This got me thinking, why can’t incidents like this happen more often? Microsoft recently provided figures for the available free storage space on Surface Pro, and guess what, they were wrong. Dead wrong!
Okay I may have gotten a little more excited, but hey, more free space!
Last week the company confirmed the free space on its upcoming tablet, the Surface Pro. The 128GB version was said to come with 83 GB of storage, while the 64GB version provided round about 23 GB of usable disk space.
Thanks to some research by a fine fellow from ZDNet that goes by the name of, Ed Bott, it becomes evident that Redmond actually provided wrong numbers.
The premier 128GB model in reality offers a total usable space of 89.7 GB, and the entry-level 64GB variant provides approximately 30 GB of free storage space — so yeah, a bonus of 6 or so GB, enough for an extra game or two.
Or, you know, software applications. Can’t have too much extra free space, these days!
Why the discrepancy you ask? Microsoft apparently used a few pre-production tablets to arrive on the initial figures. But the devices that are set to hit store shelves tomorrow (in reality though, they probably are on the store shelves) come with more free space.
Panos Panay, the Surface lead, also confirmed the findings in an IAmA session over at Reddit:
“We designed Surface Pro (and the allocation of disk space on our systems) to have the power of full Windows 8, the ability to have a simplified and fast upgrade to full Office and the confidence of a recovery image already available on your device.
Beyond the flexibility and confidence this provides, we also include an ability to extend your storage via microSDXC, USB 3.0 and SkyDrive (including 7GB of free storage). Initial reports out regarding available disk space were conservative (eg. 23GB available on 64GB and 83GB available on the 128GB system), however our final production units are coming in with ~6-7GB additional free space.”
So there, you go, all well that ends in a well, I say. This is particularly good news for those that plan on getting the 64GB flavor of Surface Pro (which I, in no way, recommend, by the way).
Hopefully this is update on Microsoft’s Surface storage FAQ page soon too.
Is it possible to replace the 64GB SSD with a 256GB SSD?
It so it will most likely cost more than the $100 difference between the two versions.
Yup, quite possible more than $100. Hopefully microSD card makers pick up pace this year and released higher capacity cards.
Remember the good old days when 10Mb was all that was needed. It could hold the OS, MS-DOS, and a lot of programs.
Oh, I’ve never forgotten them! 🙁
Even so, that still does not leave enough free space. Web browser cache, update files, recent file shortcuts, software, apps , music, videos, email, and data files will eat up the free space quickly.
Music, videos, some apps certainly use bigger, but the rest of just small things and can also do cleanups….
Just some things:
– Temporary datas can be cleaned up (should be too regurarly)
– Memory cards, FTW! There are big enough cards, and better will come
– There is *streaming* of music and vids too… (less stored files, though perhaps not zero)
– Apps? On every device you install what you really like and use, right?! You can put 300+ apps on an Android tablet too, but…..really use it??