https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Microsoft-Surface-Press-Conference-June-2017/i-nR8phZv
It’s been 18 months since the last real Microsoft Surface launch, a lifetime in computing terms. So what’s new? Pretty much everything, the Surface family now features four product lines: Surface Studio; Surface Book; Surface Pro and Surface Laptop all of which include a touchscreen and pen input.
Microsoft’s Hong Kong General Manager Horace Chow was upbeat and confident about the new Surface range of products with several digs at ipads and macbooks during his presentation. Will the new Surface machines attract Mac users – it will be interesting to see.
The rather lovely looking Surface Studio is a beautiful high resolution 28 inch touchscreen on a massive hinge which can stand vertically, lie completely flat or anywhere inbetween. Prices start from $24,888
The Surface Book is Microsoft’s top end laptop released in 2015 and updated last year, version 2 was expected to be released this month but has been delayed. It features a detachable 13.5 inch screen, separate graphics processor and ‘proper’ keyboard. Prices start from $11,588
The Surface Pro is a powerful laptop with a 12.3 inch touchscreen, back stand and an Alcantara fabric keyboard. The press release claims 14 hours of battery, life more than enough for a full day’s work. Prices start from $6,988
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Microsoft-Surface-Press-Conference-June-2017/i-8tXCR3P
The thin light Surface Laptop has a 13.5inch gorilla glass touchscreen and an Alcantara fabric keyboard and comes in four colours: platinum, graphite gold, cobalt blue and burgundy. Sadly the colour options are only available in a specific configuration. Prices start from $7,888.
Confusingly all four lines are sold with different versions of Windows, although it appears you can upgrade to Windows Pro free of charge until the end of 2017.
What to buy? There are now so many different chip sets, generations and numbers that it’s easy to become confused as to what to buy. Unlike a decade ago where the difference between generations of Intel chips was massive, the differences in use for most everyday tasks will be barely noticeable. So unless your doing heavy number crunching or video encoding then choose the one that feels good to use with as much storage and ram as you can afford at www.microsoftstore.com.hk.
16 June 2017: Edited to reflect that the different colour Surface laptops are available in Hong Kong.