Microsoft understated free usable space for Surface Pro

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Feb 2013 12:08 User comments (4)

The Internet was up in arms earlier this week when Microsoft announced that its 128GB Surface Pro only had 83GB of actual usable space.

It appears, however, the Microsoft understated their own estimate, due to a difference between their production and final shipping units.

In reality, the tablet will have 89.7GB of free space, a figure that is not significantly higher but is certainly an upgrade.

Says Verge: "A source inside Microsoft tells me the employee who confirmed the numbers did so using pre-production machines that contained different disk images and debug code that is different from final shipping units that will be on sale beginning this weekend."

The same deal is existent for the 64GB model, which will actually ship with 29GB of usable space, compared to Microsoft's own 23GB estimate.

Tags: Microsoft tablet surface pro 128gb model free space

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110.2.2013 12:20

neronut

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They should still advertise the space after the OS. Claiming the space is less because of formatting, ie. Using base 10 values and not base 2, is not that big a deal. But when you think you are getting 128 GB and you really only have 89 GB then you are being lied too.

Does anyone not think that that space difference is huge for an OS?

210.2.2013 16:05

bobiroc

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How is this any different than the MacBook Air or other computing products? The Macbook Air only has 99GB free of the 128GB SSD it includes and that does not have a recovery partition. If you use the utility to offload the recovery partition on the Surface Pro it jumps over 97GB free.

If you buy a computer and it says it has a 500GB Hard Drive it is accepted that the 500GB us measured in 1,000,000 bytes equals 1GB which actually brings the total size down and then there is the space used by the OS and preinstalled applications.

So basically they advertise it has a 128GB total capacity just like they have been doing with computing products since like forever. It is understood (or at least should be) the more the OS can do the more room it is going to take. I mean my 32GB iPhone only has barely over 27GB free for use and that is just a phone OS.

310.2.2013 16:14

neronut

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Originally posted by bobiroc:
How is this any different than the MacBook Air or other computing products? The Macbook Air only has 99GB free of the 128GB SSD it includes and that does not have a recovery partition. If you use the utility to offload the recovery partition on the Surface Pro it jumps over 97GB free.

If you buy a computer and it says it has a 500GB Hard Drive it is accepted that the 500GB us measured in 1,000,000 bytes equals 1GB which actually brings the total size down and then there is the space used by the OS and preinstalled applications.

So basically they advertise it has a 128GB total capacity just like they have been doing with computing products since like forever. It is understood (or at least should be) the more the OS can do the more room it is going to take. I mean my 32GB iPhone only has barely over 27GB free for use and that is just a phone OS.

You are correct. I guess it isn't a big deal. Just feels like they use a huge chunk for the OS, and it is supposed to be a mobile device.

410.2.2013 17:20

bobiroc

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Originally posted by neronut:

Originally posted by bobiroc:
How is this any different than the MacBook Air or other computing products? The Macbook Air only has 99GB free of the 128GB SSD it includes and that does not have a recovery partition. If you use the utility to offload the recovery partition on the Surface Pro it jumps over 97GB free.

If you buy a computer and it says it has a 500GB Hard Drive it is accepted that the 500GB us measured in 1,000,000 bytes equals 1GB which actually brings the total size down and then there is the space used by the OS and preinstalled applications.

So basically they advertise it has a 128GB total capacity just like they have been doing with computing products since like forever. It is understood (or at least should be) the more the OS can do the more room it is going to take. I mean my 32GB iPhone only has barely over 27GB free for use and that is just a phone OS.
You are correct. I guess it isn't a big deal. Just feels like they use a huge chunk for the OS, and it is supposed to be a mobile device.

Well it is running full Windows so it is basically like a laptop which is also a mobile device. The problem is SSDs are expensive but are used because they are fast and consume less power. If it was a 500+GB drive like comes in most computers using standard hard drives no one would be bitching.

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Microsoft understated free usable space for Surface Pro

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