When does the next CPU come to Microsoft?

[ehume]

Surface Pro 3 uses i7 and i5 4000-series of CPU's. So, will surface Pro 4 get the Broadwell? Or will it skip Broadwell and go to Skylake? Does anyone know?

This is not academic, as I am considering a Surface Pro for my daughter, and I am wondering if we should hold out for the next processor. We have until October.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I was looking at the Surface Pro in Costco the other day, and it is really an attractive item. The only problem is the price. Over a thousand dollars for the complete package with keyboard, and the hardware is no faster than some 4 or 5 hundred dollar laptops. I know it is a totally different market, but still.

I was considering one for my grandson for his high school graduation, but I ended up getting him a gaming laptop with a quad i7 and GTX960M for the same price.

Anyway, I dont know how reliable this publication is, but here is a link to what seems like a nice write up on what is supposedly coming (Broadwell apparently): Surface pro 4 rumors

 

[Danno21]

While I see where you're coming from, Frozentundra, a cheap laptop does not at all come close to the build quality the Surface Pro 3 has.

My fiance got a cheap laptop with his taxes and we put a SSD in it and it runs with a low end AMD APU, but I got an i5 128GB Surface Pro 3 with keyboard (student discount -$150 + 10% keyboard and Surface) for about $900. When I go on his Lenovo, it feels so cheap and the resolution is pretty bad.

I personally love my Surface Pro 3 and am so glad I got it over the Macbook Air I was thinking of getting.

Back to the OP, if rumors are true that they're launching along side Windows 10, then I would think it'd be Broadwell. If it's towards the end of August, I would think possibly Skylake. Really hard to guess, as only MS knows.

 

[coercitiv]

This is not academic, as I am considering a Surface Pro for my daughter, and I am wondering if we should hold out for the next processor. We have until October.

My opinion is wait for new model, but not necessarily for the CPU upgrade (which would be minimal at best if Broadwell U): unlike traditional laptops/ultrabooks, the Surface underwent significant alterations in design / usability over the course of a few years. It's worth to see what the new iteration brings about (fixes/enhancements) before pressing the trigger, with the upside of getting a cheaper (or more feature packed) Surface 3 if new model fails to stand out.

Skylake might be nice though

PS: I hope they keep active cooling.

 

[jji7skyline]

I have not yet met a Surface Pro owner who would recommend it over a similarly priced laptop.

 

[CHADBOGA]

If the Surface Pro 4 comes with Skylake & Win 10, that will be a stellar product.

A friend of mine bought the Surface 3 with Baytrail and I was shocked at how good the audio of the machine was and how nice the screen looked.

I'd say a Surface device will be in my future for sure.

 

[sm625]

I would not buy a surface until they can finally make it totally fanless. I'm sure then next iteration will be. And it will hopefully not be broadwell, but since the last 3 models were released on a 8 month cadence, surface pro 4 is already far behind schedule. So it seems unlikely that they will wait any longer than august to release a new model. They simply must release something to coincide with win 10, it would be foolhardy for them not to...

 

[Sweepr]

Early rumours mentioned Broadwell-U in a fanless package but honestly it wouldn't make any sense to release a Windows 10 flagship product based on Broadwell-U in August when the first Skylake-U notebooks are supposedly launching in September/October.
I'll be more than happy with Skylake-U GT2 but I'm hoping they will offer Skylake-U GT3e Iris Pro too, even if optional.

 

[dahorns]

I have not yet met a Surface Pro owner who would recommend it over a similarly priced laptop.

Uh, what? I know there are plenty; and I am one of them. The Surface Pro 3 is the best laptop I've ever owned.

 

[Madpacket]

I'm also waiting for a new Surface. Hopefully it'll get Skylake and not throttle under load like the Surface Pro 3 does.

 

[therealnickdanger]

I have not yet met a Surface Pro owner who would recommend it over a similarly priced laptop.

Interesting. I posit that those owners bought without thinking through their needs first. Square peg, round hole, and so on.

 

[therealnickdanger]

I'm also waiting for a new Surface. Hopefully it'll get Skylake and not throttle under load like the Surface Pro 3 does.

Wouldn't that be nice? Unlikely though... Chances are that they will opt to make an even thinner/lighter version to cram Skylake into rather than go for pure performance. Gotta beat Apple and Samsung on looks...

 

[Madpacket]

Wouldn't that be nice? Unlikely though... Chances are that they will opt to make an even thinner/lighter version to cram Skylake into rather than go for pure performance. Gotta beat Apple and Samsung on looks...

You're probably right. I'm not attaching a fan to my surface when wanting to play the odd game. If it wasn't for the throttling I would have picked up a SP3 by now, love the form factor and Apple has nothing that compares to it.

 

[jqderrick]

The surface pro is balling. I was once a nay sayer about this product and I can't speak highly enough about it after using it. it's fucking cool.

 

[ehume]

My opinion is wait for new model, but not necessarily for the CPU upgrade (which would be minimal at best if Broadwell U): unlike traditional laptops/ultrabooks, the Surface underwent significant alterations in design / usability over the course of a few years. It's worth to see what the new iteration brings about (fixes/enhancements) before pressing the trigger, with the upside of getting a cheaper (or more feature packed) Surface 3 if new model fails to stand out.

Skylake might be nice though

PS: I hope they keep active cooling.

This makes sense. My older daughter got a Surface Pro 3 for school starting in August. Her UK laptop died; we are going to port her Photoshop CS5 to it, so I am waiting to see how well that works. It also allows her to take notes with a stylus. Finally, she can game with it, which is a bit shocking, considering that even with a discrete GPU, it's still flat and all. <scratches head> The software is a big part of these things. Note-taking in a pad. She'll have a month and a half to practice before school.

The other will do art. Given her preferences, I
suspect the 12-inch will probably be the way to go. I believe the 14-inch screen will be too big. Actually, is it the 14-incher that's holding up the Surface Pro 4? Or the availability of Broadwell?

I have a feeling that Skylake is too much to ask for the Pro 4, but we could all be surprised. I like the idea of giving it time to get the glitches ironed out.

 

[NTMBK]

You might want to consider the Venue 11 Pro. It's available now with Broadwell, and has a nice stylus available for it.

 

[therealnickdanger]

You might want to consider the Venue 11 Pro. It's available now with Broadwell, and has a nice stylus available for it.

How are the reviews for it? The previous Venue 11 Pro (Haswell) seemed to suffer from some strange bugs like touch screen problems, battery problems, sleep states, etc. in addition to throttle issues. There were a ton of discounted ones under $500 on Amazon and Newegg for a few months... lots of 1-3 star reviews. I was really tempted to get one, but it seemed like it was a bit under baked. Hopefully the new ones resolved those problems.

The Venue 8 Pro tablets were solid though.

I know Acer has several tablets, too, but I don't know anyone that owns one.

I have a couple budget Windows X86 tablets that I really like, but I could see how a stylus would be great for certain tasks.

 

[Sweepr]

OT but ASUS made quite a buzz about being one of the first OEMs to integrate Skylake and Windows 10 later this quarter. Can't wait to see what they got.
I'm planning to buy either an iPad Air 3 or a Skylake-Y based fanless tablet/convertible by the end of this year.

With rumours about a 12'' iPad Pro I'm wondering what route M$ will choose. We've had rumours about Broadwell-U in a fanless package (regular Ultrabook stuff, not Core M), if they are just as ambitious as they were with the Surface Pro 3 maybe they will find a way to put Skylake-U in a sleek fanless machine. I personally don't mind the fan if it means less throttling.

 

[therealnickdanger]

...I'm planning to buy either an iPad Air 3 or a Skylake-Y based fanless tablet/convertible by the end of this year...

What sort of use case has you waffling between such wildly different devices and performance levels? Those two products don't seem like they cross over much at all other than web browsing.

 

[Sweepr]

What sort of use case has you waffling between such wildly different devices and performance levels? Those two products don't seem like they cross over much at all other than web browsing.

I currently own a smaller iPad mini 2 but I would like to move to a (light) 10-12'' tablet. I enjoy the simplicity of the iOS ecosystem and most of the time I'm just reading (some large PDFs), web browsing through multiple pages (ocasionally playng games) so an entry level iPad Air 3 (WiFi only) would get the job done. But looking at the Surface 3/Pro 3 and some new 2015 convertibles from ASUS, Dell and others I think maybe I could make use of the extra funcionality a x86 Windows ultraportable provides. Playing PC games (instead of glorified mobile games) would come as a bonus too.

 

[Sweepr]

Looks like M$ chose Skylake (rumour).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37544714&postcount=1397

 

[cytg111]

I was looking at the Surface Pro in Costco the other day, and it is really an attractive item. The only problem is the price. Over a thousand dollars for the complete package with keyboard, and the hardware is no faster than some 4 or 5 hundred dollar laptops. I know it is a totally different market, but still.

I was considering one for my grandson for his high school graduation, but I ended up getting him a gaming laptop with a quad i7 and GTX960M for the same price.

Anyway, I dont know how reliable this publication is, but here is a link to what seems like a nice write up on what is supposedly coming (Broadwell apparently): Surface pro 4 rumors

If it is broadwell-m and not skylake.. well then Im taking a step back.

 

[cytg111]

Early rumours mentioned Broadwell-U in a fanless package but honestly it wouldn't make any sense to release a Windows 10 flagship product based on Broadwell-U in August when the first Skylake-U notebooks are supposedly launching in September/October.
I'll be more than happy with Skylake-U GT2 but I'm hoping they will offer Skylake-U GT3e Iris Pro too, even if optional.

If they can keep it cool and stay within the thermal envelope, then yes.
Having "GT3e Iris Pro" in a race to sleep or throttle scenario -> meh.

 

[cytg111]

Uh, what? I know there are plenty; and I am one of them. The Surface Pro 3 is the best laptop I've ever owned.

- Yea i know a few happy pro-3 owners too (got a surface-2 non pro myself, fail for going non-pro, but still a very handy device).

 

[NTMBK]

How are the reviews for it? The previous Venue 11 Pro (Haswell) seemed to suffer from some strange bugs like touch screen problems, battery problems, sleep states, etc. in addition to throttle issues. There were a ton of discounted ones under $500 on Amazon and Newegg for a few months... lots of 1-3 star reviews. I was really tempted to get one, but it seemed like it was a bit under baked. Hopefully the new ones resolved those problems.

I have one of the Haswell ones- it certainly did have those bugs for the first ~6 months or so, but successive driver and firmware updates have fixed them all nicely. "Half baked" definitely sounds about right- it became a great device over time, but I was very close to returning it!