Surface Pro 128gb (First Gen) $599 Best Buy (Clearance YMMV)

DF-1 said:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-S...5335869999&campid=5335869999&afepn=5335869999

they're offering it through ebay too (can pickup in store).

AMAZING deal for this awesome device.

not sure why OP says YMMV
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hey probably says this because stores will weal and deal to get rid of clearance at the right times.....I wouldn't buy clearance for less then 40% off unless i really really wanted it:)
They clearance things Usually because people are not buying them for a reason
 
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I didnt think I would like one but I have been using one for a few weeks for work. Its a great mid spot between a laptop and a tablet. Feels a lot more capable than my personal ipad and I feel like I can be productive on it instead of just playing games and watching netflix like with my ipad.
 
I called it YMMV because in the past Best Buy has done differential clearance prices (i.e. a different price at different stores on clearance items), I've not noticed it recently, but /shrug.


The only downside to this thing IMO is the battery life is pretty poor for a 'tablet'. But as an ultraportable computer, it's fantastic, just short on battery life.
 
I'd have a tough time paying $600 for a Surface Pro 2, nevermind the original one that's EOL
 
DPI said:
I'd have a tough time paying $600 for a Surface Pro 2, nevermind the original one that's EOL
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/shrug, then it's obviously not for you. Why post about it then?

Never understood that. "Hey, here's a good price for a product I don't want/need, sooo, I'm going to say it's crap".


/boggle
 
The biggest appeal with the Surface Pro is the wacom active digitizer. You'll notice the majority of people who have high praise for the device make use of that feature. This ranges from note taking to artists.

Secondarily would the the size, tablet form factor, and full windows x86 application support combined with the hardware specs.

Of course if these aren't a consideration for you then the Surface Pro of course is really a good fit.

For me the device is extremely attractive for the above reasons. Just for the Wacom digitizer support you are already looking at much more expensive alternatives such as the Thinkpad Yoga. Only the new rumored Asus Tablet will be a lower priced alternative but that will be an more limited 8 inch device with a Baytrail CPU.

Unfortunately the last Surface Pro available here (Bestbuy Canada had it for $600 to finally clear them) had a dead pixel so I had to return it. First gen Surface devices were overproduced relative to demand.
 
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Can i ask a stupid question? Is there really a point to a 600-800 dollar tablet? Do they give you blow jobs or what? Im not being a smart ass, but i thought tablets went for 200-400 range, but i have yet to buy one either...i mean hell i have bought my kid 1200 gaming laptops so im not dead set against ever spending money...i mean its just a tablet right? it does something your smart phone wont?:rolleyes:
 
primetime said:
i mean its just a tablet right? it does something your smart phone wont?:rolleyes:
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Yeah.. it runs real windows programs, not just "apps".

Is there really a point to a 600-800 dollar tablet?
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When its more than a tablet, yeah. This is a full x86 system in a tablet form. It has an intel i5 cpu in it and is able to run native windows programs. I got to use one for a week for a company that buys property. They had a program for their company that ties in perfectly with the tablet. It let me take pictures, enter data, use a vpn directly to their office, and get all the functionality out of a program that I would have had to otherwise drag a laptop around to use.
 
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Microsoft really dropped the ball on marketing these devices. The Surface RT is "just a tablet" that allows you to run apps, competes with the iPad, and is priced appropriately. The Surface Pro is a full fledged ultrabook that competes with the Macbook Air and has a higher price tag. The average person would never know that because their marketing department is the worst in the business.
 
Zumino Zufeilon said:
/shrug, then it's obviously not for you. Why post about it then?

Never understood that. "Hey, here's a good price for a product I don't want/need, sooo, I'm going to say it's crap".


/boggle
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Its almost as bad as the guys that post a deal and feel like they have to defend said deal for some reason.

Still wouldnt buy for $600. Sure it has compelling features and is not as bad as some win 8 haters claim the battery life is a sick joke and if i have to be damn near tethered to a power cord ill just get out the laptop. But the biggest reason not to buy it is it has been replaced by the surface 2 and im willing to bet microsoft gives it fuck all for support. It has its uses for specific people but for the average user its too expensive with overkill in performance and not near enough battery.

They didnt fail at marketing, the people that should know about it do know about it. You cant aim this at the general public thats what the RT and other tablets are for. This is not the tablet for grandma this is the tablet to fill a niche for professionals needing that nice touchscreen and portability that can live with poor battery life.
 
I actually didnt know what the difference was until I looked it up yesterday. I always figured they were both tablets with one having more software options and faster speeds/RAM. Shows how interested a person is.
 
primetime said:
Can i ask a stupid question? Is there really a point to a 600-800 dollar tablet? Do they give you blow jobs or what? Im not being a smart ass, but i thought tablets went for 200-400 range, but i have yet to buy one either...i mean hell i have bought my kid 1200 gaming laptops so im not dead set against ever spending money...i mean its just a tablet right? it does something your smart phone wont?:rolleyes:
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dock_lands_by_lateralus_opiate-d6xnk5r.png


mecha_by_lateralus_opiate-d6oem7p.png


Not to spam my art but try sketch things like this out on a smart phone while catching a bullet train.
I have no use for a gaming laptop. That in my eyes is a waste of money.
 
Disposed said:
Its almost as bad as the guys that post a deal and feel like they have to defend said deal for some reason.

Still wouldnt buy for $600. Sure it has compelling features and is not as bad as some win 8 haters claim the battery life is a sick joke and if i have to be damn near tethered to a power cord ill just get out the laptop. But the biggest reason not to buy it is it has been replaced by the surface 2 and im willing to bet microsoft gives it fuck all for support. It has its uses for specific people but for the average user its too expensive with overkill in performance and not near enough battery.

They didnt fail at marketing, the people that should know about it do know about it. You cant aim this at the general public thats what the RT and other tablets are for. This is not the tablet for grandma this is the tablet to fill a niche for professionals needing that nice touchscreen and portability that can live with poor battery life.
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Just because you don't think it's a good deal doesn't make it true. $600 is great for the Surface Pro and it can be for just about anyone who isn't entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. I bought one for my 77 year old dad soon after it came out and he loves it. He can run all of Office on it, real Windows programs, Metro apps, etc. The battery life is so-so. It only sucks if you are running CPU or GPU intensive software.

Who want to pay $750 for an iPad with 128GBs? You can't use a mouse on it. You can't run real Office on it. You can't use professional software on it. Safari is a slow and crippled browser on iOS. Using iMessage with a type cover sucks on an iPad. You can't connect much with it except with the camera connection kit. The filesystem is not accessible to the user. You can't access files from the network with it. Printing sucks from Safari. Printing mail from the Mail app sucks; text is too small. iOS 7 will make your eyes bleed. These are all complaints from "grandma" and "grandpa" types.

I will definitely be picking one up for myself for $600. Thanks OP!
 
Had no idea what this is .. i thought it was a ultra fast ssd type device, looks so cool can you just buy multiple batteries? Ima check one out when i can and decide after that.. my only fear would be breaking it :)
 
Dr.Nut said:
Just because you don't think it's a good deal doesn't make it true. $600 is great for the Surface Pro and it can be for just about anyone who isn't entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. I bought one for my 77 year old dad soon after it came out and he loves it. He can run all of Office on it, real Windows programs, Metro apps, etc. The battery life is so-so. It only sucks if you are running CPU or GPU intensive software.

Who want to pay $750 for an iPad with 128GBs? You can't use a mouse on it. You can't run real Office on it. You can't use professional software on it. Safari is a slow and crippled browser on iOS. Using iMessage with a type cover sucks on an iPad. You can't connect much with it except with the camera connection kit. The filesystem is not accessible to the user. You can't access files from the network with it. Printing sucks from Safari. Printing mail from the Mail app sucks; text is too small. iOS 7 will make your eyes bleed. These are all complaints from "grandma" and "grandpa" types.

I will definitely be picking one up for myself for $600. Thanks OP!
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What does surface pro do for your 77 year old grandpa do that a $200 android tablet wont do? Not a fucking thing... Like i said what it offers is completely lost on the general user and the battery life makes it a poor choice for them as well. Keep comparing it to the ipad and pretending theres not a billion android tablets that do just about all of that. If theres one thing android does well is web browsing, chrome or dolphin on a tablet is pretty damn nice these days.
 
I'll never understand why so many people in this section care what other people spend their money on. If you want a Surface Pro, this is a good price.
 
Nice price on this, I would've bought this last year, or if the Surface 2 Pro was this price I'd bite, but the introduction of all the nice sub-$400 Bay Trail devices have lowered my price threshold for x86 tablets and simultaneously increased my expectations on battery life.

Disposed said:
What does surface pro do for your 77 year old grandpa do that a $200 android tablet wont do? Not a fucking thing... Like i said what it offers is completely lost on the general user and the battery life makes it a poor choice for them as well. Keep comparing it to the ipad and pretending theres not a billion android tablets that do just about all of that. If theres one thing android does well is web browsing, chrome or dolphin on a tablet is pretty damn nice these days.
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How about integrate seamlessly into an Enterprise Active Directory environment? Is your shitty little Android or iOS device going to do that? No. Now kindly stop trying to convince everyone who actually has a need for this device that a toy OS device from Android or iOS is good enough, because it simply isn't.
 
CEpeep said:
I'll never understand why so many people in this section care what other people spend their money on. If you want a Surface Pro, this is a good price.
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Hear, Hear. I actually like user commentaries about the actual +/- of the product based on first-hand experience, but endless spam based on nothing is tiresome.
 
Disposed said:
What does surface pro do for your 77 year old grandpa do that a $200 android tablet wont do? Not a fucking thing... Like i said what it offers is completely lost on the general user and the battery life makes it a poor choice for them as well. Keep comparing it to the ipad and pretending theres not a billion android tablets that do just about all of that. If theres one thing android does well is web browsing, chrome or dolphin on a tablet is pretty damn nice these days.
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So the target market for tablets is 77 year old grandpas? I call BS.

You are correct. If you are looking for a tablet to surf the internet and watch YouTube videos, the Surface Pro is a waste of money. If you are looking for a full laptop replacement ultrabook that has the added bonus of being a tablet, the Surface Pro is perfect. I replaced a windows laptop and and Android tablet with my Surface Pro. It is great to not have to carry 2 devices or choose which device I want. I paid full price for mine and do not regret it for an instant.
 
gangolfus said:
So the target market for tablets is 77 year old grandpas? I call BS.

You are correct. If you are looking for a tablet to surf the internet and watch YouTube videos, the Surface Pro is a waste of money. If you are looking for a full laptop replacement ultrabook that has the added bonus of being a tablet, the Surface Pro is perfect. I replaced a windows laptop and and Android tablet with my Surface Pro. It is great to not have to carry 2 devices or choose which device I want. I paid full price for mine and do not regret it for an instant.
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Read what i had quoted, its not all that hard.
 
Damn, would've gotten my dad this for Christmas instead of the iPad Air had this deal come out pre-Christmas. :(
 
The point was not that its a bad tablet or bad device i was simply replying to the notion that it was poorly marketed so it didnt gain mass adoption. It was not intended for mass adoption and was marketed at the people it was intended for. The people that should know about the surface pro DO know about it.

This isnt for your kid or your grandpa (unless you are Dr.Nut) its for specific people mostly professionals. Im not saying dont buy it just know what you are buying! The battery life is not "so-so" like Dr.Nut claimed by tablet standards it is absolutely atrocious but pretty standard for a laptop 4-5 hours depending on use compared to a typical tablet that can go days at a time without a charge. Its great for office work and running between offices to show coworkers ideas etc. In that setting it thrives, as an actual on the go tablet it does not have the juice to keep up with a workday. The idea is awesome the battery life very seriously cripples it.
 
Just bought it and it kicks ass!

The one thing I hate about going to best buy is they push you to buy their service plan, then their rewards card/cc. Cash or bust!

Bulkier and heavier than the surface pro 2 but manageable. Very fast even if it is last years model.

Runs on a Core i5 instead of a crappy Atom or Arm chip.

I can run all my business programs on a tablet now! Quickbooks Pro and Act 2014.

Also I can put steam on it.

Lets see another tablet do that.
 
It appears you can get it from the MS store for this price too?
 
IceDigger said:
Bulkier and heavier than the surface pro 2 but manageable. Very fast even if it is last years model.
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its actually the same weight as the surface pro 2. I've had both the surface pro, and the 2. Not much difference between them to be honest. Better battery, some offers with the 2 (international skype calling, 200GB cloud storage). slightly better cpu/igpu. Same resolution, same pen, same ports, same weight, looks, software, etc.
 
Great device and great deal.

I'm happy with my Pro 64, more uses than most realize, the pen adds so much functionality. I have more powerful computers when needed, this one kicks ass if you need to sign docs, free flow hand write, art/sketch, etc.

If you haven't used one and are commenting negatively, stop because you are making yourself look foolish. Yes it's pricey... but if you haven't tried one, or can't afford one, don't bitch and moan.
 
I tried it but it wasn't for me. I am going to sound old, but the screen DPI was too high for me and I found it hard to handle due to the weight. :)

At $599 it's more luring as a 3rd device.
 
personally I feel something like the Yoga pro 2 is a bit silly, cool, but silly. and this item does a better job at at filling a niche market. carry it around with you, pull it out when you need it to do homework or take notes. load up blue prints on it to carry around on job sites. office, excel, photoshop. and just get a nice little Bluetooth keyboard to pair with it when you need it. Its just a nice keyboard-less ultrabook.
 
With the Yoga 2 Pro I really felt they dropped the ball without including a digitizer for pen support. Instead they reserved that functionality for the much pricier Thinkpad Yoga. Personally a tablet form factor device without pen support is a huge drop off in appeal to me.

DF-1 said:
its actually the same weight as the surface pro 2. I've had both the surface pro, and the 2. Not much difference between them to be honest. Better battery, some offers with the 2 (international skype calling, 200GB cloud storage). slightly better cpu/igpu. Same resolution, same pen, same ports, same weight, looks, software, etc.
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Ports are a little different. The Surface 2 Pro is displayport 1.2 whereas the Surface Pro is 1.1a.

Another hardware change is the 2 stage kickstand vs 1 stage.

In terms of Haswell vs Ivybridge performance there is a rather significant difference in GPU performance but the CPU performance between the two is negligible. Haswell is of course better at the idea of "race to idle" for power savings and so is more energy efficient (battery life). It also requires less heat dissipation because of this and so the Surface 2 Pro has a better acoustic profile combined with less aggressive fan profile.
 
primetime said:
anyone that would actually buy this ought to use this coupon anyway....should save someone 60 bucks
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Would that actually work? Best Buy doesn't say that the Surface Pro is a clearance item.
 
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