Not sure I like the SP4 rumours

[CliveSinclair]

Just rumours I know.... 14" or 10" display with Core M?

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Release Date Speculated As Autumn 2015, Release Timing Lined With Windows 10 Release Date - International Business Times

 

[hotphil]

Why not?

 

[CliveSinclair]

14" for me is too big. Even with a Core M, I wonder if some sort of throttling will still exist. The 10" one? Wasn't that the same size display as older Surfaces and people wanted bigger? 14" is likely to be heavier... may as well take a conventional laptop?

I love the current SP3 form factor - it does need some very minor improvements, but for me it's pretty much a perfect machine.

 

[hotphil]

Be interesting to see what they do form-factor wise... that timescale fits in with Broadwell I believe...(?) And Broadwell's much-touted benefit for Surface-like devices is fanless CPUs.

 

[TLRtheory]

For a split second, it almost seemed like Microsoft figured out how to make something that wasn't a financial catastrophe when word got out that a 8in Surface Pro mini would compliment the 12in.

The current size of the Surface Pro is perfect... but not fully being realized because it needs a smaller, lower-cost alternative for the absolutely massive crowd who simply haven't bought a SP3 because it's too expensive. A big one for the professional crowd who has no problem dropping a grand... then a smaller bay trail Surface mini for kids/teens and the ladies' purse that would cost around $200-$300. That would allow the brand name to circulate and it would allow the entire Surface product to gain much more traction than it has. They still haven't grasped the whole "covering bases" part of how to sell a product.

 

[Broomcorn]

I don't think the sp4 will be much different than the sp3. I'm guessing the same exact shell with battery improvements and such...

 

[Michael Muscat]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft has stated explicitly that the SP4 will have full compatibility with existing accessories. That means that the form factor won't change. Now maybe they figured out how to fit a 14" screen into the 12" form factor (and 10" into 8"?) ala the Dell XPS 13 infinity display. Wouldn't that be exciting?

 

[MoggSquad]

It will be interesting. What if SP4 has features such as USB type c, skylake processor, etc.

I would love to see a SP4 with the same form factor as SP3 and a SP4 14" laptop.

 

[theefman]

Well since its a rumour what difference does it make either way?

 

[astell]

They still haven't grasped the whole "covering bases" part of how to sell a product.

We'll ignore the fact that Office 365 along with almost all of their enterprise class software are doing fantastic. We'll also ignore how well the SP3 is doing in the market.

Yes, we'll ignore all of that just so your asinine statement is accurate.

I do agree with people saying the 14" might be too big; but I though the SP3 might be too big before I played with it.

 

[spaulagain]

Honestly, a 14" would make me happy. Give me 14" with 16GB RAM and it could actually replace my current laptop. But as of right now, the SP3 is still to small and underpowered to be my main device.

 

[untitled]

I'm pretty sure Microsoft has stated explicitly that the SP4 will have full compatibility with existing accessories. That means that the form factor won't change.

I recall this, too, though the source escapes me at the moment.

 

[pedenske]

I recall this, too, though the source escapes me at the moment.

I thought it was from a reddit ama they did but I didn't see it in there unless I missed it. There are a lot of comments in that thread.

 

[Purge_GT]

16GB RAM? You sure it's the memory that's holding you back, and not the underpowered GPU?

 

[spaulagain]

16GB RAM? You sure it's the memory that's holding you back, and not the underpowered GPU?

The computer I had at work for a while (got a laptop recently) was packed with 32GB of RAM, a 250GB SS drive for the OS, 1TB HD for files, top of the line i7, and 2 7500 graphics cards.

All that bring said, I observed my ram usage....

7-8GB for Chrome sometimes (lots of tabs).

1-2GB for Illustrator

1Gb for PhotoShop

And then another couple GBs for other applications like Visual Studio, Outlook, Sublime Text, etc.

Also, I need to be able to build VMs on my machine so I can work on various development projects at work.

Although les powerful then the tower I had, the laptop I got recently is just about perfect for all of this. And the specs could certainly be packed in a SP4.

I use an identical laptop at home for freelance work.