The next one will be USB Type-C... unless they revise the blade on the SP4
The Blade is not more likely to get broken than a micro USB connector. Panny stated in was the #1 request... but I think they misinterpreted it... or they asked the wrong people.
Quite a disappointment though that they didn't go with Type-C instead.
The blade is going to be present in the SP4 for sure since they claimed that Al SP3 accessories, including the docking station, will be compatible with the SP4. Theres no way they're not putting the blade connector on the SP4.
Might this Surface 3 be a good preview of a fanless SP4 ?
I guess so. Fanless, thiner, and same form factor as a SP3 = SP4 ?
Since MS was really proud with the fan of the SP3, I don't think they will ditch that. On the other hand, my speculation is the non-Pro will always be the slower, fanless version of the Pro
All we know about power on the Z8700 is it has a SDP of 2w, that's the low power mode which is plenty low, we just don't know the normal or up TDP.
I think the problem with S3 and fanless in general, is that they couldn't maintain anything more than a short burst without throttling the CPU. Heck, even the SP3 with a fan still has troubles with cooling. That's why, related to the speculation above, I really doubt that the SP4 will be fanless
What you say makes a lot of sense even though I hardly imagine the SP4 coming with the 15W proc.
The miniaturization of the motherboard allowed by the use of a low Watts processor is to much of an advantage. It has to be the future for computers.
Well, if they want to maintain the performance of the SP2, they couldn't do that without active cooling. No way Core M could manage o match i5-4300U in sustained load without active cooling. Sure, its more efficient than Haswell, but not *that* much. And Id say they're going step up the performance with the SP4, given the direction that the SP3 was going (to i7) despite being limited with the slim chassis.
I don't really use my pen much and I have a docking station but it's for a specific purpose. However I can't image people not using the keyboard. Windows just isn't optimized for use without a keyboard and touchpad.
Well, if you stay in metro mode, and S3 is designed more towards metro than the SP3. And you might still have the keyboard from your Surface RT. I don't think not including the keyboard is a big problem. the big problem is the price. $130 Is clearly overpriced for such product.
Not to mention W10 would probably change things here and there again.
I think it's generally better to have a couple really good cores then 4 mediocre cores. Most apps don't see much of a performance boost in a multi-core environment. That's why Apple has stuck with dual cores in the A series processors.
And why nobody buys AMD FX processors.
