Battery life is going to be the killer when you're on the move. A couple of lunch time meetings and a bit of work either side and its going to be dead. Very happy with the iPad3 I just bought. Came with 97% on the battery, used it every evening this week for several hours and still on just over 50%.

In contrast to iPad, that's a fully functional PC in tablet form factor. But it needs a docking station, or a few of them. If you want just a tablet, then buy just a tablet - it'll be cheaper, lighter and will have longer battery life. However, imagine yourself such scenario: - You have Core i5 powered "tablet", with pen etc that you can use anywhere. - You have a docking station at your home, where you have monitor/tv, keyboard and mouse and you use it for your regular PC non-gaming purposes. - You have the same docking station at office and it is you work PC too, running all enterprise Windows apps. - Basically you'd have your PC with its system and data wherever you go, capable of running both tablet and desktop apps, even Linux on virtual machine. If you think about it as an iPad or Android-powered tablet, it's nothing fancy; however if it's going to be a more portable laptop variant, then it's awesome, but it'll need a dock or a few of them. In such case, the price is justified.

The keyboard/cover thing is proprietary and only micro$oft will offer (something apple gets ostrisized for btw) it's the same with the docking station $1000 for a 128GB plus at least $200 worth of proprietary accessories and still the 4 hour battery life is HTC making this thing. Not worth it I got an ASUS u51 laptop with an i5 and usb3.0 for $490 added in a $100 128GB ssd and already had a keyboard half the price all the functionality and a DVD writer why would anyone with more than two brain cells get one of these.

Aren't these Windows RT based products (not to be confused with the Windows updates that are names Windows8-RT-KB(num)-x(64/86))? In which case, they aren't Ultrabooks because you can run normal Windows apps on an ultrabook. You can get a reasonable laptop for that price.

This is not Win-RT, but Win 8 Pro - regular fully featured desktop edition. And regarding ASUS u51 - they were around $1k over here too, so price is not an argument in this particular case.

And regarding ASUS u51 - they were around $1k over here too, so price is not an argument in this particular case.

Wow taxes and tariffs are a bit overkill in Poland, I guess the Surface will sell for $1700 starting price.

Wow taxes and tariffs are a bit overkill in Poland, I guess the Surface will sell for $1700 starting price.

Sometimes the price difference between US and EU (or parts of EU) are huge, sometime small. If this tablet is going to cost around $1500, I'm not going to even thing about it. Another issue is that such tablet wouldn't be very useful for me or other people with similar situation - I have: 1. a gaming PC at home. It's 3.5-year old, but it's got SSD and recently I added GTX 680, so this renders such tablet obsolete in home, except for maybe watching movies and reading stuff @ bed. 2. ThinkPad W520 workstation lappy, which is way too powerful to give up for tablet-sized PC. 3. Android-powered phone, which plays movies just fine when I'm on the go. If I had, let's say, Galaxy Note II, then such tablet would be as useless as it can be. Even if I wanted to spend some $$$ to get a tablet right now, it would be probably Nexus 10, just to use watch movies and browse some web, read books, as it's a little more convenient to use in bed or public transport than a laptop, and has much bigger screen than a phone. ---- Still, I think that such devices may be very useful for people on the go, as long as they feature good docking station for home/office. If you're a graphics/web designer who wants to showcase some work to the client in person, you may want it (big props for the added pen); or when you do your work @ office and some research / contacting on the go, and in general you want your computer and data always with you - it's for you. However if you're going to use a few specialized devices and you don't need to keep one uniform work place everywhere with you, then there are other better solutions for you.

this is not another tablet guys, think about it like a "ultrabook" in tablet form factor, there is a i5/4gb ram, SSD AND a 1080p screen, 899$ is a modest price

Problem is the general public will see it as a tablet and think that price is nuts. I also agree it's way too high. I don't know what MS is thinking but it's not going to seem as cool as an Apple product just because it's expensive. Plus, I would rather spend that much on video cards 🤓

Problem is the general public will see it as a tablet and think that price is nuts. I also agree it's way too high. I don't know what MS is thinking but it's not going to seem as cool as an Apple product just because it's expensive. Plus, I would rather spend that much on video cards 🤓

I agree one could get two 680's or 7970's for that price, or buy a very capable laptop and add a SSD then get an iPad mini or iPad 2 for the same amount of money.

If they released this with a nicer price tag and took a loss on the hardware sales then got their software guys to cook up some interesting apps and games, etc and charge small amounts for them in the built in store then I could of seen this becoming a success but at this price its just insane!

I dunno, nicer price or not, who wants a tablet with 4 hr max battery life? i'd guess realistic typical use is closer to 3 hours or less. I'd rather buy a cheap laptop..or just get an ipad. I mean tablets have certain types of usages and short battery but powerful and full OS isn't really of the same type of use that a small laptop couldn't provide more conviently. but to each their own.

4 hours browsing the web on my tablet tonight. Still plenty of juice in it, if I had a Surface it would no doubt be on charge. I think MS has seriously miscalculated its potential market.

In contrast to iPad, that's a fully functional PC in tablet form factor. But it needs a docking station, or a few of them. If you want just a tablet, then buy just a tablet - it'll be cheaper, lighter and will have longer battery life. However, imagine yourself such scenario: - You have Core i5 powered "tablet", with pen etc that you can use anywhere. - You have a docking station at your home, where you have monitor/tv, keyboard and mouse and you use it for your regular PC non-gaming purposes. - You have the same docking station at office and it is you work PC too, running all enterprise Windows apps. - Basically you'd have your PC with its system and data wherever you go, capable of running both tablet and desktop apps, even Linux on virtual machine. If you think about it as an iPad or Android-powered tablet, it's nothing fancy; however if it's going to be a more portable laptop variant, then it's awesome, but it'll need a dock or a few of them. In such case, the price is justified.

MS loves this idea, as they will sell you 2+ docking stations on top of the already overpriced unit. Also explains the poor battery life if its an effort to force you to be docked over 1/2 of your usage time. On that matter, its truly sad that the industry is still stuck on conventional power methods due to more corporate politics. Can only wait till these companies say F U to petroleum based products and batteries and start to use technology that incorporates kinetic motion generators, which have been around for years yet de-popularized by the petroleum industry lobbyists. There is absolutely no reason not to use this even as a supplement to the existing battery. Here is an example http://www.seikowatches.com/technology/kinetic/index.html

No idea why people are comparing the i5 version of the Surface's battery life to other tablets, it's more of a laptop. I'd prefer the RT over this to be honest.

some of you defending microsoft with the poor battery life well buzz off !!! That system needs a battery 2x the mah and keyboard included. I hope it fails big time so they know people won't just buy any trash product they make.