Robo & Kala

+1

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12.6 is still too big for me. I wouldn’t mind trying WOA, but at this point, not willing to go over 11".

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My feelings exactly - the SP8 LTE is doing an admirable job (LTE though) and I just wish it were same specs, with 5g, in the SG3 form factor.

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Man, right now this bad boy is $599! It is really tempting me.

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It did, indeed, tempt me. I pulled the trigger. :melting_face:

Less than $800 for the pen and tablet/keyboard was too tempting.

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We expect detailed analysis - you are right about the price point - very tempting. But I stick by my decision of no cellular no go anymore.

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Definitely! Will keep y’all posted.

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I am assuming that Qualcomm is clearing out old Microsoft SQ3 and Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 stock and this is the best way to clear it while simultaneously testing the waters for consumer interest. I honestly would buy this over the SQ3 Surface Pro 9 just for that absolutely gorgeous OLED display. I will bet dollars to donuts we do not see OLED from the Surface family anytime soon, but that is just me. And if so, this is the best Surface alternative for the foreseeable future. In either case, the weak sauce ASUS Vivobook 13 Slate OLED is DOA now that the Robo & Kala is broadly available here in the US via Amazon. I know that NUVIA is going to be just that much better, but I also love OLED and that display is exactly what I would want.

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Super excited to say the least. I am very close to pulling the trigger myself since the OLED is exactly what I am wanting in a Windows tablet and the 7.3mm thickness makes it a true iPad Pro replacement for me. And worse comes to worse, I can sell it off when the Surface Pro 10 comes out if the Pro 10 has OLED (which I doubt) or another Windows NUVIA tablet comes along with OLED.

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Basically what I decided. My budget was around $800. I looked at the Swappa alternatives and it was like a SP8 with 8GB Ram and 256GB SSD, keyboard, and pen with an i5 or something like this for $700 after buying the pen as well. I figured it was worth a shot.

I also must admit that I have a desktop with a Ryzen 5600x, 3060Ti and an Asus Zephyrus G14 with the 3060 for traveling and work. So between those two, all I needed was a true iPad Pro replacement. I don’t need to edit 4k video, nor do I need to do monster encoding.

Just MS Office, MS Journal, Affinity Suite, and streaming stuff. From what I saw on youtube, it should definitely work for all that. And I am only out $700 for 16GB/512GB with the Snapdragon 8cx, so it will have monster battery life and stay pretty cool while still being fanless.

It should actually leave the warehouse in CA tomorrow (I have a tracking number) and supposedly I should get it Thursday, so will keep you all posted.

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Nice! So reading between the lines here, I take it that you opted to purchase direct from their first-party web store rather than going the Amazon route, right? The reason I ask is I have one ordered from Amazon thinking their online store shipped from China. The reason I say this is in my case even though the site has a 30-day risk free trial, I noted in their terms and conditions that they do require paying for the return shipping and I speculated that meant mailing back overseas to China. However, in hearing that their web store ships from a domestic facility here stateside, that sounds like an equally viable option right now. The Amazon listing also has a $200 off deal making either store a great option.

That is essentially where I stand as well. I need to update my device signature here since the Zephyrus Duo 16 went bye-bye due to a warranty repair fiasco of technicians scratching up an essentially brand new unit and me having to threat legal action, resulting in ASUS fully compensating me for the retail value of the laptop. I have since gone to an ROG Ally (with a newly added XG Mobile 2023!), but otherwise the listed Surface, desktop, and server in my signature are the same. The Surface Pro 8, while okay, has been terrible from the get go for tablet duty, typically devouring 20% battery life per hour. I had briefly had an SQ3 Surface Pro 9 that I have since sold but it was an otherwise pleasant experience with extraordinary battery life. The thing that gave me pause was the form factor and the impending release of NUVIA late this year/early next year and a slight compatibility niggle that I can easily work around. However, price, OLED, and weight are looking really good here on the Robo & Kala and totally wipe the floor of the SQ3 Surface Pro 9. I love watching movies especially Plex and so this looks like the perfect and dream Surface for my use case. It is like the iPad Pro and Surface Pro X had a baby in terms of design cues while giving the full performance of the Surface Pro 9. I am hyped!

That is correct. I didn’t see the part where the price was the same on Amazon, or I would have ordered from there. :slight_smile: But it definitely says it is shipping from CA, we will see when it actually goes out.

Me too! I can’t wait to see what the Windows on ARM stuff can do now. I really want to try out some of the Android stuff as well.

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I guess I’m not alone in thinking they could do with a better name. Every time I see the title of this topic I think it’s the name of a comic strip, Saturday morning cartoon, or something.

No reflection on the device itself, of course. A rose by a different name and all that.

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I think the same thing, though to me it’s a draw for making me want it.

Which I otherwise don’t, so it worked to at least pique my attention.

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I keep seeing that $599 price and keep saying - IF ONLY IT HAD 5g as an upcharge option…

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Yeah, that name is something else. Is this a romcom sitcom about a cyborg and his fully organic girlfriend or the name of a tablet company?

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I’m sensing a disturbance in the force…@dstrauss finally interested in a WOA machine?

I’ll facilitate your conversion to the dark (light?) side; Andrew Marc Davis ran some benchmarks vs. SP9 5G, starting @~13:30:


Rather impressive the R&K (at 0.28" thick) can slightly outperform the SP9 5G, given the latter opted to use the bulkier chassis (0.35" thick) of its x86 counterpart.

Drive speeds also noticeably better than MS’:

But I think the star of show is battery-life, with 50% longer run time despite having a smaller rated capacity.

Even if we account for testing variability and firmware patches by MS, I’d say it’s reasonable to expect at least 1/3 longer run-times on the R&K, which is quite an achievement.

And it’s a nice touch the pen charges while magnetically attached (unlike the SP9):

Hype-meter building…I’m looking forward to some much-anticipated “WinPad” action on this forum. :wink:

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Only because of having to face an anticipated “no choice point” on the horizon. There never was a Surface Pro 9 Intel LTE or 5g, and the rumor mill holds forth that the ONLY cellular option this go round will be a 5g WOA device.

EVEN that may not convert me from the SP8 LTE sitting on my desk right now - my mind is so x86 focused at this point, why should we have to suffer a 25%/21% GB5 single and multicore penalty (off the lowly i5) just to get 5g connectivity? Whatever happened to the proclaimed - “we’re on the heals of Apple” BS?

It’s the one area where Apple Silicon still really shines. Desktop processors/GPUs it gets its butt beat these days, but power and efficiency? Nothing beats Apple Silicon…

Do we know what pen protocol they use?