Microsoft Reveals Major Price Increase For All Surface PCs (windowscentral.com)
- Reference: 0181711540
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/14/2021208/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increase-for-all-surface-pcs
- Source link: https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increases-for-all-surface-pro-laptop-pcs-as-ram-crisis-continues
> The Surface Pro 12-inch, which was previously Microsoft's cheapest modern Surface PC at $799, now starts at $1,049. The flagship Surface Pro 13-inch, which originally launched for $999, now starts at an eyewatering $1,499. It's the same story for the Surface Laptop lines, with the entry-level 13-inch model originally priced at $899, now starting at $1,149. The 13.8-inch flagship Surface Laptop launched at $999, but now costs $1,499, with the 15-inch model now starting at $1,599. This means that Microsoft's midrange devices now cost more than the flagships did when they launched in 2024.
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> [...] Microsoft has raised prices for all SKUs on offer, meaning the high end models are now more expensive too. A top end Surface Laptop 15-inch with Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage now costs a staggering $3,649. To compare, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro, 64GB RAM, and 1TB SSD is $3,299, and that comes with a significantly better display and much more power under the hood.
[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increases-for-all-surface-pro-laptop-pcs-as-ram-crisis-continues
blame (Score:3, Informative)
Trump did this.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey if it shifts people off Windows... this is a sort of "winning" I could actually get behind!
Re: (Score:1)
Exactly.
Re: (Score:2)
Where exactly will they go? Apple? they will raise their already high prices as well. If anything people will get stuck with an 'affordable' Chrome device just meant for consuming.
They won't go Linux, the hardware prices are the problem not the Operating System price. Being more memory efficient will only push people so far, most would settle for a slower OS than spend money on more expensive ram or learning an entirely new environment.
Wow, Macs are so expensive (Score:4, Insightful)
And [1]underpowered [everymac.com].
[1] https://everymac.com/mac-benchmarks/all-current-mac-benchmarks.html
Re:Wow, Macs are so expensive (Score:4, Informative)
MacBook Neo, fyi.
Benchmarks aren't real world performance (Score:3)
Has several people here have pointed out the way Macs get those numbers is by heavily optimizing their CPUs and the software that runs on them. That means if you're going to run the Adobe suite on your Mac then yeah you're in good shape because Apple built custom features into their silicon for you and Adobe wrote software to use those features.
But if you go outside of the stuff Apple made specific optimizations for things get much less Rosy very quick.
To be clear there's nothing wrong with what app
Re: (Score:1)
> And [1]underpowered [everymac.com].
Precisely zero people buy Surface devices because they are low cost or high performance. They have always positioned themselves on their unique formfactor. In fact they make a pretty damn shitty general purpose laptop. The Surface Laptop is the only WTF in their lineup that truly has never offered any compelling reason to buy - if you were after a normal laptop it was one of the worst value for money devices out there. At least their other devices were unique.
Apple does not have a "slate" formfactor device
[1] https://everymac.com/mac-benchmarks/all-current-mac-benchmarks.html
Re: Wow, Macs are so expensive (Score:1)
i like the tablet form factor; my last 3 laptops were convertibles except for the neo last month; which i love; id really like to get the violet surface pro 12 now that more stuff works ok on windows on arm but id have more synthesizers probably and i dont really need another tablet/laptop right now unless it was ipad mini for music work; but id like the fanless surface pro alot; im in bed alot of the time bc disabled and inpain so a little fanless quiet device that i can use windows software on is appealin
Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
That’ll probably drive away the last 10 people who were still considering buying one.
Welp (Score:2)
Probably should buy some Apple stock
Re: (Score:3)
Is that some kind of fruit company?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah... Microsoft just made their laptops so expensive that the Apple Macbook Air suddenly looks like a VALUE option in comparison?
Fools (Score:1)
Pricing their hardware out of existence by chasing the "AI" dragon.
That's not the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if Microsoft didn't do any AI crap whatsoever they would still have to jack up prices because the bubble is devouring all the ram. Storage is also up quite a bit in price though not as bad as RAM.
The price of ram has quadrupled. And it's not going to come back down in price anytime soon. Even after the AI bubble bursts and the winners are decided and demand comes back down you will not see prices come back down probably for 8 to 10 years.
That's because like everything there will be collusion between the manufacturers and eventually there will be enough Democrats in charge of Congress and various attorney general positions that they will go after the ram producers and give them a little slap on the wrist and make them lower prices. But it's America's political system is so fucked up that's going to take a long time and Europe just does not have enough weight to force something like that. If the European Union could act as a United Force they probably could but it's too easy for one corrupt politician in one of the European Union states to screw that up. Although without Victor orban that might be a little bit harder it's still a problem...
You have a double whammy of out of control demand and inelastic pricing caused by zero competition in any markets because we stopped enforcing antitrust law. Like out for the longest time flat panels were stupidly expensive even though the technology had come down in price until the Democrats in America got around to smacking the panel manufacturers around a little bit.
Re:That's not the problem (Score:4, Informative)
It is a supply and demand problem.
Since it requires such a huge amount of capital to ramp up production, manufacturers are loathe to ramp up production too quickly for what might turn out to be a bubble, so meanwhile there is excess demand.
This will eventually correct, and if it does turn out that AI was just a bubble, or even if it turns out to be useful but the rate of growth slows down, there will be an excess of memory and processors and we can enjoy cheap prices for a while.
If you want to help lower prices, invest in chip fabs, or stop using AI.