Last month, we were given our first glimpse of Chuwi’s SurBook, a low-cost alternative to Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4. Now, Chuwi has opened pre-orders on the system — and the company is utilizing an unusual launch strategy to gauge public interest in the hardware.
Chuwi is running an IndieGogo campaign that will process pre-orders for the first wave of SurBook systems, according to a report from Liliputing. The company is well-established in China, but much less so in the United States, so this strategy allows it to offer its product directly to consumers without relying on relationships with retailers.
The deal works out pretty well for anyone who is interested in purchasing the device, too. Like many crowdfunding campaigns, there are early bird discounts to be had, with backers receiving deep discounts on the hardware if they’re among the first to confirm their pre-order.
The cheapest model available offers 64GB of storage, and will cost the first 200 backers $299 — later, the price will go up to $369. There’s also the option to get the same system bundled with a keyboard and a stylus, which costs $349 at the early bird rate, and $473 thereafter.
Chuwi is also offering a 128GB model that comes with the keyboard and stylus accessories, which costs $399 while the early bird allocation is still available, after which point the price will rise to $498.
The SurBook boasts a 12.3-inch screen with a 2,736 x 1,824 resolution, 6GB of RAM, and USB Type-C and USB 3.0 Type-A ports for easy connectivity. However, with a weight of 967 grams and a thickness of less than 10 millimeters, its greatest strength is its portability, given that it’s a very affordable system.
The crowdfunding campaign will run for a month, but Chuwi has already met its low funding goal of $30,000, so all orders made from here on out are guaranteed to be fulfilled.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.