Newsletter Archives

• More Surface Pro battery blues: Thurrott quoting Barb Bowman

  Posted on August 23, 2019 at 12:09 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Barb Bowman has pulled together a lot of information about bad batteries in the Surface Pro 5 and 6. Bottom line: Microsoft caused the problem (probably with bad firmware/driver updates), but they aren’t responding to customers who complain.

  Sound familiar?

  In today’s Short Takes, Paul quotes Barb:

  I’ll let Barb Bowman, an outspoken MVP (and friend), handle this discussion. “It took [Microsoft] 9+ months to acknowledge battery issues with [Surface Pro 2] and the fixes didn’t solve everything,” she noted in a community support post. “This issue is just starting to trend. I keep emailing an internal contact on it but no replies.” Honestly, this is the problem with Surface: It’s a small business that moves slowly, especially when it comes to responding to issues. It tarnishes the whole brand.

  Hardware, Windows News Batterygate, Surface Pro 6

• Reviews of the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2

  Posted on October 16, 2018 at 09:43 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The embargo must’ve been lifted overnight. You can see reviews all over the web.

  Bottom line:

  Surface Pro 6 is a little faster that the “Surface Pro (2017)” but not that much. i5, 8GB RAM, 256 GB and a keyboard for about $ 1,350.

  Surface Laptop 2 is a little faster than the Surface Laptop (1) but not that much. i5, 8GB RAM, 256 GB storage for $1,300.

  No USB-C.

  Compare with any Chromebook for a small fraction of the price. The ultimate Chromebook, the Google Pixelbook with i5, 8GB RAM, 128 GB storage runs half the price. Admittedly the Pixelbook lacks some key Surface features: Bluescreens, bugs, malware, slow reboots.

  Disclaimer: Unless it isn’t patently obvious, no, I’ve never held either a Surface Pro 6 or Laptop 2 in my hands. This isn’t a review. I wasn’t under embargo. Microsoft didn’t give me a test machine.

  But I have held a Pixelbook. In fact, my son still uses my original Pixelbook almost every day. Built like a brick spithouse.

  Microsoft News Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 6