Microsoft Surface RT 32GB dropping to $350 July 14th

[Ravynmagi]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/11/4514888/microsoft-surface-rt-tablet-price-cuts

Is $350 cheap enough to interest you in a Surface RT tablet?

I'm still mulling it over. I need another tablet like I need another hole in the head. But apparently I'm a tablet hoarder, so I'm thinking about this.

I'm not a big fan of Windows RT, not sure why it exists when we have Atom processors that will run Windows 8 as well and let you run x86 apps too.

However the Surface RT is a pretty quality piece of hardware and I'm kinda thinking about getting it just because of the magnesium VaporMg body, kick stand, and full sized USB port.

The article says the Touch Covers will be $100. Ugh, wish they could have dropped the price on that a bit more. No mention of the Type cover though, hopefully it's at least the same price.

 

[SKORPI0]

Not at all, because of the apps selection. If it ever goes to <$200 it will make an interesting "toy".

 

[Ravynmagi]

http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-hits-100000-apps-milestone

They recently hit the 100,000 app milestone, thats not bad. It comes with Office and Outlook is coming soon. I've been using Windows 8 on my desktop and have found plenty of decent "Moderns" apps that'll run on RT too. So I think I could live on Windows RT as well as I do Android.

 

[poofyhairguy]

RT is dead to me.

 

[Crono]

I had one a few months ago, only got rid of it to pay for another purchase.

I would gladly pick up a new one at that price. They are good tablets, much better for productivity in my opinion than iPads or Android tablets, unless you like using third party apps and peripherals to match what you get with Office and a Touch or Type Cover.

If you are highly tied to the App or Play Store, than you might be dissapointed with the selection of RT, but there are a ton of good apps and games for Windows 8/RT otherwise now. I'll gladly take the build of the RT over the iPad, the only oddity being Surface's 16:9 resolution, which is terrible for portrait mode.

 

[Red Storm]

RT is dead to me.

This. Spending any money at all on RT is dumb to me.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Yeah, I really hope Microsoft goes 16:10 with the next version of Surface tablets. 16:9 really cramps portrait mode too much.

 

[alangrift]

Doesn't the RT support Windows 7 apps?

 

[Ravynmagi]

Doesn't the RT support Windows 7 apps?

No, only runs Windows 8 "Modern" apps (aka Metro apps) from the Windows Store.

I've read something on XDA about some x86 apps being ported to Modern, but I'm not sure of the specifics on that.

 

[dagamer34]

The current RT is worthless simply because the next one will be so much better. I see no reason to spend money on a device with a 2 year old SoC at this point.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The current RT is worthless simply because the next one will be so much better. I see no reason to spend money on a device with a 2 year old SoC at this point.

I wouldn't even buy the upcoming version of an RT tablet.

Intel has made it very clear it is going to produce power efficient chips within two years. Depending on their level of success that might effect the Android market, but it will slay the RT market no matter what.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I was at Staples last night playing with the Surface RT trying to decide if I'd buy this thing for $350.

In the end the 1366x768 16:9 display was something I couldn't get over on something I'd be using exclusively in tablet mode. I could kinda tolerate this limitation on the Atom tablets because I'd be using the tablet as a desktop. But on a Windows RT tablet, I decided I was less able to accept the limitation.

Something odd with the Surface RT at Staples, the screen rotation was hyper sensitive. Seems like any small tilt of the screen would send it rotating one direction and back again. I was starting to get a bit dizzy and frustrated with how frequently is was rotating, I really had to put effort into holding still to prevent incidental rotations from occurring. And there is not physical rotation toggle button on the tablet like some other Windows tablets I've used. Maybe the display model was defective, not sure.

Something else I couldn't be completely sure about. But the performance seemed kinda slower than I really liked. Again, its' a demo unit, who knows what people have done to it or how limited the store's wifi might be. But loading web pages seemed to be a bit on the slow side with IE 10.

While I'd like to play with a Surface RT, I couldn't convince myself to spend $350 on this.

 

[Deeko]

If it came with a keyboard for $300 it would be a decent deal. I do really enjoy my Surface, but there's not a chance I would have paid retail value for it.

 

[lupi]

Would never get a RT knowing it's lost too much of windows.

 

[Raduque]

I'd be interested in the next release of Surface RT for $350. My current tablet has a POS Tegra chip and I need something new, with a real SoC.

I was looking at a Note 10.1, but they don't have a high-resolution screen on it.