Why there's no 16GB Surface RT

November 06, 2012

Microsoft has confirmed what many had suspected, that it didn’t offer a 16GB Surface RT tablet because there would have been virtually no room for customer content on the device. According to a FAQ published Monday, a 32GB Surface has approximately 16GB of storage space available after accounting for the Windows RT operating device, numerous built-in “Windows Store” (formerly “Metro”) apps, OS recovery tools, and the bundled Office RT. The operating system, apps and Office RT consume 8GB, while the Windows recovery tools occupy another 5GB. In other words, about 45 percent of the storage in an entry-level Surface RT has already been spoken for before the tablet is unboxed. (The numbers don’t add up to 32 because while drive space is almost always expressed in “digital” gigabytes calculated as 109, or 1,000,000,000 bytes, most operating systems, including Windows, calculate “binary” gigabytes as 10243, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. A “digital” gigabyte then, is only 93 percent of a “binary” gigabyte. That’s how the advertised 32GB in the Surface ends up being seen by Windows as 29.8GB.) To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9233298/Why_there_s_no_16GB_Surface_RT