News Microsoft announces Surface 2, Surface 2 Pro

The price difference between the standard model and the Pro model is huge!

You could buy 2 normal models for pretty much the same price as the Pro model. Can they really justify this gigantic price difference?

 

The Surface2 Pro could be argued as good, if not better than most ultrabooks which come in roughly the same price.

I'm already a convert regardless but will have to hold off on this one for now as I need to upgrade my desktop first.

The updates to Surface2 RT sound very well thought out and positive.

 

Given that the Surface Pro 2 is basically the technological equivalent of an 11" Macbook Air (£850,--) with touch screen and Wacom digitiser pen, yeah, they really can justify this price difference.

£359,-- for the entry level Surface 2 is pretty decent. Should bundle the touchcover with it, though.

The Surface branding is interesting. What are the bets that soon Microsoft will release a Surface smartphone?

 

So for those of us in the uk will we be able to buy an order the surface pro 2 on October 22nd or is this a USA only release?

 

Official site is UK dude and states shipped 21st October.
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The UK site appears to be updating. You can pre-order the Surface 2 and there is a link to pre-order the Surface Pro 2, but it still redirects to the Surface family page.

 

And the rest of the world won't see any of these again, as usual with MS.

 

If you click through the pre-order stages it comes to the page that says it will be shipped on the 21st.

Is that right faugusztin? what happens when you click on the official Microsoft page for your country?

 

There is no Surface on local Microsoft page. Surface is only in 21 countries - to Microsoft, Europe ends at Germany/Austria/Italy line.

 

Wow unlucky dude. Technically the Wall hadn't come down when they formed the company, give it a little time to adjust to the new Europe

 

The Surface 2, meh.

The Asus T100 seems a heck of a lot more attractive. Full fat Windows 8.1 also, for $100 less and an included keyboard dock. Yes it isn't as high a screen resolution, but the processor in it is probably roughly the same speed in similar types of applications (possibly slightly faster as Baytrail seems like it is actually very good).

As for the pro 2, it looks nice, but I wasn't likely to buy the first one at the original price, at $100 more I am that much less likely to buy it even with the improvements.

If you told me it snagged all of those improvements AND it included a keyboard dock for the price, THEN maybe you'd sell me on it. Otherwise (minus the digitizer), I am probably going to get more out of a full ultrabook at roughly the same price and in this case, screen size is probably one of the better selling points for the ultrabook. Going up to those kinds of specs and price I want a machine that is very good for content creation and also probably heavier weight gaming. Something with a 10 odd inch screen isn't going to be as good at that as an 11.6 let alone 13-14 inch ultrabook and a good keyboard dock with touch pad is also going to be a requirement, which would be more than another $100 extra.

I'd personally rather spend less than half that on something like the T100 which looks like it'll be great for content consumption and be okay for the times I want to use it for content creation because I want to leave my ultrabook behind or am not at my desktop.

The Surface 2 Pro seems overkill for content consumption. Maybe great for creation if you MUST have a very small and light device with you, but at that you'd really need the keyboard dock, which puts you up in to most 11 inch ultrabook territory for weight and roughly bulk too, while still having a smaller keyboard and screen. Maybe only great if want your "work machine" to also be able to double as your "laze around on the couch and watch Netflix, check your email and browse the web" machine when not doing work on it.

Me personally, I'd rather spend very slightly more money on a decent, but not expensive, Baytrail based tablet and a decent ultrabook and get devices somewhat more suited for their own activity, with some ability for cross over, rather than one that is firmly planted in the middle and maybe not the best at either (which, hey, is also why I wear a watch AND have an iphone).

 

As I said, if you were telling me that the Surface 2 pro was $599 for the 64GB version with 4GB of memory AND included a keyboard dock, I'd probably be sold. At $899 not including a keyboard dock (which I am guessing the dock is probably going to be around $149 and the battery dock more like $199)...nope.

 

Greetings!

 

That was the reason I asked in the first place, Expected snips responce he does no research in the matter. Tried to pre order this in the uk get not avail in your country for surface pro 2.

Common microsoft I want to actually buy one please let me.

 

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...6902200?WT.mc_id=surface_preorder_surfacepro2

Says 22nd after careful research no one else could do apparently

 

Managed to pre order the surface pro 2 256gb at about 9am uk time.

 

Greetings!