Microsoft’s Surface Pro pricing is a ripoff

Buying a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet without a pen or keyboard is like buying a Mercedes without wheels. The engine runs just fine, and the seats are as luxurious as you could imagine. But wouldn’t you feel cheated if you couldn’t go anywhere?

Most of the 16 iterations of the Surface Pro adopt the same double standard: the Surface Pro is a laptop, except when Microsoft starts talking price. Then, poof! It’s a tablet. Only as you move step by step through the buying process does Microsoft reveal that, yes, the pen and keyboard — and now the charger! — all cost extra. Ridiculous.

Unfortunately, we’ve come to accept this behavior. Microsoft seems to think that after deciding upon a $2,000 Surface laptop, you might shrug your shoulders and accept a few hundred dollars more. Why not? You’re already hooked.

But Microsoft’s new 12-inch, $799 Surface Pro changes things. We’re not talking about a premium device. Instead, Microsoft’s Surface Pro page walks you through the experience: typing, inking, doing everything a clamshell laptop can do — all with the pen and keyboard shown prominently throughout. And if you want a charger? All those extras total over $300, which on a $799 device feels insane, sleazy, and borderline illegal.

Visually, the Surface Pro keyboard and pen are everywhere

On Microsoft’s Surface Pro page, the top illustration shows two Surface Pros, each with a keyboard and pen. Scroll down: Yep, there’s another. Keep going and you’ll see more photos of Microsoft’s Surface Pro with a keyboard and/or a pen than as a stand-alone tablet.

At no time do I see any indication that the keyboard or pen are optional. The language implies that they’re all part of the same holistic solution.

Foundry

“Reimagined with a smooth-matte palm rest, sturdy wedge design, and dynamic hinge, Surface Pro is great for typing anywhere, even on your lap,” Microsoft says.

Underneath a description of the “incredible typing experience,” Microsoft says: “Work anywhere with better typing and 360° rotation. The new 12-inch Surface Pro is durable, easy to clean, and ideal for travel or the coffee shop.”

Sounds great. How much is it? “Starting from $799.99,” Microsoft says.

Foundry

Buying a Surface Pro means selecting a size, configuration, and color. It’s here that you first learn that no, no charger is included. That’s $70 extra. (Microsoft’s lawyers may hold up their hands and say that the first photo you see on the 12-inch Surface Pro page is of just the tablet itself. But at the bottom of the column of images is, yes, a Surface Pro with a keyboard and pen attached.)

On the second page? Time to buy a Microsoft 365 subscription. Only on the third page do you learn that a keyboard is $150, and a keyboard and pen bundled together is $250. Then it’s time to check out, feeling at least a little irritated that Microsoft didn’t tell you about all of this at the beginning.

Foundry

Does this feel fair to you?

It just feels like Microsoft is trying to have it both ways. Every laptop ships with an integrated keyboard. Microsoft’s Surface Pro is advertised on Microsoft’s page as having “tablet-to-laptop flexibility,” whatever that means. Visually, Microsoft is telling you: Yes, you’ll want a keyboard and pen.

Then there’s the name. Should Microsoft refer to these as “Pro” tablets, without the accessories that professionals use? I don’t think so. Calling just the tablet a “Surface,” with an upgrade to a “Surface Pro” that adds a pen and keyboard, feels closer to what the reality should be.

Even the Trump Administration — which most Americans would consider “business friendly” — has actually implemented a new FTC rule prohibiting bait-and-switch pricing. That’s predicated upon an executive order, signed by Trump himself.

Mattias Inghe

As the FTC puts it: “[the order] requires that businesses that advertise prices tell consumers the whole truth up-front about total prices and fees.”

A supplementary page describes how the order protects general “business-to-business transactions” beyond just tickets and short-term lodging. To me, tacking on additional charges for a pen and keyboard feels like a hotel’s $100 daily “resort fee,” or the discovery that you’ll have to pay extra for an airline meal or to pick your seat. Nothing about any of this feels “up front.”

The point isn’t that Microsoft is actually violating FTC regulations. But the company is certainly pushing up against the bounds of good behavior.

Just not acceptable in a low- to mid-range device

To be fair, other Windows tablets don’t consistently include their accessories, either. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 bundles the keyboard and pen. Dell’s Latitude 7350 Detachable does not. The Asus ProArt PZ13 includes a a keyboard, but no pen. Heck, many all-in-one desktops toss in a mouse and keyboard.

But give Dell credit: its Latitude 7350 Detachable product page doesn’t even show a keyboard, which it calls “optional.” That feels more like an honest sale.

Microsoft’s stance feels especially pernicious because there are already extra back-end tariff fees tacked on to the purchase price — or not, depending upon the whims of the President. You still really don’t know under what tariff regulation anything you buy will fall under, which already makes consumers cautious. That’s what makes a $799 Surface Pro appealing. Finally, a reasonable price tag!

Only it’s not. When you add up all of the additional “options” — a $69.99 charger, plus $250 for a bundled keyboard and pen — that’s an additional $319.99 surcharge, or 40 percent of the purchase price right there. And that’s even without the $129.99 per year that Microsoft charges for a Microsoft 365 Family subscription.

That’s outrageous, unfair, and maybe illegal. This isn’t nickel-and-diming you. That’s a big fat pile of money that could be put toward other things.

You would think that Microsoft would at least explain its actions. So far, my questions have been ignored. I don’t think they should be ignored. I think Microsoft’s Surface Pro pricing strategy should be explained, reconsidered, and ultimately changed.