Microsoft fields Surface Pro questions via Reddit AMA session

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

Microsoft recently took to social news and entertainment website Reddit to field a number of questions regarding the upcoming Surface Pro tablet. Specifically, Redmond’s Panos Panay with the Surface Windows 8 Pro engineering team as well as a number of other team members participated in the site’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) question-and-answer session for roughly two hours on Wednesday.

When asked about the three month gap between the Surface RT and the Surface Pro, the team members simply pointed out that they started working on the Surface Pro three months after starting on the Surface RT.

microsoft surface pro reddit

Another question asked about the battery life with Surface Pro, questioning why Microsoft couldn’t have done something more to get better results. The engineering team said they did everything possible to take advantage of the third generation Core i5 processor while keeping the overall footprint as thin as possible. Selecting a smaller battery kept the weight under two pounds while allowing Microsoft to implement a solid inking experience.

Addressing disk space, one Reddit member asked why Microsoft didn’t offload the disk recovery image to a flash drive to free up more space on the tablet. Representatives said they could have done this but there would then be the chance that the flash drive and the data on it could become lost. Instead, the company included the files on the tablet which gives users the ability to make their own backups if they choose.

We will stop there for the sake of brevity but if you want to learn more about Microsoft’s upcoming slate, feel free to check out the lengthy AMA over on Reddit.

Permalink to story.

 
" Representatives said they could have done this but there would then be the chance that the flash drive and the data on it could become lost."
This explains why the tablet has half the memory that it is supposed to have. I do agree that the recovery should be on a flash drive or downloadable on Microsoft's site. That would decrease the backlash that they received for lack of claimed diskspace.
 
"Representatives said they could have done this but that would have cost money and could have decreased profit margins"
 
+1 ghasmanjr

As far as battery argument goes, its a non starter considering that S Pro is running a very capable x86 CPU, which means every existing application for windows ecosystem will run on it. I think when Haswell becomes available, they should launch a revised S Pro 2, which should help improve battery life and improve overall performance. Anyway, almost every device make few compromises one way or another, so keeping the right balance is important. I do have some issues with the steep asking price though, as at least MS should have sold KB along the tablet for this price.
 
Back