Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Surface Misses the Mark

Microsoft still doesn't get it. The new Surface tablet has some nice capabilities (Windows 8, Office, cover keyboard, Xbox controllers), but it also has some serious issues:
  • Price: Microsoft is making the same mistake Android tablets made when they first came out, pricing Surface ($500 without cover keyboard, $600 with) at least $100 too high. Surface is too new and insufficiently compelling on capabilities to gain traction against the Apple iPad without a more compelling price.
  • Display: 1366×768 resolution is crude, especially compared to iPad at 2048×1536. All Surface models should have been Full HD 1920x1080 (not just the "coming soon" Surface with Windows Pro, which will probably be even more expensive).
  • USB: The lack of USB 3.0 is inexcusable, a serious limitation.
  • Immaturity: Windows 8 is half-baked, much like Windows Vista, and time will be needed to flesh it out and smooth it out. Never buy version 1 of anything (Apple excepted).
Bottom line: Wait for version 2.

2 comments:

  1. So you're saying it's 100 more than it should cost... but how much does it actually cost?

    ReplyDelete