So here we have a device that can be used as a full mobile OS as well as a touchscreen tablet. At first glance this should be a slam dunk. After all, nobody else really has anything like this yet. Apple is staying out of this game and continuing to offer MacOS on full laptops and iOS on tablets. Although it does appear now that Ubuntu is trying to get into this game (this is just my personal opinion but: there's a reason that Ubuntu desktop only has around 20 million downloads worldwide. I'll pass.)
The problem I have with it is that windows 8 Pro tablets are ready for hardware to catch up, but the hardware isn't ready for it Battery technology isn't ready to keep these puppies going for 10+ hours, and chips aren't ready yet either.
At a $1200-ish price point, you can get a regular laptop that will come with 500GB storage and 8MB RAM and be able to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. Not so with the Surface Pro. At $600 and below you can get an ARM based tablet that will consume media just fine and last more than twice as long unplugged.
My opinion on these new x86 tablets is that they cannot perform as powerfully as a full laptop yet they cost just as much, and in many cases more, and they can't last as long unplugged as a tablet.
Do I think this is a brilliant idea though? Oh Heck yeah! But I need to wait until the CPU's and batteries catch up to this enough to offer at least 300GB storage, 6+MB of RAM, last as long as ARM based tablets unplugged, and have the processing power of regular laptops. Until that happens, I'll be using an actual PC for x86 Windows 8 media creation, and a separate ARM based tablet for portable media consumption.
The problem I have with it is that windows 8 Pro tablets are ready for hardware to catch up, but the hardware isn't ready for it Battery technology isn't ready to keep these puppies going for 10+ hours, and chips aren't ready yet either.
At a $1200-ish price point, you can get a regular laptop that will come with 500GB storage and 8MB RAM and be able to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. Not so with the Surface Pro. At $600 and below you can get an ARM based tablet that will consume media just fine and last more than twice as long unplugged.
My opinion on these new x86 tablets is that they cannot perform as powerfully as a full laptop yet they cost just as much, and in many cases more, and they can't last as long unplugged as a tablet.
Do I think this is a brilliant idea though? Oh Heck yeah! But I need to wait until the CPU's and batteries catch up to this enough to offer at least 300GB storage, 6+MB of RAM, last as long as ARM based tablets unplugged, and have the processing power of regular laptops. Until that happens, I'll be using an actual PC for x86 Windows 8 media creation, and a separate ARM based tablet for portable media consumption.