Smaller battery!
$10 less!
80% customer inimpressd!
Microsoft fans hoping to sate their desire for a Surface device without selling a non-vital organ to fund it may have taken a step closer to realising their dreams this week. German hardware site WinFuture spotted a filing made by Microsoft with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that pointed towards new hardware. …
In fairness, it's not a cost saving; it's a space saving that allows cost savings elsewhere. Most of a modern laptop's volume is battery these days, so smaller battery = smaller device. That allows them to use a smaller, cheaper screen (usually the highest-cost component), keyboard, casework and everything else.
If the system uses ARM, they'll get back a little of the lost battery life too, but ARM isn't a miracle cure - it'll still be only five or six hours if they're going for a small form factor.
How long before the usual happens and they abandon it?
Bonus question: will they abandon it before it gets to the shops or will we get the usual claim of having sold gazillions to what will probably be about 3 people who are bad at history*?
* Might be the same people who are still hanging on to a Zune
Other reports seem to indicate that this is a 32bit only machine. As many Linux Distros and Apple are/or giving up on 32bit devices are MS hoping for success through obscurity then?
As to why Intel are still making 32bit only CPU's is another question entirely. Perhaps they deployed all those engineers who became available when Apple told them that their Modems won't be used beyond 2019 iDevices to make a cheapo 32bit CPU again? Who knows eh?
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No, Microsoft just happen to have made the correct choice with regards to keeping 32-bit support around.
There are still more 32-bit Intel devices that run Linux than ARM devices. So for a Linux distro to drop 32-bit hardware support and yet still work towards ARM support is.... well a bit systemd ;)
But yeah, this device will be locked down, be overly hyped and then head straight to the landfill. Undoing all the recycling efforts that us peasants have put in for the last 5 years.
If it isn't locked down, and the price is under £75 (The price of a second hand Thinkpad), then this hardware will be a big hit!
And wallet friendly to me means increasing the number of plastic legal tender tokens it contains.
On a serious note, I have a phone it does all I need almost, it is rooted it is mine. But...If it just ran Linux and had a real keyboard that slid from behind.
I need to ssh to a secure environment in an emergency. I use my laptop because I trust the install. Even though my phone is rooted and runs Cyanogen, my Android-fu is such that I don't trust it.
£400
USB 3.1
USB C
Micro HDMI
128gb SSD
Intel Atom
8gb RAM
7" touchscreen
Windows 10 home
It's around £400 and I've been using my one for months running VirtualDJ with HD video out and it works a treat. It's also available in Linux for the geeks out there.
Don't even waste your time MS as you're late to the party, your one will be infinitely more expensive then abandoned after a matter of months.
Nope.
It's a Microsoft SurfaceX.
It is made out of glass. It has a notch at the top. It has USB-C and runs Windows 10 Pro Mobile version.
Unlike the rather similar-sounding device from a popular Microsoft rival this one only costs $500 and less than $100 to replace the glass every time you stick it in your back pocket.