Surface All Access: Love the Idea, Need Details (Premium)

Surface All Access was one of the less heralded announcements to come out of this week's Microsoft event. But it could have a more lasting impact than any of the devices that were announced.

Surface All Access is the successor to Surface Plus, at least for consumers. Announced a year ago, Surface Plus allowed individuals and businesses to purchase Surface PCs in a very flexible way: You paid for the hardware over two years, with no money up front and no interest charges. There literally wasn't a catch.

Well, I guess there was one catch: Microsoft unexpectedly killed the consumer version of Surface Plus about a month ago. This was disappointing to me at the time, as Surface Plus allowed people who don't have $1200 to $2500 burning a hole in their pocket make the purchase anyway. And do so using a familiar, smartphone-like two-year payment plan.

But I suspected that Microsoft would replace Surface Plus with something. And they have.

But as it turns out, Surface All Access isn't actually a direct Surface Plus replacement. Instead, it's a superset: So in addition to getting a PC, you also get Office 365, and can optionally choose accessories too.

That said, I have questions.

The issue, for now, is that the Surface All Access is only vaguely described. And there's no way, yet, to know what you'll really pay.

Looking at the Surface All Access website, I can see that it says this is "the ultimate way to own a Surface. Low monthly prices starting at $24.99/month (24 months)." That $24.99 pricing is almost certainly for a base Surface Go with an Office 365 Personal subscription.

But there's no real way to know.

Do we get to choose the same Surface PC configurations we get when we visit the Microsoft Store online? Or will Surface All Access only provide certain configurations?

Do we get to choose which Office 365 subscription we get? I would imagine at least Office 365 Personal and Home will be offered. But what about the business versions? (The site does say "your choice of Office 365.")

Which peripherals will be offered? I would guess Surface Pen (in whatever color) and your choice of Type Cover (if you choose a Surface Pro or Go) at the least. But what about other accessories, like a mouse or Dock? It's not clear.

The good news? We don't have long to wait before these questions will be answered.

You'll be able to order a Surface Go ($24.99 and up), Surface Book 2 ($54.96+), Surface Pro 6 ($47.87+), or Surface Laptop 2 ($46.63+) starting on October 16. And you can order a Surface Studio ($150.79 and up) starting on November 15.

But what the heck. Let's do some guesstimating.

I'll use Surface Laptop 2 as an example since it removes the additional cost of a Type Cover from the equation. $46.63 times 24---since you pay for it over two years---is $1119.12. Office 365 Personal is normally $69.99, so that would be $139.98. Subtract that from the total and you're really paying $979.14 for Surface Laptop 2.

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