Windows Surface 32 gig hard drive - General Discussion

#1 Posted by TheMatrixOnline (42 posts) - 7 months, 10 days ago

So Microsoft is boasting that their 32 gig Windows RT is $499 (without the sweet keyboard),the same price as the iPad, while having twice the hard drive space. What's bullshit is that the OS literally takes up 16 gigs of memory, so you only get to utilize 16 gigs of that hard drive. I'm not a defender of apple, and I'm not hating on the surface either. I just think it is ridiculous that Microsoft is selling their "32 gig" model, while you really only have access to half of that.

That being said I do think the Surface looks pretty cool, although I'm not keen on being an early hardware adopter so I will probably wait a while to get one. I just happen to think it is super lame to claim that it has 32 gigs of space (yes technically it does) while you only have access to half of that.

I'm just curious about how many of you knew about that. I feel like the average customer will buy one fully expecting it to have about 32 gigs available to them and will be a bit disappointed when they discover the truth.

#2 Posted by mlarrabee (1879 posts) - 7 months, 10 days ago

Typical marketing shadiness. Still, part of why I find it much more attractive than the iPad is support for SD cards.

#3 Edited by AndrewB (6918 posts) - 7 months, 10 days ago

I agree on this (and yes, obviously I knew). I guess they're riding on the idea that people know Windows installs take up a good chunk of the usable space on any drive (but about 16GB reserved for an OS that's actually trimmed down since 7...).

However~! At least the Surface has memory card expansion. You can put an SDXC card in there and get 64GB and rising (2TB is the actual theoretical limit to SDXC, though those cards are a ways off). Sure, its an additional expense, but I'd always prefer unlimited expansion to having the company tell you how much you'll ever be able to use on your device.

#4 Posted by TheMatrixOnline (42 posts) - 7 months, 10 days ago

Yeah the ability to use SD cards is amazing, and I think it's a really nice looking tablet overall. I also really like that it has a USB port too. I just happen to hate the fact that it comes with HALF of the space they say it has. Again not a big deal because of the SD card option, it's still bullshit though.