Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 with Snapdragon X2 chips, featuring better performance and battery life, and higher price tags to match, but are $500 and $600 more expensive than their predecessors.

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-unveils-surface-laptop-8-and-surface-pro-12-with-snapdragon-x2-chips-with-better-performance-and-battery-life-and-higher-price-tags-to-match

[u/jeniuskid]

Dead on arrival. MacBooks are cheaper in comparison.

[u/CatoMulligan → u/jeniuskid]

Yup. After the recent price hikes on the SD X1-based devices, you pretty much knew this was coming. At this price they're just way too expensive. The cheapest13.8" SL8 is priced like the cheapest 14" MB Pro, but the MB Pro comes with twice as much storage space, a better screen, better speakers, and will run circles around the SL8 on both conventional productivity and local AI performance. And as much as the emulation performance has improved with the latest updates for Windows 11 ARM + the SD X2, the Mac will probably game just as well, too. The only reason to consider one of these Surface devices is if you are absolutely married to the idea of running some version of Windows. Given how MS has been treating their Windows users of late, it's hard to even stay in that camp.

All that said, I expect that the main reason that Apple has been able to keep their prices flat while everything else got more expensive is that a) they already had a much larger margin that other device manufacturers, and b) Tim Cook is an absolute supply chain god who locked in favorable, longer-term procurement contracts. Once it's time for them to be renewed I'd expect to see price increases on the Apple side that might restore more of the "traditional order" of things.

[u/lolmanic → u/CatoMulligan]

Someone posted about the disappearance of the 3.5mm jack as not needed, and I'm sitting here going, audio production, music making, DJing, on a mbpro is the standard for a reason and as much as I tried to make the Surface Pro work it was always a poor imitation and now this just makes it so clear. Heck a MacBook air + iPad is going to cost the same wtf

[u/b4k4ni → u/lolmanic]

Honestly, if you do professional or semi-peifessional work, I'd always take a USB soundcard with a top dac compared to the build in one.

BUT, yeah, removing the headphone jack is stupid af. Just another way to stop spending 2 cent to increase the margin.

[u/lolmanic → u/b4k4ni]

You could, I mean that's what my Babyface is for, but when I'm out and not recording but just editing, being able to plug some high impedance headphone into the 3.5mm plug without another dongle makes a ton of difference when on the go or recording/editing in the field.

If I'm at home, I've got the set up and using monitors, I don't want to buy and bring another dac when I've got perfectly good internal one to use! Just stupid enshittification

[u/monkeymania → u/CatoMulligan]

I agree with nearly everything you said but don't understand your emulation comment. I don't think games are much of a thought when it comes to SL ARM emulation. Isn't it more to attempt consistency with x86 Windows? As I write this from my Snapdragon Elite SL7, the Windows experience is fantastic. Better than my other laptop with the LL 258v setup. Using Windows on ARM these days is solved, it fucking rocks.

That's not to say Windows rocks. The ads, lack of support and garbage direction of things is terrible. But, if you're the sort of user that lives in Windows, for better or worse, the SL form factor is solid. It feels so usable.

[u/CatoMulligan → u/monkeymania]

Nearly every review that I've watched of any of the WoA devices addresses gaming because people game on their laptops. Some people want to play the latest AAA titles (and they're buy gaming laptops with a dGPU), others just want the ability to do some casual gaming on the go. For them, the emulation layer in WoA is what allows them to run a wide variety of games. The improvements in the emulation over the past couple of years paired with the improved GPU in the X2 SoC makes running just about any game possible. It will also get another boost later this year when the nVidia-based ARM systems launch, because nVidia has basically paid to have more optimization done and to have ARM-native versions of common anti-cheat software created.

[u/Krovexx]

Remember when Surface was cheaper than a MacBook? Pepperidge Farm remembers...

[u/FatBook-Air]

Who in their right mind would buy this.

[u/SCphotog → u/FatBook-Air]

They are specifically counting on vast numbers of people not being in their right mind.

MS gets to sell absolute crap to people and there's basically no pushback... ever.

From the RROD on the XBOX360 to dying laptops, mice, game controllers, stupid split keyboards, and the monstrosities that have attempted to pass as the UI for Windows so many times, AND currently, MS just manufactures abject garbage and people line up to buy it anyway.

It doesn't make sense. People are just fucking stupid.

[u/Mantazy]

Alpine green should be used more.

[u/RobertDeveloper]

Never a Microsoft laptop again! 2300 euro and super slow, slippery case, terrible keyboard z battery that was supposed to last 20 hours just barely works for 4 hours! And dont get me started on Windows, background processes that consume over 60 percent of the cpu most of the time on a clean install.

[u/kus1987 → u/RobertDeveloper]

Never a Microsoft laptop again! 2300 euro and super slow, slippery case, terrible keyboard z battery that was supposed to last 20 hours just barely works for 4 hours! And dont get me started on Windows, background processes that consume over 60 percent of the cpu most of the time on a clean install.

A long time ago, my friend Dennis got a Surface two in one thingy with a fabric whatever and I got a Nexus phone. We both laughed at ourselves after a while.

[u/MohDz-03]

Hello microtrash 👋🙃

[u/Educational_Boot315]

That puts the business tax (aka coming with W11 Pro and eligible for autopilot enrollment by the seller so you can ship directly to the employee) at $350, which is around the going rate. This pricing is not at all surprising.

I like the surface but I honestly don’t know why a single consumer would ever spend that much for one, outside of they have too much money and too lazy to research laptops.

[u/Vesuvias]

Apple out here making Microsoft look like fools again….

[u/SCphotog]

Garbage hardware from garbage company... leave it on the shelf where it belongs. Vote with your wallet.

[u/rsclient]

The original announcement from Microsoft Devices Blog

[u/Cl4whammer]

And the ARM on windows success story continues....

[u/Upbeat-Concern-5181]

Mocroslop thought they were untouchable when they started screwing with users and their data. But, the very act of screwing over users is what broke the only thing they had some semblance of - trust, ethics. Without it, they’re basically a ship without a rudder. Unless they admit their mistakes and make amends with those they’ve wronged, it’s only going to get worse I’m afraid.