Surface with Microsoft 10s

‘MicrosoftEdu held an event yesterday (5/2/17) in NYC to announce their next big thing (and it does seem to be very interesting). The Verge has a nice post about the Surface.

A new Surface tablet starting at $999 (if you opt for i7, 16GB ram and 512GB SSD you are at $2200) is about the size of the 13" MacBook Air but with “retina-quality” display. Promises of all-day battery life and running Windows 10s (notice the S).

This is designed to be a Chromebook competitor with S providing access to apps via Microsoft’s online store (which will soon include Office) but not allow installed of apps outside this ecosystem.

Microsoft states an upgrade path will be available from S to Pro but no specifics yet (free to $50 is what I’m hearing). I’m interested & intrigued…. We have been an iPad school for 6+ years and we have worked out many kinks and bumps around “ownership”, management and repairs but it has taken quite a while.

Microsoft’s Surface with Windows 10s seems appealing but the deployment model they are showing is dreadful…. USB? Really?!?! This seems a huge step back for the current MDM models

The new Surface is expected to be available June 15th so I will be looking closer as a possible future device, but for 2017–18 seems we will continue the iPad solutions for Friends.

I will be sure to post a review if we are able to test something in the next month.