Buying a Microsoft Surface Pro pill with out a pen or keyboard is like shopping for a Mercedes with out wheels. The engine runs simply high quality, and the seats are as luxurious as you possibly can think about. But wouldn’t you are feeling cheated for those who couldn’t go wherever?
Most of the 16 iterations of the Surface Pro undertake the identical double commonplace: the Surface Pro is a laptop computer, besides when Microsoft begins speaking value. Then, poof! It’s a pill. Only as you progress step-by-step by the shopping for course of does Microsoft reveal that, sure, the pen and keyboard — and now the charger! — all value additional. Ridiculous.
Unfortunately, we’ve come to simply accept this conduct. Microsoft appears to assume that after deciding upon a $2,000 Surface laptop computer, you would possibly shrug your shoulders and settle for just a few hundred {dollars} extra. Why not? You’re already hooked.
But Microsoft’s new 12-inch, $799 Surface Pro adjustments issues. We’re not speaking a couple of premium system. Instead, Microsoft’s Surface Pro page walks you thru the expertise: typing, inking, doing every thing a clamshell laptop computer can do — all with the pen and keyboard proven prominently all through. And if you’d like a charger? All these extras whole over $300, which on a $799 system feels insane, sleazy, and borderline unlawful.
Foundry
Visually, the Surface Pro keyboard and pen are all over the place
On Microsoft’s Surface Pro web page, the highest illustration reveals two Surface Pros, every with a keyboard and pen. Scroll down: Yep, there’s one other. Keep going and also you’ll see extra pictures of Microsoft’s Surface Pro with a keyboard and/or a pen than as a stand-alone pill.
At no time do I see any indication that the keyboard or pen are non-compulsory. The language implies that they’re all a part of the identical holistic resolution.
Foundry
“Reimagined with a smooth-matte palm rest, sturdy wedge design, and dynamic hinge, Surface Pro is great for typing anywhere, even on your lap,” Microsoft says.
Underneath an outline of the “incredible typing experience,” Microsoft says: “Work anywhere with better typing and 360° rotation. The new 12-inch Surface Pro is durable, easy to clean, and ideal for travel or the coffee shop.”
Sounds nice. How a lot is it? “Starting from $799.99,” Microsoft says.
Foundry
Buying a Surface Pro means choosing a dimension, configuration, and colour. It’s right here that you simply first study that no, no charger is included. That’s $70 additional. (Microsoft’s attorneys might maintain up their fingers and say that the primary picture you see on the 12-inch Surface Pro web page is of simply the pill itself. But on the backside of the column of photos is, sure, a Surface Pro with a keyboard and pen hooked up.)
On the second web page? Time to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription. Only on the third web page do you study {that a} keyboard is $150, and a keyboard and pen bundled collectively is $250. Then it’s time to take a look at, feeling no less than just a little irritated that Microsoft didn’t inform you about all of this initially.
Foundry
Does this really feel honest to you?
It simply looks like Microsoft is attempting to have it each methods. Every laptop computer ships with an built-in keyboard. Microsoft’s Surface Pro is marketed on Microsoft’s page as having “tablet-to-laptop flexibility,” no matter which means. Visually, Microsoft is telling you: Yes, you’ll desire a keyboard and pen.
Then there’s the title. Should Microsoft refer to those as “Pro” tablets, with out the equipment that professionals use? I don’t assume so. Calling simply the pill a “Surface,” with an improve to a “Surface Pro” that provides a pen and keyboard, feels nearer to what the truth ought to be.
Even the Trump Administration — which most Americans would take into account “business friendly” — has really carried out a brand new FTC rule prohibiting bait-and-switch pricing. That’s predicated upon an executive order, signed by Trump himself.
Mattias Inghe
As the FTC puts it: “[the order] requires that businesses that advertise prices tell consumers the whole truth up-front about total prices and fees.”
A supplementary page describes how the order protects common “business-to-business transactions” past simply tickets and short-term lodging. To me, tacking on further costs for a pen and keyboard looks like a lodge’s $100 day by day “resort fee,” or the invention that you simply’ll should pay additional for an airline meal or to choose your seat. Nothing about any of this feels “up front.”
The level isn’t that Microsoft is definitely violating FTC laws. But the corporate is actually pushing up towards the bounds of excellent conduct.
Just not acceptable in a low- to mid-range system
To be honest, different Windows tablets don’t persistently embrace their equipment, both. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 bundles the keyboard and pen. Dell’s Latitude 7350 Detachable doesn’t. The Asus ProArtwork PZ13 features a a keyboard, however no pen. Heck, many all-in-one desktops toss in a mouse and keyboard.
But give Dell credit score: its Latitude 7350 Detachable product page doesn’t even present a keyboard, which it calls “optional.” That feels extra like an trustworthy sale.
Microsoft’s stance feels particularly pernicious as a result of there are already additional back-end tariff charges tacked on to the acquisition value — or not, relying upon the whims of the President. You nonetheless actually don’t know beneath what tariff regulation something you purchase will fall beneath, which already makes customers cautious. That’s what makes a $799 Surface Pro interesting. Finally, an affordable price ticket!
Only it’s not. When you add up the entire further “options” — a $69.99 charger, plus $250 for a bundled keyboard and pen — that’s a further $319.99 surcharge, or 40 % of the acquisition value proper there. And that’s even with out the $129.99 per 12 months that Microsoft costs for a Microsoft 365 Family subscription.
That’s outrageous, unfair, and perhaps unlawful. This isn’t nickel-and-diming you. That’s an enormous fats pile of cash that could possibly be put towards different issues.
You would assume that Microsoft would no less than clarify its actions. So far, my questions have been ignored. I don’t assume they need to be ignored. I feel Microsoft’s Surface Pro pricing technique ought to be defined, reconsidered, and finally modified.