Microsoft livecast - 10/6/15

Jobydrone · October 06, 2015, 06:57:47 AM

The announcements & livecast are finally here...the expectation has been two new Windows phones (this leaked a few days ago), two versions of a new Surface Pro 4, an update to their wearable, and maybe Xbox or Hololens news. Very excited for this, especially because I am strongly disposed to picking up the Surface Pro 4 if the price point hasn't changed since Pro 3. I'll post my impressions after the announcmeents

Jobydrone · October 06, 2015, 09:03:02 AM

Pretty impressive presentation. For me the most amazing announcements and demos were the Hololens display, that featured wearable holograms with lasers shooting out of your hands at robot spiders crawling out of the walls of your house...no kidding...and the announcements of the Surface Pro 4 (an incremental iteration on SP3 with the same price point) and the new Surface Book, which is a 13 1/2" super thin touchscreen laptop with i5 or i7 skylake processors, up to 1TB HDD and 16 GB memory, & Nvidia GPUs, that detaches into a tablet with the touch of a button. Really, really impressive, but really really expensive at $1500.00 for the base model.

I was drooling over the laptop after they showed it detaching into a tablet, but I don't think I can pull the trigger at that price right now. I wanted to pick one of these up day one, which is October 26 with pre-orders starting tomorrow, but now I think maybe I'll wait a little longer and save some more cash so I can splurge on the new Surface Book.

Bromptonboy · October 06, 2015, 10:03:13 AM

I like their stuff - but the price...

The MS Band looks interesting - it gives much of the functionality I have been looking for, and it is cheaper than the Apple Watch. I have wanted to preview texts without taking my phone out of my pocket, or bike cargo bag. $249 is still pricey, but better than $499.

Jobydrone · October 06, 2015, 10:12:20 AM

Yeah the price is super high. The preorder page is up already, and checking it out, it looks like the lowest priced Surface Book is indeed $1499.00 BUT that model does not have the discrete Nvidia GPU, which is the huge selling point IMO. The lowest priced model with the graphics processor is $1900, and at that price you can get a monster gaming laptop if you want...of course sacrificing the portability and tablet functionality. I just don't know...I definitely want a windows tablet to replace my malfunctioning iPad but I may just go with the new surface pro 4, save almost $1000 dollars, and do all my gaming at home. All the other functions I'd use a laptop for seem to be really functional on the Surface Pro 4, and I wouldn't need a powerful graphics processor if I am not gaming on the thing.

Bromptonboy · October 06, 2015, 10:46:50 AM

I have a tough time not wanting the most powerful... ;)

Jobydrone · October 06, 2015, 03:24:36 PM

Yeah me too, there more I think about it the more I want the laptop version. My wife would murder me if she found out I spent $1900 on a laptop less than two months after getting that new PC though.

Rico · October 06, 2015, 05:05:02 PM

We don't want you murdered Joby. :)
Wait a little, the price will come down.

Jobydrone · October 06, 2015, 05:54:55 PM

I think the plan is to wait until March, when the wife is going on a trip to Jamaica with her best friend and leaving me at home with the kids! Just let her try to yell at me when she gets back!

Bromptonboy · October 07, 2015, 04:34:18 PM

Yes - you will hold the high-ground then!

WillEagle · October 11, 2015, 04:05:49 PM

Quote from: Jobydrone on October 06, 2015, 05:54:55 PM
I think the plan is to wait until March, when the wife is going on a trip to Jamaica with her best friend and leaving me at home with the kids! Just let her try to yell at me when she gets back!

It should go your way!

Jobydrone · October 30, 2015, 01:01:48 PM

Well, even with all the good advice coming from my friends here, I couldn't wait. I sprang for a Surface Pro 4 to replace my first gen iPad Air, and it should arrive in the mail Tuesday according to Amazon. :lamo :lamo :lamo

I decided on the Surface Pro 4 over the Surface Book primarily because of the significant price difference ($1900+ for the laptop vs. $1300+ for the hybrid), and because for what I will mostly be using it for, I do not require the discrete graphics processing unit that drove up the price of the Surface Book. I could have gotten a lower end Surface Book (without the GPU) for close to the same price as the Pro 4 that I purchased, but everything I've seen tells me the Pro 4 works MUCH better as a tablet than the Surface Book. Supposedly the Surface Book only works for around two hours when detached from the keyboard as a tablet, it has no kickstand or anything else to prop it up when detached, and it's much heavier than the Pro 4. Also, the screen on the Book (13 1/2") seems too big to comfortably use in the same way I use my iPad right now. I'm even concerned that the 12.3" Pro 4 might be too big but I have a feeling I'm going to love the increased size and resolution.

I have been salivating over various unboxing videos, video reviews...I just can't wait to get my hands on this device. I've been pleasantly surprised at some of the videos I've seen saying people can play some pretty heavy duty games that are 1-2 years old on the device. There's quite a dedicated Surface gaming community built up on You Tube. Much of it is on the Pro 3 models, and there's videos of some pretty graphics intensive games being run on the Pro 3, like Skyrim, Titanfall, WoW, SWTOR, and even newer games like Rocket League, Dota 2, and Grand Theft Auto 5. Of course graphics quality and extras are all at reduced settings or turned off completely, but I've never been a graphics purist by any means, so I am looking forward to trying out some of my Steam library on the new device.

I can't wait! I will let you know how it works when I get it, if anyone is interested.

Bromptonboy · October 30, 2015, 01:18:22 PM

Sounds good! I ended up buying a new iPad Air 2 for my wife. Maybe after bonus time I can think about Surface Book...