It has now been over a year since Windows 8 was released. A
lot has happened — we’re now on Windows 8.1 and new devices running Intel’s
Haswell and Bay Trail chips are coming out every day. Touch-enabled laptops,
convertibles, and Windows tablets are getting cheaper and more common.
Head to the store to buy a new laptop or tablet and you’ll
see a wide variety of new touch-enabled laptops and tablets running Windows. In
the long term, Microsoft and Intel want every PC to have a touch screen, and
they’re getting there.
Windows RT Is Less Common
Microsoft launched Windows RT at the same time as it
launched Windows 8. This was rather confusing — not only was Microsoft’s own
Surface RT a Windows RT device, other manufacturers launched their own Windows
RT devices. For example, the Lenovo Yoga 11 looked like a laptop, but it
actually ran Windows RT.
Windows RT has now settled into a place that makes more
sense. There are only a handful of Windows RT devices on the market:
Microsoft’s original Surface RT (now renamed the Surface), Microsoft’s new
Surface 2, and Nokia’s Lumia 2520 tablet. Nokia is in the process of being
acquired by Microsoft. These are the only three Windows RT devices you’ll
encounter, and all of them are more-or-less Microsoft products. There are no
Windows RT devices mixed in with the other Windows devices you’ll find. If it’s
not from Microsoft or Nokia, it’s a full Windows 8.1 device that can run all
your desktop programs.
Bay Trail is Competitive With ARM on Battery Life
Windows RT isn’t as necessary because Intel’s Bay Trail
architecture is extremely competitive with the ARM architecture, while still
allowing devices to run full versions of Windows 8.1 with support for desktop
programs. (ARM chips are used in most smartphones, iPads, Android devices, and
Windows RT devices.) Bay Trail offers comparable price and performance to ARM,
so you can find $300 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets and $350 convertibles like the
ASUS Transformer T100.
This is a big deal. When Windows 8 came out, touch-enabled
devices were very expensive. Most laptops for sale — especially at lower prices
— didn’t support touch at all, so many people opted for Windows 8 devices
without touch screens. Touch screens are filtering their way down to cheaper
devices.
Haswell Chips are More Battery-Efficient
Even if you pick up a more expensive device running a more powerful
Core i5 or i7 processor, Intel’s new Haswell architecture ensures that the
device will have better battery life. For example, Microsoft’s first-generation
Surface Pro only lasted a paltry four hours or so, which is terrible for a
tablet. The new Surface Pro 2 with Intel’s Haswell architecture will last for
over eight hours.
The message is clear: You can get a device that’s powerful
enough to be your main laptop but long-lasting enough to also function as a
mobile tablet. Even if you don’t plan on using the tablet features, the more
power-efficient architecture makes for much longer battery life in laptop mode.
Some Devices Include Free Copies of Microsoft Office
Some devices come with free versions of Microsoft Office
Home & Student edition. This includes all Windows RT devices, 8-inch
Windows 8.1 tablets, and even some other machines like the ASUS T100
transformer.
However, larger devices will not include free copies of
Office. This is a bit weird — for example, Microsoft’s cheapest Surface 2
tablet with Windows RT includes Office, while the more expensive Surface Pro 2
doesn’t include Office.
As a rule of thumb, the device will include Office if it’s a
device you probably wouldn’t want to run Office on. If it’s a serious laptop
that you would run Office on, it won’t be included — probably because Microsoft
assumes you’d want to buy Office for it, but you wouldn’t want to buy Office
for an eight-inch tablet.
Either way, businesses can’t benefit from this. They’ll need
a license for the full edition to use Office for business purposes.
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