malberttoo
Well-Known Member
I've thought the same thing.
So...has the SP3 replaced your laptop?
- Thread starter Nursedad
- Start date
I've thought the same thing.
I think that we will see a touch enabled macbook this year. The SP1/2 were good in their own rights, but had such low adoption that the usefulness of a touchscreen, let alone a convertible, was never really common knowledge, but with the SP3, as reactions to me annotating pdf's at uni has shown, people are really becoming aware of just how useful they can be when it comes to productivity and realising how lacking their macbook airs really are. Apple have been behind the curve for years now, and if they are true to form, it is only a matter of time before they release their own version of what we have all had for years. It'll happen, and it'll be reported by the press as if it is the first of it's kind in the tech world. MS most likely had solid reasoning for paying that much money for n-trig given it's revenue.
malberttoo
Well-Known Member
But of course, Microsoft had the screen size and aspect ratio all wrong. SP3 has definitely proven to be the sweet spot for most.
Indeed. One of many reasons they never flew off the shelf. Aspect ratio, dimensions, kickstand, size, and most definitely awful marketing. With the SP3, i don't know who convinced the honchos, but they pulled out all the stops, really took a look at what the user of such a device would want, and the marketing, well just from my experience when moving to London last september, the adverts were absolutely everywhere, 150m long underground tunnels with nothing but the Sp3 plastered all the way along. Other than through following tech sites, i don't think i ever saw a prominent advert for the prior models.
My biggest gripe though with regard to marketing and brand awareness though, is open a god damned MS shop in london already. I cannot fathom it. Not one store in the whole of the UK. They really need to get people hands on with it, and with staff who know what the crack is. When i went to pc world just before launch, the staff didn't even know what the sp3 was, let alone the fact that they had an MS rep in store with one doing a "tour" day. We might not be a big country, but we're actually a lot less "yay apple" than in the states, and i really think they're missing a trick.
Keeping with the topic though, i don't think i could ever imagine myself going back to a conventional ultrabook. The list of benefits this thing has over say, my mums series 9 samsung ultrabook, is a mile long. This is the first device/component that i've had in years that has me considering going into my old upgrade-junkie ways. Cannot wait to see what MS might do with the sp4 if it's going to be the same dimensions. I'm thinking there will be a usb3 alongside a fancy new type c.
Ragingaardvark
Member
With you all the way here. I traded in a MacBook Air and iPad Air for the SP3 and have no regrets whatsoever. I was also staggered to find that there isn't a Microsoft shop anywhere in the UK too.
The UX of the Surface is just so second nature to me now that, when my wife phones to ask me how to deal with various issues on her HP laptop, I keep asking her to touch the screen in various places (to be fair, she still does - even though she must have realised by now that her laptop isn't touch enabled).
I'm running 10 as my day-to-day, and the seamless transition from "MUI" to Desktop (read "total integration") is simply staggering.
I realise that every person's needs are different, but a full-blown Desktop and full-blown tablet - THAT I CAN ACTUALLY WRITE ON!!!!!! - that is light weight, has a decent battery life and access to all my favourite Windows programs. Every box ticked in my book.
I'd upgrade from 10/10 to 11/10 if Microsoft would just be more realistic in their pricing of the peripherals. £165 for a docking station ...... really?
B
B'midbar
Guest
This.
Over the past four laptops down to my SP3 I have gone from 22# on my shoulder to 9#. I miss 16 or 32GB RAM moreso than I do 512GB or 1TB of disk space, but it was a small price to pay, to me, for the weight loss and losing the notebook and tablet on the road. Read alot at gates and on planes, toil away during the day wherever I am.
Haldi
Member
i would never have believed this without using it myself!
I've had the Asus Transformerbook TF300CA (13" i7-3517U) before and tought 13" is the minimum.
but the 3:2 Ratio in the Surface is actually way better than the 16:9 on the Asus.
i don't need a powerfull laptop because most thing's i do is read PDF's and make notes... some vensim simulations every now and then, but only small ones. it does take longer than other computers to calculate but who cares about 30 seconds longer on 2 minutes?
When i'm at home i don't even need a gaming Laptop. i just start up Steam on both Machines and use inHome Streaming. 5ghz Wlan which can contain the 30mbits videostream for 2160x1440 Pixel and the 30-50ms Lag are, depending on the game, not a real problem.
Dying light plays fine.
The FoV is just a lil bit narrow if you're used to play in Eyefinity triple screen 5760x1080 pixel ^^
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
Absolutely!!! I find this really strange!!!!! At least in London????? I would really love to know exactly what the hell is MS's thinking on this matter!!!!! If anyone has any plausible reasoning to offer that can explain this, I would be very interested to know.
Telstar1948
Active Member
I no longer have a desktop nor other tablet. I have my SP3 with the dock and all that for my "desktop" and my Galaxy Note3. Between those two wonderful devices, I have everything I need for business and personal stuff. I'm sure the SP4 will be nicer, as is, I'm sure, the Note4, but until finances improve, I plan to stay with the SP3 and Note3 for quite some time.
malberttoo
Well-Known Member
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
Thanks! But can't read the article...needs registration. Perhaps you can summarize?
malberttoo
Well-Known Member
Hmm that's sneaky... Anyways here's the text...
"Has Microsoft abandoned its UK retail plans for good?
Dissolution of UK-registered entity seemingly sounds death knell for previously hotly rumoured store rollout
By Sam Trendall
More from this author
07 Aug 2014
Microsoft appears to have abandoned any lingering ambitions to open high-street stores in this country, after its UK-registered retail entity was dissolved.
The software giant incorporated Microsoft Retail Store United Kingdom Limited two years ago, as rumours abounded that it would begin opening UK shops in the first half of 2013. No such outlets have materialised, and any suggestion that the vendor still has designs on the UK high street can now surely be dispelled, following the dissolution of the company last month. Microsoft had not responded to requests for comment at time of publication.
In March last year the UK Registrar of Companies issued Microsoft Retail Store United Kingdom Limited with a notice that the company would be struck off unless the directors provided cause not to within three months. The entity has since hung on to its existence for almost a year and a half, but has now been quietly dissolved for good.
Microsoft began its current retail push with the opening of a store in Arizona in 2009 and since then has amassed a fleet of about 100 shops in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Thirteen more are due to open across North America in the coming weeks and months.
At its 2011 Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles – at which point in time it had a total of about 11 stores in the US – Microsoft unveiled plans to open a further 75 locations over the next two to three years. Its plans predominantly focused on the big conurbations on the east and west coasts of the US, but the vendor also asserted that it would be opening outlets in locations outside its homeland too. However, more than three years on, no international openings have yet been announced.
Apple's ascent
But at least Microsoft's foray into the retail market over the past five years has already proved much more successful than its previous attempt, in which it opened a location in San Francisco in 1999, only to shut it down about two years later.
About the same as Microsoft was closing its Californian store, Apple opened its first two direct outlets in the US. The Mac maker has since built an empire of about 430 stores in 16 countries, including 37 locations in the UK.
But while its rival's mobile products have enjoyed phenomenal success, Microsoft's Surface tablet (pictured right) and Windows Phone operating system have failed to capture consumers'
Recent data from Strategy Analytics reveal that, in 2014's second quarter, just five per cent of tablets sold worldwide ran on Windows – the majority of which will have been devices from other OEMs. Android reportedly holds 70 per cent of the market, way ahead of Apple on 25 per cent.
In Q1 2014 handsets running on Windows Phone accounted for just 2.7 per cent of all global smartphone shipments, according to IDC statistics. Android holds an 81.1 per cent market share, with iOS taking 15.2 per cent."
