Business Calls, Surface Answers

The new Surface PCs aren’t just designed for individuals. With this generation, they’re optimized for the needs of businesses, too.

Microsoft’s steady push to embrace businesses with Surface has been interesting to watch. The PCs have always had broad appeal, thanks to their modern designs and trend-setting form factors, and certain classes of business users—from C-level executives to those who spend much of their time on the road—-have responded accordingly from the beginning.

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Those types of users are important for building brand awareness, but for Microsoft to be truly successful in business, it needed to meet the deployment and management needs of organizations that wish to roll out its products to large groups of users. And that has required improvements across the board, not just to the hardware itself but to the supporting software and services.

There will always be some work to do, of course. But as of the launch this past month of a new generation of hardware—Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and Surface Pro X, plus Surface Earbuds, which ship in December—Microsoft is finally in a good position in all of these categories.

For this generation, Microsoft sought to address three key concerns that its business customers raised—USB-C across the board, better serviceability, and consistency with previously-purchased peripherals—while retaining all of the things that they already liked, including the design and build quality.

The degree to which Microsoft tackled these issues varies by machine. Surface Pro 7, as the 5th iteration of the iconic design that debuted with Surface Pro 3, has changed the least, and it doesn’t benefit from any new serviceability improvements. The rationale there, I suspect, is that customers wishing to upgrade to Pro 7 are more concerned with the consistency angle than with serviceability, and that those who are worried about the latter can consider the Surface Pro X, which features an all-new design with a unique take on serviceability: You can swap out its tiny SSD drive by popping open the SIM card tray.

But Surface Pro 7 is more carefully designed than you might think. In addition to working with previous generation Surface Pens, Type Covers, Surface Docks, and other peripherals, Microsoft specifically placed the USB-C port in the exact location formerly occupied by the miniDisplayPort port. This helps protect its customers’ investments in custom cases and mounts. It helps with users’ muscle memories, too. Plus, since USB-C is more versatile than miniDisplayPort, the addition isn’t just a change, it’s an improvement.

The most dramatic upgrade in the Surface lineup this year, to my mind, is Surface Laptop 3. And that’s an interesting statement given that it doesn’t appear to have changed at all from an external perspective. But what Microsoft accomplished here is impressive: Despite looking virtually identical to its predecessors, Surface Laptop 3 features a removable bottom that lets one replace the keyboard and SSD without destroying the Alcantara covering, if present, a huge problem with previous Laptops.

Some have complained that Microsoft’s newfound serviceability isn’t available to individuals and doesn’t apply to all of the internal components. This is only half true: Surface is serviceable specifically for businesses, and not for individuals, but those hardy enough to consider taking apart a Laptop 3, for example, will be able to do so. As for the second complaint, that’s fair—you can’t swap out the RAM or battery—but the firm just launched its first serviceable products ever. This is a journey, and Microsoft wanted to retain the strengths of previous Surface models, including remaining consistent, while hitting on the biggest pain points. We can expect the serviceability story to continue improving over time.

Speaking of room for improvement, Microsoft still doesn’t offer a formal hardware and peripheral support agreement to its enterprise customers that ensures compatibility across multiple generations of products, as do more established players like Dell and HP. But the Surface team told me today that this kind of support is implicit, and that the backward compatibility bit—which they think of as consistency—is baked into the design process. That is, the efforts I described above help to explain why Surface Dock and other peripherals just continue working as customers upgrade the PCs to new models.

Those customers also asked for more control. So Microsoft has, over time, moved its Surface firmware efforts in-house as part of what it called Project Mu, and it now provides businesses with Device Firmware Configuration Interface (DFCI) controls that can lock down specific hardware features using SCCM, Auto Pilot, or whatever management tools they prefer. That’s a far cry from the early days when some business customers literally were drilling out the front webcam to prevent IP theft. And Microsoft cited an interesting case were a school no longer needs to collect Surface PCs at the end of the school year and then redeploy them at the beginning of the next: It can now update the PCs remotely during the break instead.

Looking forward, Microsoft will continue to try and innovate with new form factors, most obviously the dual-screen Surface Neo and Surface Duo devices. There’s been some quibbling in enthusiast quarters about Microsoft’s decision to adopt Android for Duo, but the Surface team looks at this as it being pragmatic: Android makes sense because of the apps and store, but it can put its own UX and integration bits on top, and give customers the experience they expect.

We’ll need to wait until late 2020 or beyond to discover whether these new dual-screen designs resonate with customers. But I feel like the product line is in a good place today. And that its improved focus on businesses is smart, will be successful, and will ultimately benefit individual customers as well.

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Conversation 12 comments

  • bbold

    05 November, 2019 - 1:59 pm

    <p>The Microsoft store (incorrectly?) says the earbuds will now ship on Nov 14, 2021 ? for real?!<img src=""></p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      05 November, 2019 - 2:12 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#486632">In reply to bbold:</a></em></blockquote><p>Classic Microsoft.</p>

      • bbold

        05 November, 2019 - 11:34 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#486641">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Sorry, I meant to say it said Nov 14, 2021 not 2012. Still.. classic MS 😀 (I corrected it)</p><p><br></p><p>Also, great article, Paul. </p><p><br></p><p>My take on this year's MS offerings -</p><p><br></p><p>I ALSO feel the best device that MS has released this year imho is the MS Surface Laptop 3, 13.5 inch or 15 inch (business) <em>Intel versions</em>. The Intel chips seem to be much more reliable and powerful for most use cases in these newer 10th gen Intel machines, and those even include Wifi 6, and better battery life, a reliable seasoned chip, etc. (I actually sent my 15" back after 2 days because it seemed unwieldy BIG and performance was sluggish. Instead, I got the 13.5" black metal model and I'm still loving it after a week.) I'm also getting 8-9 hrs battery life on recommended battery settings, and this is great for what I do, which is mostly productivity in MS Office and web browsing through the Beta Credge with multiple tabs open, OneNote to take notes, etc. The laptop truly lasts a full day for me. The Surface Laptop 3 <em>Intel</em> models are a marked improvement over my gen 1 burgundy SL that I had, but that one's still pretty great, too, and I even find taking quick notes with the pen to work just fine on all SL's. Great machines! (I just wish there was somewhere magnetic to store the pen that wouldn't scratch my black beauty.) I actually use my new SL3 while it sits in a black Thule zippered protective laptop case which protects from unwarranted scratching. (I highly recommend a well-cushioned, permanent case or sleeve for these scratch-prone metal models.) So far, though, no scratch issues. I also want to purchase the black MS earbuds to match my new laptop, but I've heard the black versions aren't coming until 2020.</p><p><br></p><p>BB</p>

  • jrzoomer

    Premium Member
    05 November, 2019 - 2:17 pm

    <p>I would love to see Surface Pro X innards in a laptop form factor. I think that would be the sweet spot for the Surface line.</p>

    • dheinle

      Premium Member
      05 November, 2019 - 2:59 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#486642">In reply to jrzoomer:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yep, Surface Pro X Laptop would be a perfect fit for me as well. </p>

  • RobertJasiek

    05 November, 2019 - 3:46 pm

    <p>The by far most important aspects of <span style="color: rgb(27, 27, 27);">serviceability greatly prolong duration: any fans (dust), any hinges (broken), the batteries. The second most important aspects affect upgrading due to unavailability or excessive original price (storage, RAM).</span></p>

  • carl_taylor

    05 November, 2019 - 5:09 pm

    <p>I work for the largest Educational Organisation in Australia and we have stopped buying Surface due to how</p><p>easy they are to break. We have had Surfaces since V2 and virtually 100% failure rates </p>

  • rmlounsbury

    Premium Member
    05 November, 2019 - 7:23 pm

    <p>I do appreciate the consistency of what Microsoft does with the Surface Hardware and even 7 generations into a device like the Surface Pro can still use any previous peripheral made for the Surface Pro line. So upgrading even a Surface Pro 3 to a Surface Pro 7 means I just have to swap out the machine itself. My type covers and docks all work and likely don't actually need to be replaced which reduces the cost of upgrading a Surface Pro.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    06 November, 2019 - 2:30 am

    <p>You talk about the improvements for business. But you don't mention what Microsoft have implemented for remote management, such as Intel vPro or their own proprietary system that allows remote administration at the hardware level.</p>

  • glenn8878

    06 November, 2019 - 11:08 am

    <p>Microsoft likes to innovate, but at the expense of usability, convenience, and affordability. It is still short on basics that will drive me over to purchase one. </p>

  • sandy

    06 November, 2019 - 5:47 pm

    <p>Hey Paul, have MS done/said anything about improving the nightmarish Surface Dock firmware update process?</p>

  • Greg Green

    07 November, 2019 - 7:38 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#486840">In reply to SvenJ:</a></em></blockquote><p>Normal use by students is probably much worse than normal use by adults. Plus the students have no skin in the game, they’re going to care less than the owner.</p><p><br></p><p>So in that environment being easily broken is a fail.</p>

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