Thursday, October 15, 2015

Surface book and Surface pro....redundancy

Recently Microsoft unveiled two new laptop/tablet hybrids, the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. The Surface pro 4 is the company's fourth attempt at creating a tablet that can replace a laptop. The Surface book is, well  a laptop that can replace your tablet?
Essentially the surface book is a beefed up version of the surface pro. It has a bigger screen and a full keyboard that does not also double as a cover. The bigger keyboard allowed Microsoft to incorporate more components into the device that give it the extra edge over the surface pro, whose keyboard cannot house anything else.
Why they made the surface book is something that I cannot understand. Perhaps they wanted to overcome one of the shortcomings of the surface pro (relatively less powerful than other laptops). However they sacrificed the entire concept of the surface pro to make the surface book. Sure the screen is detachable and its extremely thin, but the surface pro has a keyboard in its cover and it feels like an actual tablet.
There was no need to make a surface book. In doing so Microsoft sold out on its goal to make the tablet that can truly replace a laptop. The surface pro had the right exterior. it fell short in its specs but that is something that can be fixed with  R&D, and Microsoft was getting there. Also they made the pro thinner and were bragging about how they could not make it any more thinner because of USB reasons. While thinner tech is important, I think they could have made the pro 4 bigger, in terms of screen size (they did increase to 12.3 from 12, but really thats not much) and kept the same thickness, if not made it slightly thicker. That way they could have added more components into the pro and made it more powerful. Maybe I'm the only one who wants a table that is about 15 in and thicker than most, but if they could make it light and boost the performance, it would be in my opinion worth it.
By making the surface book, Microsoft is in effect saying that they failed with the surface pro in terms of making a table than can replace your laptop. They should stick with the surface pro and continue to improve it, eventually they will make something that will be the best of both worlds.

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