 Nexus with a single core CPU. :o Yeah. Was just reading 'bout it earlier today :yes: Wonder whether it'll ship with JB or KLP ;) And then they complain about piracy in developing countries. :angry: We have to use up all our budget on hardware. Hardly anything left over for software. Even if we didn't want to, we just don't have an option :( BTW - Hope they price that upcoming Nexus at 4995/-. Micromax and Karbonn will then be screwed worse than a cheap hooker on Saturday night :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted October 18, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted October 18, 2012 BTW - Hope they price that upcoming Nexus at 4995/-. Micromax and Karbonn will then be screwed worse than a cheap hooker on Saturday night :P lol. And there I am the first guy to know about new stuff and still yet to read about new Nexus. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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