Anyone see the new Microsoft Surface Book?

Roy Laufer

Anyone catch the October 6th Microsoft announcements?

They showed MS' first laptop with a display that pops apart, turning it into a super-tablet. It looks very nice and very powerful (Intel i7 chip, nVidia graphic acceleration, etc.).

I wonder how it would compare with the Maestro I have on order...

Sure, there are no knobs or buttons, and very few ports, but you can gaze upon all eight slices if you wish.

What an interesting comparison, it would be...

[stop me before I buy again<grin>]

KENT HUFFORD

They showed surface pro 4 and the surface BOOK.

BOOK with i7, 512gb starts at $2695.

You can view the MS show online

David

I have the Surface Pro 2 and it works great with the Flex so the Pro 3 and Pro 4 would be even better.

Just before the Maestro was announced I was drawing up a concept of what a FlexController II might look like. I still would like to see if it could be done since it would add the knobs and buttons and more fine control the a mouse on the GUI doesn't always have. It would as well hopefully be in the <$150 range. Below is an image of what I was working on and still tweaking. Size wise ideally stay small so it doesn't take lots of space unlike the DJ mixboard solutions which there are so great people make work as an alternative. The great thing with the FlexController is that it is locked to the SSDR/PSDR software so you can reach over and tune or adjust a setting without changing the program you working on.

K6OZY

According to the specs, it does not come with a discrete nVidia GPU.   It uses on-chip Intel GPUs.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Pro-4/productID.325711500

With an i7, 16GB, 1TB configuration, you're nearly at 3K.  Sheesh!

Roy Laufer

That looks very nice!

I have a FlexControl, a Tmate2 and sundry DJ controls that have had software written for them. They all seem to have serious limitations.

I hope that Maestro comes closest, but much like the Flex 6000 series it will be a "work in progress" with its software improving over its numerous iterations. At first only slice A & B will be controllable and you won't be able to simultaneously have a desktop PC connection via SSDR.

The MS Surface Book sounds like it might offer a different subset of SSDR features in a portable/powerful device.

Roy Laufer

There are five versions of the MS Surface Book - two use integrated Intel graphics, three use nVidia discrete GPU's.

(You are alluding to the MS Surface Pro 4, not the Surface Book, and the Pro 4 tops out at $2799, but then who needs a tablet with a TB of storage).

The Pro 4 is evolutionary. The Book looks interesting to me...

Simon Lewis

I want to be able to 'undock' sections of the SSDR screen and split them across displays ... ie have some functions that I don't use regularly on a soft set of buttons on another screen while Maestro runs the main radio ... then start having a soft set of buttons for antennas and rotors and all driven over IP and I am sold

Peter K1PGV

I would buy one of those. Peter K1PGV

Peter K1PGV

I ordered a Surface Pro 4 today... One of my colleagues ordered a Surface Book. I'll report in when they arrive. Peter K1PGV

Roy Laufer

Great minds think alike. I "dropped the hammer" on a 256GB, 8GB, i7 Surface Book order.

I will keep everyone advised too.

K6OZY

Ah, I see that now.  They don't list which nV GPU it is.  I wouldn't order it unless they disclosed that.   Huge range of performance from entry vs high end nV GPU offerings.  Since it's driving such a high resolution display, that would be an important spec to know.

Frankie Fournier

me too, de kd8oyv

David Decoons, wo2x

You have the letter D twice :-)
Nice concept! I'd buy one.

BTW you can add more butttons to a Flex Control by using DDUtil and a Genovation keypad. Using DDUtil and Gnovation allows customization including stacked macros on a button.

Roy Laufer

I have a Genovation keypad sitting on my desk, waiting for me to configure some macros. Perhaps I should start a  thread somewhere of "top ten macros". I was disappointed that there were far less macro capability with non A & B slices since they use generic CAT V commands. Rather than developing non standard additional CAT commands FRS prefers people make API calls, but DDUtil can't do that in the macro setting.

K6OZY

I picked up a SurfaceBook i7 8GB 256GB SSD Nvidia dGPU on sale for $1599 ($600 off!).   I'm an Apple Guy, but have to admit, this thing is very well made.   It's as Applye-Esque as you can hope for in the Windows world.   The screen is killer, and the detachable tablet that has the primary guts in it is super light.   It runs SmartSDR 1.6 perfectly with the Nvidia dGPU and the integrated 520 also runs it quite well.   I'm very impressed, but I am unsure if I would have been as impressed if I paid $2099 for it.   My HP Spectre x360 i7-6500U w/ Intel520 8GB 256GB SSD is literally half the cost and performs the same minus the dGPU.  For $100 more you can get a 2560x1440 screen instead of 1080p.  The HP is ~ 350nits vs 430 on the SurfaceBook, and the Surfacebook uses NVMe on the SSD making it nearly twice as fast on IO, but that has no impact for SSDR.

Make sure that if you have it docked and want to launch SSDR with the dGPU, that you right click the icon and pick "Launch with High performance GPU", or add a program shortcut in the Nvidia Control Panel to always use the discrete GPU when running it.