Microsoft Launching New Budget Surface Tablet on July 13th

[Raevenlord]

Expectations of a budget Microsoft Surface tablet that would bring the company's reach to mainstream pricing ranges have been doing the rounds for years now. The company, however, has preferred to build on its product design chops on a higher margin market, going after Apple's usual product language. It now seems those days are over, as rumors and leaks have somewhat coalesced into an actual, impending product launch - if insiders are correct, this product should materialize this Friday, July 13th.

The new Surface tablet will launch starting from $399 under Microsoft's Education program, but configuration options should bring options up to the $829 mark. The screen is expected to be a 10" affair, with an 1800x1200 resolution. CPU options should start with Intel's "Gemini Lake" Pentium Silver N5000, a quad-core SoC with a 1.1 GHz base clock and up to 2.7 GHz boost. The more expensive versions will likely feature the Intel Pentium Gold 4410Y and the Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y, both based on the "Kaby Lake" architecture. Base configurations should carry 4 GB of DDR4 memory (configurable up to 8 GB), and 64 GB of storage (up to 256 GB), on a 562 g body and USB Type-C. A special-purpose Type cover and mouse will be made available as well.



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[kastriot]

Why not mobile Ryzen cpu-s, they have exclusive contract with intel?

 

[ShurikN]

If they offered it with a low end Ryzen apu, i would buy it in an instant. Looking to upgrade the shitty Asus Transformer, but there is almost nothing on the market in the 10-11" range.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Why not mobile Ryzen cpu-s, they have contract with intel?

Can Ryzen TDP-down to a passive cooling setup like this product will likely have?

 

[ShurikN]

2200U could probably go to 5-6W, downclocked from its regular clocks of course.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

2200U could probably go to 5-6W, downclocked from its regular clocks of course.

But officially it doesnt support such a low TDP. Irrespective of what the chip can do, if it is not officially offered in such a configuration, OEMs wont use them.

 

[ShurikN]

But officially it doesnt support such a low TDP. Irrespective of what the chip can do, if it is not officially offered in such a configuration, OEMs wont use them.

I meant downclocked by AMD and branded as a slightly different product. Like they did with Stoney Ridge A9-9420.
A ~15W APU, that also has a 7ish watt version called A9-9420e, with lower base and boost clocks.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I meant downclocked by AMD and branded as a slightly different product. Like they did with Stoney Ridge A9-9420.
A ~15W APU, that also has a 7ish watt version called A9-9420e, with lower base and boost clocks.

Well, yeah, they COULD, but they havent, just like intel could give us a 6 core 5 ghz CPU for $99. No real reason to speculate based on a product AMD is refusing to make.

Any dual core mobile chip can get down to 5 watt if you clock it low enough, heck you can get octo core CPUs down to 5 watt at low enough clocks. But unless such a product is made and sold, its a moot point.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

2200U could probably go to 5-6W, downclocked from its regular clocks of course.

Problem is, I’m not sure that’s low enough in this situation. The Surface 3 ran an Atom x7-z8700, which had a SDP of 2W. Maybe MS plans to pack more heat dissipating material inside, but this is a cheaper product, so it might be hard to do so.

 

[ShurikN]

Those pentiums mentioned in the article are around 5W.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

True, but rumors I’ve heard suggest they will also run in a TDP-down scenario. Doesn’t sound like we’ll have to wait very long to find out!

 

[Bansaku]

But, can I Hackintosh it and make it useful?

 

[CosmicWanderer]

Might wanna update this article.

Surface Go.