Surface Laptop's, um,. surface
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Does anyone have a Surface Laptop with the Alcantara keyboard surround? If so, how dirty does it get?
cheers Chris Maunder
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Does anyone have a Surface Laptop with the Alcantara keyboard surround? If so, how dirty does it get?
cheers Chris Maunder
Um ... not seen one, but ... Surface Laptop is just a laptop, making it Microsoft’s most baffling release yet | Ars Technica[^]
Quote:
Colors aside, the one novelty of the Surface Laptop is the keyboard surround. Rather than bare metal or some kind of composite, Microsoft has covered it with Alcantara, a synthetic fabric. Microsoft has used Alcantara for keyboard surrounds before, as most of the new Surface Pro keyboards use it, for example. Alcantara is more commonly used in a range of automotive applications, such as to cover steering wheels. It's designed to be hard-wearing and tolerant of the sweat and grime that are features of this kind of use. There's a chance that in three or four years I'll be proven wrong, but today the fabric strikes me as an entirely inappropriate choice for lining a laptop's interior. I've seen many disgusting-looking Alcantara Type Covers for Surface Pro 4, and after regular usage, they just get dirty and grimy and are impossible to clean. The Alcantara used in the Surface Laptop is supposed to be better—more resistant to dirt, easier to wipe down—but I simply don't buy it.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Um ... not seen one, but ... Surface Laptop is just a laptop, making it Microsoft’s most baffling release yet | Ars Technica[^]
Quote:
Colors aside, the one novelty of the Surface Laptop is the keyboard surround. Rather than bare metal or some kind of composite, Microsoft has covered it with Alcantara, a synthetic fabric. Microsoft has used Alcantara for keyboard surrounds before, as most of the new Surface Pro keyboards use it, for example. Alcantara is more commonly used in a range of automotive applications, such as to cover steering wheels. It's designed to be hard-wearing and tolerant of the sweat and grime that are features of this kind of use. There's a chance that in three or four years I'll be proven wrong, but today the fabric strikes me as an entirely inappropriate choice for lining a laptop's interior. I've seen many disgusting-looking Alcantara Type Covers for Surface Pro 4, and after regular usage, they just get dirty and grimy and are impossible to clean. The Alcantara used in the Surface Laptop is supposed to be better—more resistant to dirt, easier to wipe down—but I simply don't buy it.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
OriginalGriff wrote:
strikes me as an entirely inappropriate choice for lining a laptop's interior
Pretty much my thought too.
cheers Chris Maunder
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Does anyone have a Surface Laptop with the Alcantara keyboard surround? If so, how dirty does it get?
cheers Chris Maunder
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Um ... not seen one, but ... Surface Laptop is just a laptop, making it Microsoft’s most baffling release yet | Ars Technica[^]
Quote:
Colors aside, the one novelty of the Surface Laptop is the keyboard surround. Rather than bare metal or some kind of composite, Microsoft has covered it with Alcantara, a synthetic fabric. Microsoft has used Alcantara for keyboard surrounds before, as most of the new Surface Pro keyboards use it, for example. Alcantara is more commonly used in a range of automotive applications, such as to cover steering wheels. It's designed to be hard-wearing and tolerant of the sweat and grime that are features of this kind of use. There's a chance that in three or four years I'll be proven wrong, but today the fabric strikes me as an entirely inappropriate choice for lining a laptop's interior. I've seen many disgusting-looking Alcantara Type Covers for Surface Pro 4, and after regular usage, they just get dirty and grimy and are impossible to clean. The Alcantara used in the Surface Laptop is supposed to be better—more resistant to dirt, easier to wipe down—but I simply don't buy it.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Here is how I view them: Some people prefer a traditional laptop form factor, but still want the beautiful Surface screen and may not be as interested in using a pen (the Surface Laptop supports the pen, but doesn't come with it included.) If you haven't seen one in person, they're (IMO) pretty stinking sexy. Also, for what it's worth: The wife approval rating has been a solid "holy crap I love this thing." ;P
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Does anyone have a Surface Laptop with the Alcantara keyboard surround? If so, how dirty does it get?
cheers Chris Maunder
Yes, there are four members of my family with one and I've got a the Surface ergonomic desktop keyboard with the same alcantara material on the wrist rest. It holds up extremely well over time (my keyboard gets 14+ hours of use a day for the past year, looks brand new.) I've only had to wipe it down once because of me spilling soup all over it, the process on this page does this trick. Alcantara is crazy durable and the Surface Laptops are (IMO) a solid contender. The i5 has no cooling fan so it's completely silent, they're blazing fast, light and thin. The one thing you need to be cautious of is that they're shipped with Windows 10 S, meaning you can't install any win32 apps outside of the Windows Store ... but it's a free upgrade to Pro so it's pretty moot. Full disclosure: I'm a MS employee. I try to keep my opinion unjaded though, I really do think these are strong machines for the price. :-D Jon [edit: fixed this link, oops]
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Yes, there are four members of my family with one and I've got a the Surface ergonomic desktop keyboard with the same alcantara material on the wrist rest. It holds up extremely well over time (my keyboard gets 14+ hours of use a day for the past year, looks brand new.) I've only had to wipe it down once because of me spilling soup all over it, the process on this page does this trick. Alcantara is crazy durable and the Surface Laptops are (IMO) a solid contender. The i5 has no cooling fan so it's completely silent, they're blazing fast, light and thin. The one thing you need to be cautious of is that they're shipped with Windows 10 S, meaning you can't install any win32 apps outside of the Windows Store ... but it's a free upgrade to Pro so it's pretty moot. Full disclosure: I'm a MS employee. I try to keep my opinion unjaded though, I really do think these are strong machines for the price. :-D Jon [edit: fixed this link, oops]
How's battery life?
cheers Chris Maunder
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How's battery life?
cheers Chris Maunder
Too early for me to know for certain and the folks in my family that have one are all extremely light users. Reviews I've seen out there look pretty solid, though. It's likely not a workhorse but for the common human I believe it'll serve very well for quite some time. Jon
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Yes, there are four members of my family with one and I've got a the Surface ergonomic desktop keyboard with the same alcantara material on the wrist rest. It holds up extremely well over time (my keyboard gets 14+ hours of use a day for the past year, looks brand new.) I've only had to wipe it down once because of me spilling soup all over it, the process on this page does this trick. Alcantara is crazy durable and the Surface Laptops are (IMO) a solid contender. The i5 has no cooling fan so it's completely silent, they're blazing fast, light and thin. The one thing you need to be cautious of is that they're shipped with Windows 10 S, meaning you can't install any win32 apps outside of the Windows Store ... but it's a free upgrade to Pro so it's pretty moot. Full disclosure: I'm a MS employee. I try to keep my opinion unjaded though, I really do think these are strong machines for the price. :-D Jon [edit: fixed this link, oops]
I'm constantly at my desktop keyboard also. How long did it take you to get used to the ergonomic keyboards? I already had some 10+ years of working on standard computer keyboards before they came out, so I've always been very hesitant about an ergonomic learning curve. Also, how well do you do switching back to standard keyboards when you have to?
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I'm constantly at my desktop keyboard also. How long did it take you to get used to the ergonomic keyboards? I already had some 10+ years of working on standard computer keyboards before they came out, so I've always been very hesitant about an ergonomic learning curve. Also, how well do you do switching back to standard keyboards when you have to?
I think it just took me a few hours to adjust, it wasn't too bad. I switch several times a week back to a traditional keyboard when I'm visiting customers with my Surface Book, and don't seem to find much issue -- I guess my brain has just finally adjusted and wired accordingly. The only gripe I have with the ergonomic keyboard is the overall size. I'm in a tiny Manhattan apartment with a small desk and desktop space is at a premium. I've got the non-ergonomic keyboard w/ fingerprint arriving next week and will see how that goes. Jon
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Does anyone have a Surface Laptop with the Alcantara keyboard surround? If so, how dirty does it get?
cheers Chris Maunder
I checked at my job, the entire sales department use surface pro's with removable alcantara keyboards. They get about as dirty as normal keyboards, slightly more work to clean them though, but they're all very happy with them.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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I checked at my job, the entire sales department use surface pro's with removable alcantara keyboards. They get about as dirty as normal keyboards, slightly more work to clean them though, but they're all very happy with them.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Hmmm. I'm wanting everyone to say "they are terrible, filthy, grotty things. Move on". It would make my life easier. All I'm left with at this point is a) Surface Laptop has poor battery life b) Surface Laptop has no USB-C ports c) Surface laptop is a nothing'th of an inch too long for my current laptop sleeve Of course there's always "I just can't afford it", but that's why we have 2 kidneys, right?
cheers Chris Maunder
