Who thinks the Surface Pro II will have a larger screen?

[mitchellvii]

I believe there are a number of rationales for going to a larger screen (11.6" perhaps) on the Surface Pro II. These are obviously just my opinion, but I think they make sense:

1. I believe that there is a very good chance the Surface Pro II will have a greater than 1920 x 1080 resolution. This really begs for more space as the zoom issue with external monitors is already a problem. Can you imagine how a 200%+ zoom will look on your 23" monitor just so you can read text on your Surface Pro II?
2. Since it looks like the Surface RT may be headed to an 8" form factor, there is no longer a reason to maintain a homogeneous sizing between the 2 devices as no one really imagines an 8" Surface Pro.
3. One way to add a larger battery while making the Surface Pro thinner would be to make it taller and wider.
4. A larger Surface Pro would make room for onboard pen storage.
5. Since the Surface Pro is primarily aimed at the business user, there is no doubt that more space would be a plus.
6. At 11.6" they can add a bigger keyboard and larger mousepad.
7. I believe that if users had a choice between a 10.6" thicker Surface Pro and an 11.6" thinner Surface Pro they would choose the latter.
8. As far as transportability, there is no difference between carrying a 10.6" and an 11.6" inch device - neither will fit in your pocket.
9. With new screen technology they could make the screen area larger without dramatically increasing the size of the overall device by shrinking the bezel.
10. All of the Surface Pro's competition is offering 11.6 to 13.3" form factors. These guys do research too and there is a reason they have gone for this size to target business users.
11. By the time the Surface Pro II comes out there will be some tough competition already in the marketplace. To appear "new and exciting" Surface Pro will have to offer something more than just better guts. It has to "look" different and an 11.6" inch screen with a thinner profile is one way to do that.

I believe the reason MS went with 10.6" inches on the Surface Pro in the first place was so that it would be the same size as the Surface RT. Rather than being a plus this ended up in just confusing the consumer. If you are paying twice as much for something it should look more different than just being slightly thicker.

So my final prediction? Surface Pro goes to 11.6" and Surface RT goes to 8".

 

[Spaniard]

DPI Calculator / PPI Calculator
10.6" 16:9 Surface Pro screen: 9.24" × 5.2"
11.6" 16:9 Surface Pro screen: 10.11" × 5.69"
9.7" 4:3 iPad screen: 7.76" × 5.82"
11.9" 16:9 Surface Pro screen: 10.37" × 5.83" <--- my bet

 

[mitchellvii]

I think the single most compelling reason for a larger screen on the SP II will be that if they go for a retina-type super HD screen they really have no choice, and they really have no choice but to offer the super-HD screen since that is where the competition is going.

* I agree with Spaniard that something shorter and wider would make viewing in portrait mode easier.

 

[Bandit]

I'm hoping a little larger by going to 16:10 rather than 16:9 for the aspect ratio. 16:9 is fine for watching movies, but for doing productive work, reading documents & books, or browsing the internet the extra space offered by 16:10 is a better experience.

If they kept it the same width of 9.24", 16:10 would give a height of 5.78" and a 10.9" screen. That doesn't sound like much, but the overall screen area would go from 48 sq. in. to 53.4 sq. in., an 11% increase. Even better would be 10" x 6.25" which would give a screen size of 11.8" with an area of 62.5 sq. in. To me that would be the perfect size.

 

[Spaniard]

Why not a 4:3 Surface Pro like the iPad? It's better for reading PDFs. 2 models: 16:9 and 4:3.
Display size - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Spaniard]

Maybe the best aspect ratio "for everything" is 16:10, just between the A4 papers and the 16:9 movies. Today, the best screen on a tablet is the Nexus 10 screen:
Nexus 10 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
10.055-inch (255.4 mm) diagonal PLS-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16:10 aspect ratio
2560×1600 pixels WQXGA (299 ppi) with 16M colors, Scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 2

New bet:
16:10 11" Surface Pro screen: 9.33" × 5.83" (as wide as iPad)

16:10 is good enough portrait:

16:10 is good enough landscape:

 

[malberttoo]

I'm hoping a little larger by going to 16:10 rather than 16:9 for the aspect ratio. 16:9 is fine for watching movies, but for doing productive work, reading documents & books, or browsing the internet the extra space offered by 16:10 is a better experience.

Agreed. IMHO, 16:10 is just about the sweet spot.

 

[mitchellvii]

Agreed. IMHO, 16:10 is just about the sweet spot.

Especially given the SP's high resolution, squeezing an entire web page into a 16:9 portrait view makes for unreadably small text. 16:10 would be better. If the next screen is super HD (as it almost has to be to compete), this will only be worse.

 

[mitchellvii]

Agreed. IMHO, 16:10 is just about the sweet spot.

Especially given the SP's high resolution, squeezing an entire web page into a 16:9 portrait view makes for unreadably small text. 16:10 would be better. If the next screen is super HD (as it almost has to be to compete), this will only be worse.

malberttoo, why did you voted for "Same" in the poll if you think larger would be better?

 

[Nuspieds]

I'm fine with the current size but I think they (i.e., OEMs included) will release the smaller-size Win 8 devices. I'll be surprised if they do increase the screen size of the Surface.

 

[mitchellvii]

I'm fine with the current size but I think they (i.e., OEMs included) will release the smaller-size Win 8 devices. I'll be surprised if they do increase the screen size of the Surface.

But how can they go higher res to keep up with the competition and still have the same size? Scaling on external monitors would be ridiculous if they have zoom set above 200 just to read text with a Nexus 10 type resolution? How can they release a 1920 x 1080 res tablet in 2014? They will be the lowest res tablet on the market. They almost have no choice but to go bigger.

 

[Codevine]

I've read somewhere Microsoft said Windows 8.1 will fix the scaling problem on external monitors (they said something like "We are aware blabla").