if they have a decent 2TB micro sdxc, I'll get one, slap it in the 128 version of surface. Seriously, 23GB will not hold all my progs. Especially if I plan on having photoshop, illustrator, office, etc. Good try, but no cig....
if they have a decent 2TB micro sdxc, I'll get one, slap it in the 128 version of surface. Seriously, 23GB will not hold all my progs. Especially if I plan on having photoshop, illustrator, office, etc. Good try, but no cig....
Do you remember which Houston Best Buy stores had them? *lives in Houston*
Granted, the fastest USB 3 flash drives are finally reaching read/write speeds that move beyond magnetic platter speeds and approach SSDs - but the price/performance ratio is also rivaling SSDs. 64GB 200MB/s thumbdrive is somewhere around $100 iirc.
Approach SSDs? I can get an SSD that's 500 MB/s read/write. Stop spreading fud.
Did I say "approaching top of the line recent SSDs"? No.
250MB/s for recent USB 3 flash drives, after recent ones were 100-150, they are indeed "approaching". Especially SSDs that aren't top of the line.
It ain't fud.
Approach SSDs? I can get an SSD that's 500 MB/s read/write. Stop spreading fud.
Do you know what "fud" means? I'm not sure you do.
In paint and normal operations the pen response seems completely fine.
The 'dpi' complaints are definitely legitimate. Set at 150%, some stuff is still tiny for no explicable reason. A good example is youtube video buttons get all wonky sometimes, the fwd/back buttons in IE are too small, text zooms in odd ways. If windows 8 is going to compete in the high res tablet environment they have to find a way to fix this DPI disparity. This thing would be unusable without the wacom pen as the resolution is too high to accurately select things. Hell, even with the pen it's often difficult to select things like the minimize button.
Also I really need a decent case. The device is fine to hold in one hand size/weight-wise, but there just isn't any decent way to grip it. Right new I leave the pegleg out and use that as a grip.
The type keyboard, for me, is useless. It's too flimsy to use on your lap, I could see it being great for a student or starbucks-whore, but as a 'professional' device (IE docked at my desk with real keyboard or at home walking around the house) the keyboard will never get used.
I really wish they made the type keyboard with a stiff physical hinge, so the device could be used on your lap.
You didn't say low end SSDs. On top of that a USB 3.0 flash drive at those speeds costs more per GB than a top end SSD.
The SSD in the surface pro reads at almost 500 MB/s. A flash drive is not comparable nor is it practical as a solution for extending its storage. You're better off buying the 128GB model.
There's been no confirmations, but there's been rumors based on some things a rep posted on Reddit that they are thinking of a better keyboard dock with extra battery. I'd like to see it and how much they want to charge before I'd consider the Surface Pro. I'd have the same problems with the current keyboard covers that you have.
It's not practical for extended the storage for permanently installed app space, true.
But for storage space of rarely accessed media, documents, etc?
I think you are misunderstanding speed differences.
And have completely forgotten where we came from, what we had. We were lucky to have 80MB/s platter-based drives on 100/133MB/s interfaces.
When SSD came around and become somewhat affordable for "the masses", 300MB/s was consider supreme, if that was even attainable (it was still out of my reach for cost per gigabyte/practical measures). It was common to find drives that would dip down below 250MB/s for certain measurement methods, like combined read/write or different sector sizes, etc etc.
In short, as time marches on, USB 3 thumb-sticks will continue to get faster. In the past year, iirc, they've already moved from roughly 100MB/s consistently, to over 250MB/s in some metrics and what otherwise appears to be 200MB/s consistently.
Look, I'm not looking to debate the matter or turn this into some thread derailment.
IMHO, media/document storage on a 64/128GB USB3 250MB/s thumbdrive is perfectly acceptable. I could reach out for such even when I can get my hands on the 128GB Surface Pro. I won't, not right away, as I'll wait for prices to get into the more reasonable category.
But it's also worthless to compare to SSDs for pricing - that's not how thumb-drives should be compared, because the utility is of a different nature. And we can't upgrade the SSD in the Surface, though it may be "hackable" - perhaps it uses mSATA and it's locked away simply because the device itself is "sealed." mSATA drives are hard to purchase as a consumer, but they can probably be found. We'd have to wait for a good teardown.
If you think 250MB/s is slow for a hard drive, especially one without the OS, you're simply out of your mind. Even as a boot drive, that speed would be extremely beneficial and a major time saver. For anyone with a HDD, they'd take it in a heartbeat.
Of course it won't compare to recent-model SSDs and/or new firmware releases - I don't think thumb-drives will ever match the top SSDs of the same launch window - not enough silicon to write to simultaneously.
But accessing large files that aren't often accessed, a bunch of MP3s, movies, documents and photos and other media, especially, say, graphical files? Unless the dongle makes working with the thing that much more difficult, it would actually be BETTER to have external storage. You could get a full proper external drive, but that's much larger in comparison, but you can even get an SSD and have the same speed, or many will get physical HDDs for the storage benefit that they use from time to time.
But honestly, it would be best to take a little effort to save on the write cycles for the SSD.
It'll be wonderful once SD cards have a good speed/performance increase. UHS-1 is great but UHS-2, and the actual silicon to provide that performance sustained and consistently, is needed for it to be a welcome addition for anything but rare media use.
Thanks for the story, but its not relevant due to the costs of USB 3.0 flash. I don't care where SSDs started when usb 3.0 flash costs more than a top end SSD. You're still better off with the 128GB model.
Anybody feel like trying out nearby Best Buys to see if they have received more stock?
When would one expect BB to actually receive more?
Call them?