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Microsoft Windows Hardware

Microsoft Now Has the Best Device Lineup in the Industry (char.gd) 219

An anonymous reader shares commentary on the new devices Microsoft unveiled Tuesday: At a low-key event held in a New York City warehouse, Microsoft unveiled its next iterations in the Surface lineup. Sitting in the audience, I saw the most coherent device strategy in the industry, from a company that's slowly built a hardware business from the ground up. The company took just an hour to unveil sweeping updates to its existing hardware, and what's clear after the dust has settled is that Microsoft's hardware division is a force to be reckoned with. Apple's dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft's story is incredibly compelling. Rather than building out a confusing, incompatible array of devices, Microsoft has taken the time to build a consistent, clear portfolio that has something to fit everyone across the board.

[...] What's interesting about this is the Surface hardware is now incredibly consistent across the board, making it dead simple for consumers to choose a device they like. Each device offers high quality industrial design, with consistent input methods regardless of form factor, and a tight software story to boot. That matters. Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen, supports a high-quality stylus, and current generation chipsets. The only question is which device fits your lifestyle, and whether or not you want the faster model. The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018. Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your 'flow.' Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn't require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you. It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.

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Microsoft Now Has the Best Device Lineup in the Industry

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  • Must be an ad (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:10PM (#57418306)

    Does not seem legit.

    • Re:Must be an ad (Score:5, Insightful)

      by blahbooboo ( 839709 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:12PM (#57418332)

      Does not seem legit.

      Painfully obvious advertisement paid article/post. Come on Slashdot, at least TRY to make your ads less obvious.

      I miss the good old days when Slashdot wasn't as obvious a sell out.

      • Re:Must be an ad (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @01:30PM (#57418984) Homepage Journal
        Even if it is all true and the hardware is great....

        The sad thing is, they still run windows....

        :(

      • Does not seem legit.

        Painfully obvious advertisement paid article/post. Come on Slashdot, at least TRY to make your ads less obvious.

        I miss the good old days when Slashdot wasn't as obvious a sell out.

        The good old days of what, 1995?

    • Re:Must be an ad (Score:4, Informative)

      by ichthus ( 72442 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:35PM (#57418512) Homepage
      Spoon-fed title and everything. *YAK*
    • You are right, across the board.

  • Hilarious (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:10PM (#57418308) Homepage Journal
    What a hilarious headline. Microsoft isn't selling any of the Surface stuff. They are shipping it, but it isn't selling. They keep coming out with new model lines and price points, but it isn't working. How desperate are they to convince us? Really pathetic.
    • A billion dollars a quarter [theverge.com] worth of Surfaces are selling. That's about 40% of Macbook sales. So - it's small, but it IS selling.
      • The competition here should not be Macbooks. The competition are the other PC makers, Dell, Lenovo, etc.

    • Re:Hilarious (Score:5, Informative)

      by citylivin ( 1250770 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @02:22PM (#57419446)

      Man sometimes people on here are like not in the real world. School districts use them pretty extensively. One in town has hundreds if not thousands for all their staff. We have about 20 of the devices in our company. From surface pro3 all the way to surface laptops. I see people at coffee shops with them all the time. Maybe its just your city that people don't have them in. They are a more expensive device that you would see more downtown and less in the suburbs.

      My opinion having worked with them daily for over 3 years now is that they are amazing devices, but have extremely poor reliability long term.

      First as for use, the ability to touch the screen all the time is something that i find myself missing when i have to switch to an old school laptop. I have used acer and asus laptops and dont find the touch done as well on those. I carry it around when i am away from my desk and its great to be able to quickly flip it open and turn something off or on, or edit switch configs in the field with a very small device that is quite snappy and full featured. They put some good hardware in there, in terms of performance.

      As for reliability, all but one of our surface pro 3's has failed in some way. Most multiple times, and in the first year i think all had to be RMA'ed under warranty. Mostly this is because they over heat, sometimes the screen becomes unresponsive, and definitely at least 4 drop incidents have occurred where the screen cracked (A $600 fix). I have had some DOA as well. I have one that has a persistant USB port failure, and another that overheats and locks up when its sleeping (but performs fine if you shut it down as opposed to letting it go to sleep.

      The surface laptops are somewhat newer, and not as many problems with them, but we did have one DOA unit out of the 7 or so we purchased. Microsoft store swapped it no questions asked though. I had a docking station that didnt output two display port outputs like it was supposed to as well, also swapped at MS store with zero hassles. When we purchased the surface pro 4, all had to be sent back for a manufacturing defect (recall) within the first month. But we got those right when they came out, like first units off the truck.

      So in conclusion, i would recommend that if you have money and don't mind the fact that they are fragile and wont last more than 3 years, that one should purchase it. Like if you dont bat an eye about spending $1500 on a laptop every 3 years i would say definitely buy. The features they have and the lightweightedness and portability and convenience make up for the durability problems. Especially if its a corporate device where its not actually your money. Dropping it and having to spend $600 would be pretty brutal for a home user, with very few self repair options (they are more like a phone, or mac in this respect).

      But they don't deserve all the hate i am seeing in this thread. If they were $400 bucks i would probably buy a few for home use. They are a great little package and everyone that uses one comments on how nice it is. Reliability is definitely an issue though, but less important for a business where you are swapping out old equipment for new usually after 3 years anyway.

    • Microsoft isn't selling any of the Surface stuff. They are shipping it, but it isn't selling.

      This gets funnier the more you post it because every time you do MS is rolling in more silly amounts of money.

    • but it isn't selling

      Isn't selling? I had a Surface Pro 2013 - I'm writing this on a Surface Pro 2017.

      These gadgets are everywhere - At airports, coffee shops, train stations and universities - All over my office and every offsite meeting I attend at other companies. Everywhere you look where people have devices open and there's a bunch of Surfaces.

  • Define "best" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:11PM (#57418314)

    Define "best" -- it's hardly the most rugged, repairable, or upgradeable hardware. It's designed to become e-waste when the glued-in internal battery dies, while I'm typing this on a 6 year old laptop that's modular.

    Stop using weight as an argument -- you're talking maybe 0.5lb difference between a glued-shut Surface with keyboard and a relative modular Thinkpad or Dell ultralight.

    • Re:Define "best" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:31PM (#57418478) Journal

      What, you're looking for specifics and justification of claims in one of the most clearly obvious astroturf posts there ever has been?

      The first paragraph must have been hard to type with Microsoft's metaphorical balls in the author's mouth.

    • The ultra light computers aren't the average computers. They do well but they go to executives or employees who are on the road a lot. If you were going to marry yourself to a single PC maker, then Microsoft isn't going to be supplying the whole range of employee computers for the enterprise (and that's not counting servers and lab computers).

  • The hell... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:11PM (#57418320) Journal

    ...kind of marketing drivel is this?

    • Re:The hell... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:39PM (#57418556) Journal

      I especially like this:

      By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.

      So I can choose to pay for a touchscreen I'll never use, and can accept accidental input I don't want; but I'll bet I can't choose what OS I want installed on this thing due to having to fuck about with SecureBoot, weird partitioning schemes that no other bootloader wants to deal with, proprietary crap hardware that doesn't have drivers in any other OS but the latest spyware^H^H^H^H^H^H Windows 10 edition.

      It's a laptop. I don't want a touchscreen, and in fact turned off the one I have because it's annoying and ergonomically terrible on a laptop.
      It's a laptop. I don't want a stylus because it's even more ergonomically terrible than a touchscreen.

      I'm glad you are including choice when it allows you to raise the price and include more margin, but not when it comes to the things that actually matter to people.

      • Let's not even pretend that choice is in any way connected to price when it comes to Apple. Apple chooses what they will let you have, period, and you will pay premium prices for it, whether it's a new product or a product line that hasn't been refreshed in 5 years. Apple will, in fact, go out of it's way to ensure you can't do the things they don't want to allow you to do. That's been Apple's MO since forever.
  • by SinGunner ( 911891 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:12PM (#57418326)
    My wife's Surface Pro has a weird screen ghosting issue that is apparently hardware-related and M$ has written off everyone with this issue. Give them 5 more years in the hardware industry (and a couple products that are actually bug-free) before giving them your money.
    • Mine doesn't. Your ancedotal proof is invalidated.

      SO, everyone, start keeping score.

    • Give them 5 more years in the hardware industry

      Another 5? Shit how much longer?

      • Their entire history of hardware development is full of problems. I broke down and bought the Surface Pro 4 because all the reviews finally seemed positive. And "Flickergate" hit the news shortly thereafter.
  • ... or have I just been asleep at the wheel while it changed slowly?

    This kind of BS seems like the norm nowadays. Yawn.

  • by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:14PM (#57418348) Homepage Journal
    I am not in their target audience, and I'll say why.

    First, the layout of windows 10 / windows server 12 (and newer) is, IMHO, a total disjointed eye-gouging mess. It borders on unusable. The interface consistently gets in my way when I want to do things that were very simple in earlier versions of windows (for example starting a command prompt). The default color scheme is so awful it could well be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

    Second, their obsession with touchscreens is great for people who don't actually do any real work. Oddly enough I do actual work with my computers, and I find touchscreens to be maddening devices. Why do I want fingerprint smears all over my screen? On top of that a touchscreen is more an impediment to actual work than a tool for it; this mirrors well with my observations that when people are using touchscreens on a laptop they almost without exception are goofing off; they go back to an actual pointing device for actual work.

    Third, touchpads are garbage. The Apple touchpad is almost a valid pointing device but only just. Microsoft doesn't want to sell anything with a useful pointing device; users respond by buying mice to use with their Microsoft laptops and tablets.
    • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      I'm SO glad I'm not alone in my cranky old codger ways...

      I think I'll perform a happy dance the day the sell a smartphone with hardware keyboard and trackpoint...

    • The interface consistently gets in my way when I want to do things that were very simple in earlier versions of windows (for example starting a command prompt).

      Opening a command line in W10 is simply right click the windows menu button (or press Win+X), and click "PowerShell" or "PowerShell (Admin)" (I think there's a setting to replace this with the old-school command line if you really want). Or tap the windows key, then type "cmd" as though it were a command line itself. Or win+R and type "cmd" into the Run menu (it stores history so if a command line was your last command, it's just Win+R, Enter). That last has been how I've opened command lines since XP, the

      • Opening a command line in W10 is simply right click the windows menu button (or press Win+X), and click "PowerShell" or "PowerShell (Admin)" (I think there's a setting to replace this with the old-school command line if you really want). Or tap the windows key, then type "cmd" as though it were a command line itself. Or win+R and type "cmd" into the Run menu (it stores history so if a command line was your last command, it's just Win+R, Enter). That last has been how I've opened command lines since XP, the second has been there since I think Vista, and IIRC the first is a new addition (maybe was in W8?).

        When I press the windows button, windows redraws my entire damned display with useless icons and grinds to a halt while it tries to predict what I'm typing. We used to push the windows button to pop up a quick an unobtrusive start menu, from where I could easily hit "r" for run.

        I think it's more that it's designed for higher-resolution screens than older OSes. W10 looks fine as a desktop OS, provided you're on a 1080p screen or higher.

        Once you've switched it to a non-nauseating theme, it almost doesn't look like total garbage. The default theme is a crime against humanity.

        • When I press the windows button, windows redraws my entire damned display with useless icons and grinds to a halt while it tries to predict what I'm typing. We used to push the windows button to pop up a quick an unobtrusive start menu, from where I could easily hit "r" for run.

          Once you've switched it to a non-nauseating theme, it almost doesn't look like total garbage. The default theme is a crime against humanity.

          Did your machine default to tablet mode for some reason? You normally only get the full-screen start menu if your machine thinks it's a tablet. Poke around the settings - there's System->Tablet Mode, which switches a whole bunch of settings at once, and Personalization->Start Menu->Use Start Full Screen, which just flips between the old-school start menu (or a modern reskin of it, at least) and the tablet-style full-screen one. Also take a look at System->Display->Scale, if you got defaulted

      • What I don't like is that some UI elements are obviously designed for touch and thus they have huge controls that are waste of real estate compared to classic mouse-oriented buttons. It'd be nice if there was a way to switch them for the classic controls (Think Windows 7 UI) but it seems we have to live with the lowest common denominator.
    • by Misagon ( 1135 )

      Not to mention that Windows 10 user interface* is actually really badly suited for touch screens. When they brought forward mouse and keyboard after Window 8, the touch interface actually went backwards.

      *: That's "user experience" for shills and millenials ...

    • Your whole post boils down to "Stop doing things in ways that I don't like. And get off my lawn."
    • "Second, their obsession with touchscreens is great for people who don't actually do any real work. Oddly enough I do actual work with my computers, and I find touchscreens to be maddening devices. Why do I want fingerprint smears all over my screen? On top of that a touchscreen is more an impediment to actual work than a tool for it; this mirrors well with my observations that when people are using touchscreens on a laptop they almost without exception are goofing off; they go back to an actual pointing de

    • I find touchscreens to be maddening devices.

      You think touchscreens are maddening? Back when Windows 8 first came out, I was obliged to deal with it, and decided that some degree of touch capability would make it easier to navigate. Lacking a touchscreen, I opted to try a couple of mice with touch - one from Microsoft, and one from Logitech. It was simply infuriating to be halfway through filling out a form or posting something online, only to have the mouse interpret some imperceptible movement of your thumb as a "back" gesture.

  • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:16PM (#57418366)

    Don't all of these devices run Windows?

    Unless I have some sort of weird sole-source agreement from a vendor, if the various devices all run the same operating system, why does it really matter which vendor the hardware comes from? Wasn't that in large part why Windows became such a domineering player in the personal computer market in the first place?

    If Microsoft or any other commodity-OS vendor had some sort of peripheral expansion system that was unique and cross-compatible across the entire line but incompatible with other manufacturers then I could possibly see having such a wide lineup being useful, but we appear to be well past the era of ubiquitous proprietary docking stations or port/peripheral expansion modules. Even when we were in that era though, it's not like a given vendor had all of their devices use that dock, usually only a fairly small subset in a given series used a particular dock, so different laptop lines would have different docks even with one vendor.

    I've seen the headaches associated with repairing particular models of Lenovo like the Thinkpad Helix lineup, no way would I go with a single hardware vendor as a lock-in beyond the particular model for a particular contract. Especially when apparently the Surface series are now even worse than those Helixes are to repair.

  • by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:17PM (#57418380) Homepage

    It's turning into a real MS fanboi site.

    Regardless of how well put together the line up is, I refuse to surrender to Windows 10 - I don't like how Microsoft is moving everything to a monthly pay model and I'm very uncomfortable with them having access to my systems.

    • It's turning into a real MS fanboi site.

      Because an article has been posted? Have you read the comments? It's not an MS fanboi site. It's a troll site.

  • Surfaces are great... for the first 3 months until some of the hardware randomly decides to stop working.

  • But no thanks

  • Which is it? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Obvious paid ad aside, the writeup is self-contradictory.

    "Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen..."

    "By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose."

    So with the Slashdot/Microsoft laptops, do I get to choose whether I want a touchscreen? Sure sounds like I don't.

  • Adver (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:24PM (#57418430) Journal

    This isn't anonymous. This is transparently scarcely-rewrapped ad copy. It's even loaded with buzzwords and talking points. Won't interrupt your "flow", whatever it is, touch screen or mouse? Competition is flailing around. "Compelling", etc.

    Just as Microsoft did to IBM, so it has been having done to it by Apple and Google. It is still fat, relying on market dominance in Windows to play me too in all the latest hit products like smart phones.

    People want touch screens for surfing at home and starting Netflix, and a keyboard and mouse for business use. Which doesn't need a touch screen for surfing and starting Netflix.

    Hence the confused ad copy in the posting.

    • This isn't anonymous. This is transparently scarcely-rewrapped ad copy. It's even loaded with buzzwords and talking points.

      But he said "shit"! Ooooo, so edgy! So convincing! Can't possibly be corporate-speak. Microsoft would never use "blue" language in their advertising copy, surely. That would be unseemly. Therefore it must be a completely legitimate third party review that's jizzing all over my screen.

      I work for what's legally a small business and unlike a lot of people's reports here, we actually have two Surfaces. Not sure which model, and it hardly matters. It's a tablet. It's fine. It functions. It can do Wind

  • Sitting in the audience, I saw the most coherent device strategy in the industry, from a company that's slowly built a hardware business from the ground up.

    Anonymous Marketer can't be talking about viewing Microsoft's offerings then. The writer has a clear misunderstanding of the internals of computers/phone/tablets/etc. if they think Microsoft has done anything hardware related "from the ground up".

    The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018.

    I'd say that's setting the bar really low in 2018. Since they've done this slowly, they've had ample time and opportunity to ensure that peripherals software work seamlessly with existing Microsoft kit, and does it work for migrating from competing kit? *sample bia

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:29PM (#57418460)

    Even if you limit yourself to Windows, these are not the best devices.

    We've got a number of users in our department who have purchased Microsoft devices - Surfaces, Surface Books, etc. The recent ones do look sleek, I'll give them that - but they seem to frequently run into lots of nagging problems.

  • Nothing user serviceable, everything glued together, good luck with a battery swap in two years, ..! Also the N-trig touch screens are know for phantom touches and dead zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] I got the Pro 2 and 3 and will not buy another one. Also the kickstand tablet form factor does not work the best for me, not in air planes, nor in an armchair.
  • MS does seem to be making some decent hardware. However, it's still running Windows 10, which is still shit. I hope the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc. realise they're being screwed over by MS, and start to fully support and promote alternative operating systems.

    • What alternative operating systems? They can't produce a MacOS machine, although I'm sure they would if Apple allowed it. I guess there Linux. As good as it is, it's still not ready for your average user. I've been using Linux on and off since 1999, and still every time I install it on a machine there is a huge number of usability problems that just puts me off and reminds me why I don't use it as my default operating system. There is ChromeOS, which many vendors are producing machines for. I guess that's

      • What alternative operating systems? They can't produce a MacOS machine, although I'm sure they would if Apple allowed it. I guess there Linux. As good as it is, it's still not ready for your average user.

        If they were smart...all the major hardware vendors would get together and form a common group, to pic one distro of Linux and custom comform it to be user friendly and work on their hardware in a very common way.

        They could bypass the MS tax and all have this as the alternative OS, and make sales on hardw

      • "What alternative OS?'... good question.. The other manufacturers will have to sort that out themselves. I deliberately didn't rush to the standard /. cry of 'Linux!', but it is the obvious answer. Google has managed to create an alternative OS... could HP or Lenovo?

  • I wondered if the industry's most notorious pro-Microsoft shill was at it again [macobserver.com], but the byline is for an "Owen Williams."

    Could still be Enderle, but hey: Microsoft is a rich company. They can hire lots of shills...

  • None of them have thunderbolt. They're high quality products but they're full of non-upgradeable glue. Don't get me wrong, I love the Surface lineup and own multiple of them, but to call them the best is utterly laughable.
  • Hey, wait a minute (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brett Buck ( 811747 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @12:49PM (#57418638)

    I checked "disable ads", and yet this article still appears. /vertisement

  • ...it's funny how you never actually see one of those around, anywhere.

    I work for a large corporation, and people carry basically either all or 2 of 4 things:

    - Their Apple or PC laptop.

    - An Apple or Android phone.

    I don't ever recall seeing even ONE of those surface laptop/table thingies anywhere, and I service most of the people's hardware, I don't even remember ONE single event when one of the coworkers came in with a surface, nor do I even see them in cafeterias, recreation rooms, workplaces, on the bus,

  • YEP REAL Reliable!

    That is about $50,000 wasted just for broken toys.

    Back to the Dell laptops they went. There are maybe 8-10 of the things still working after two years.

  • "Microsoft now has the best device lineup in the industry"

    Too bad those devices come with the worst operating system in the industry.

  • You jumped the shark with this one. Only someone vested in a company (or working for an advertising company contracted by said company) would say something like this...

    Apple's dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft's story is incredibly compelling.

    Real people don't talk about market "spaces", describe the totally dominant competition as "shaky", or describe some pieces of hardware as an "incredibly compelling" "story".

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