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MS Surface pro 4: Terrible Build quality

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hughlle

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I read the post in a different way. In that you can upgrade the memory, aka storage, through thumb drive, hard drive, or sd card. I imagine the only option on an iPad would be a painfully slow WiFi hdd
 

MikemanSP4

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I read the post in a different way. In that you can upgrade the memory, aka storage, through thumb drive, hard drive, or sd card. I imagine the only option on an iPad would be a painfully slow WiFi hdd


Apple iPad Pro, Air 2 and Mini 4 come with limited non expandable memory options, therefore, you need best quality external hard drive ( HDD ) storage to overcome this problem. There are some storage solutions in the market which are capable of extending storage capacity of your tablet. These offerings use camera connection kit or wireless technology to transfer data to and from your tablet because you can’t connect iPad directly with external memory or hard drive. No Internet connection or WiFi hotspot is required for these devices.

Taken from -

4 Best iPad and iPad Pro External Hard Drive Storage Options

I would take it this (these) are the options you are talking about - I am here to tell you that all devices - in an "imagine that" marketing scheme - will be going away from allowing users to upgrade memory in any capacity. Everyone is migrating towards cloud drives and right now the charges are not that much for storage space - But I estimate that once these devices are all "locked in" with ZERO chance of upgrading memory - Its off to "CLOUDVILLE" we all head. This is why I prefer the Surface Pro - I believe that since the Surface is partially designed to replace laptops etc, that there will always be external storage. Microsoft has really thought out this one as they designed the Surface with 1 USB port - and if you want to extend this port you have to pay the piper in the range of $150-$180 for the Microsoft Surface Dock.... I mean seriously - The Type Cover $120+, the Pen $65+, and while these products are a quality build - they both have issues. Come on Microsoft - for these prices we all should be singing praises - not having a slew of issues across the board. OK - done with my rant and preaching to the choir.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Why do you have to resort to a dock to expand the usb port? Until I bought the sp4 dock, I just used a £2 hub. Worked just fine.
 

MikemanSP4

Super Moderator
Staff member
Indeed. But the point being clearly it wasn't some intentional "sabotage" of the device to coerce you to buy more Microsoft products.

Who said that it was? I was clearly referring to "cloud storage" as a cohersion to force the end user to buy storage solutions. If you want to buy Microsoft solutions, they will cost you, and sure you can buy a $2 USB solution, but keep in mind were dealing with USB 3, so ya might get what ya paid for. Again, emphasis on the word "might" .
 
Apple iPad Pro, Air 2 and Mini 4 come with limited non expandable memory options, therefore, you need best quality external hard drive ( HDD ) storage to overcome this problem. There are some storage solutions in the market which are capable of extending storage capacity of your tablet. These offerings use camera connection kit or wireless technology to transfer data to and from your tablet because you can’t connect iPad directly with external memory or hard drive. No Internet connection or WiFi hotspot is required for these devices.

Taken from -

4 Best iPad and iPad Pro External Hard Drive Storage Options

I would take it this (these) are the options you are talking about - I am here to tell you that all devices - in an "imagine that" marketing scheme - will be going away from allowing users to upgrade memory in any capacity. Everyone is migrating towards cloud drives and right now the charges are not that much for storage space - But I estimate that once these devices are all "locked in" with ZERO chance of upgrading memory - Its off to "CLOUDVILLE" we all head. This is why I prefer the Surface Pro - I believe that since the Surface is partially designed to replace laptops etc, that there will always be external storage. Microsoft has really thought out this one as they designed the Surface with 1 USB port - and if you want to extend this port you have to pay the piper in the range of $150-$180 for the Microsoft Surface Dock.... I mean seriously - The Type Cover $120+, the Pen $65+, and while these products are a quality build - they both have issues. Come on Microsoft - for these prices we all should be singing praises - not having a slew of issues across the board. OK - done with my rant and preaching to the choir.

I dunno. On the subject of "CLOUDVILLE" I would offer the following thoughts. 1) Internet connectivity is not as ubiquitous as people would have you think, particularly on the subject of bandwidth. Moving a lot of data back and forth is no fun.

The one USB port I think is a concession to form factor and what could be squeezed into the specification for both dimensions, weight and hardware all.

Agree elsewhere in this thread that MS' problems are more ones of quality control than build quality and woe to those who don't draw the right length straw, particularly on a second, third or more tries.

Last, my tuppence on upgrades is "yes" in the 2-in-1 market regarding zero chance, not so much in the PC market because of corporate accounts.

Cheers, N
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
When I typed intentional sabotage, that wasn't quoting you. If I quote an individual I will use the quote function. Nor am I in any way responding to the cloud part of your post, don't get me started on cloud storage. I despise it and agree with you.


Here is what I was replying to though
Microsoft has really thought out this one as they designed the Surface with 1 USB port - and if you want to extend this port you have to pay the piper in the range of $150-$180 for the Microsoft Surface Dock

That quite catagorically said you HAVE to buy the Microsoft dock, not might have to. I didn't have to pay even a tenth of that and did not have to give my money to Microsoft.

As they say from in my parts, calm down scouser, no need to be so defensive.
 

Philtastic

Active Member
Perhaps if you would read what I wrote - you wouldn't misquote me. Feel free to re-read what I wrote, and again, its mostly opinion. By all means feel free to disagree with me - I welcome any and all opinions, but again - I didn't say it was - as you put it "intentional sabotage". It is however a great marketing scheme for companies to stop including expandable memory on or in its products to get the end user (you or me or others) to purchase cloud storage.

To add a little more clarity for you- I said that if you want to expand the Microsoft USB port, you might have to pay $150-$170 for the Microsoft Expansion Port. I didn't say 150-170 for an off brand, I said Microsoft. Some folks like to keep things uniform, and for those that do, Microsoft charges a whole lotta cash for a simple expansion port. As for me, I am more than happy to pay for a Microsoft product, as long as it works. I am waiting on the reviews before I spend the large coin. Again - thanks for reading, and feel free to indulge me with your opinion, but also feel free to leave out the misquotes.
The problem seems to be your command of the English language. You get it correct in this quote where you say "... if you want to expand the Microsoft USB port, you MIGHT have to pay $150-170 for the Microsoft Expansion Port" [emphasis mine]. In your previous post, you say "Microsoft has really thought out this one as they designed the Surface with 1 USB port - and if you want to extend this port you HAVE TO pay the piper in the range of $150-$180 for the Microsoft Surface Dock" [emphasis mine]. By saying "have to", you are explicitly saying that it is necessary to do this to have more USB ports which is a false statement. This is what's causing the confusion, and people quoting you have done so correctly. Also, you use the word "memory" in place of "storage": this is a common misuse of the standard nomenclature since most people use the word "memory" to refer to RAM rather than storage space.

I also disagree that cheaper solutions are necessarily worse than more expensive ones. A $5 dollar HDMI cable is no worse than a $100 one which is purely marketed to be more expensive, playing off of people's fears that a cheaper product will be significantly worse. I would say the same thing here about USB hubs: if all you want to do is expand how many USB ports that you have, a $5 hub will probably perform just as well as the $150-170 "Microsoft Expansion Port"... which is a product that doesn't exist. If you mean the Surface Dock, then you're also wrong that it's just a simple expansion hub. It's also a display adaptor, ethernet, an audio connector, and extended power cable that connects through the power plug, a non-standard way to do this.

Basically, your snarkiness is unwarranted and you should stop it unless you post perfectly. Even then, it would still be unnecessary.
 
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