Microsoft has increased the price of its Surface Book laptops in the United Kingdom, following the impact of the country's decision to leave the European Union on the pound sterling (via TechCrunch).
Previously, the company had limited its cost adjustments to enterprise products, but the significant drop in the strength of the pound since the E.U. referendum last June has now seen Microsoft follow Apple's lead and hike the prices of its consumer laptops.
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The price rises mean the base model of the Surface Book in the U.K. now costs £150 more at £1,449 ($1,800), putting it at the same price as the base model of a 13-inch MacBook Pro sans Touch Bar.
The price changes, which came into effect today, only affect products and services purchased by individuals, or organizations without volume licensing contracts.
"In response to a recent review we are adjusting the British pound prices of some of our hardware and consumer software in order to align to market dynamics," said a Microsoft spokeswoman.
Back in October, Apple raised sterling prices for its entire Mac line-up by around 25 percent. The cost of a 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro went from £999 to £1,249 overnight, despite being superseded by a brand new model starting at £1,449. Similar price increases were seen across aging Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro lines, while just last month, Apple also increased the price of iOS apps by the same percentage.
Microsoft has repeatedly positioned the Surface Book as an alternative laptop for newcomers and unsatisfied MacBook owners, with time-limited "trade-up" offers for disillusioned Mac owners and TV ads describing capabilities of the Surface Book as things a Mac "just can't do".
Top Rated Comments
The pain is only beginning.
2) US pricing, not UK.
3) Thick, bulky, and terrible battery life. There's more to a laptop specification than just CPU/RAM/SSD.
Ah, all this I knew. You sold me "boom". These are revisions upward.
Since the vote the pound has nose dived, simple facts. I and others have posted the graphs. Yet you're talking about January. January is a step up, Brexit caused a fall down a whole flight of stairs.
I imagine if you had a US company that dealt in the UK you would've just absorbed the 15-25% increased cost of dealing in sterling. :rolleyes:
1 dollar plus tax, which varies depending on state. Whereas the pound figure includes VAT of 20%.
These are basic mistakes that lots of people make when comparing UK to US prices.
Not happened? Weekly shops more expensive, imported goods more expensive, Unleaded price per litre Jan 2016 = 102.3p, Jan 2017 = 115.0p, interest rates cut to all time lows (which makes savings accounts even more useless). It goes on and on.
The doom and gloom has already set in for me. And like I said earlier there's very little I can see changing that. But I hope things do improve.
Oh an we're still in the EU at the moment.
The Dell needs the 16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz, M.2 256GB PCIe NVMe and 14.0" QHD (2560x1440) options to be similar, bringing it to $2249. It has a slightly better CPU and its display does Touch, but it's also 25% thicker, 20% bulkier, slightly heavier, and has worse battery life. There's also no Thunderbolt or even USB 3.1; OTOH, it has HDMI, Ethernet and SD.
So, it's quite comparable. Not sure where you're getting "$1000 less" from, and surely we're not seriously comparing refurb products with new ones?