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I'm happier to see Microsoft emulate Apple by introducing overpriced hardware than I am seeing Apple emulating Microsoft with an increasingly confusing product assortment and a bloated operating systems.
I’m struggling to understand why it’s called “with Pen” if it doesn’t include a Pen with it?
The article is wrong. It's $450 total for the keyboard and the pen. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-pro-flex-keyboard-...

It costs a bit less than buying Apple's $350 Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro 13 along with a $130 Pencil Pro. https://www.apple.com/shop/ipad/accessories

Both of these are way too expensive.

At least according to the page you linked, the Pen has a caveat of “Sold Separately” so I’m inclined to think the article is correct or the Microsoft page needs better copy?

Perhaps they mean “also available separately”.

For example go to the Tech Specs tab and the pen has footnote 3: “Sold separately”

MS was too lazy to change the tech specs for the page with pen.

It's identical to the one without pen.

Ah good to know. I guess I can’t fault the article for misinformation if Microsoft themselves can’t get it right.
I'm fairly sure it's a copy issue. Regardless, Microsoft's entire marketing site for this product needs a redo. It's poorly organized and designed.
Yeah the site feels like an e-shop from a decade ago. Every section scrolls in a different direction, with multiple different ways of representing the same information.
I disagree on the Magic Keyboard being too expensive. Many of the cheaper keyboards you can get for the iPad are too heavy, have keys that are too sticky, or both. The new Magic Keyboard is very light, very well constructed and has a keyboard that resembles typing on a Mac, which is no small feat IMO.
The Surface Pro flex keyboard weighs 340 g including pen. The Magic Keyboard for iPad 13 M4 weights over 670 g. That's quite heavy. Nearly double without added weight from the Pencil Pro.
I can't justify this as personal expense, but business users who are stuck with windows are going to like this. When paying with corporate expense as i have seen, buyers want the best money can buy.
What businesses do you work for? The only place I worked where we had the best of everything was a hedge fund, and they just had unlimited money.

Everywhere else, it's crappy small monitors, random keyboards and mice and underpowered machines....

Mostly Tech companies.
The price of the keyboard doesn't matter so much - I'm typing on a keyboard from Apple that cost almost $200, and many keyboard nerds have spent way more than that. I have a $3800 laptop that honestly isn't much faster (for my needs) than the $1300 refurb M1 Pro I was using before. I don't have one, and would never buy it, but Apple has a $6000 32 inch monitor.

What's important is whether it provides value (functionality, productivity, health benefits via ergonomics, etc). I have no idea if it does, but that's what I'd base the price assessment on.

The thing Microsoft haven't grasped yet is that no matter how good their hardware gets it's still Microsoft and Microsoft hasn't been cool for 40 years. Apple can pull off that price because rightly or wrongly they're seen as status symbols to a degree. If I was running Microsoft's hardware division I'd be fighting hard to get an entirely new brand and no Windows logos on anything.
I'd hate for the author of this article to run into mechanical keyboard folks.
FWIW I'm typing on a custom-built mechanical keyboard from Taiwan that costs less than half as much as Microsoft's keeb: https://tex.com.tw/products/shinobi
oh, shit. I don't need another keyboard but I do need that. it's like the ThinkPad of my dreams just stepped out of 2003.
It's glorious. I got mine with Cherry MX Reds and it's a wonderful typing experience. They're so cheap that I'm tempted to buy a second one as my backup trackpoint.
Same reaction here. Luckily the US variant (Kodachi) is out of stock, so the impulse buy was squashed. Did sign up for notification of it coming back in stock...
Kodachi is a different keyboard, a limited run prototype. Shinobi is the mass produced version and is in stock at mechanicalkeyboards.com and some other sites.

I don't think kodachi will ever be back in stock.

That’s like saying an off the self suit should be €2000 because tailor made suits exist.
No. That's just saying that a $400+ keyboard isn't insane and has existed for a while and Microsoft hasn't "lost its mind"
The only mechanical keyboard I use is the Keychron C3 Pro ( https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-c3-pro-qmk-via-wi... ), specifically because it's a mechanical keyboard running QMK that I got for $30 on Amazon. Everything else still strikes me as insane.
Not to mention mechanical watch folks.
Suddenly I have an idea.
pens too
I was hoping the title was clickbait and it included an ai accelerator or something.

hope was the first step on the road to disappointment.

Apparently they want to compete with Apple on hardware prices as well.
At the moment, MS is only thinking about pushing AI into everything.
Techies still use Windows in 2024?

Stockolm syndrome is so widespread sadly.

JFC I'm ready for "AI" to end. Can we please go back to blockchain or NFT hype? At least that didn't degrade my search results, make everything fucking useless, invade my privacy, and jack up prices on everything.
AI won't end. We will just stop talking about it because it will just be so common.
I mean, I feel I have to point out that people were saying that about Our Lord and Saviour the Blockchain for about a decade, too…
aghhh......
I mean it would be harder to knock them if Apple hadn't breached the discussion by charging $350 for their ergo-lift iPad case (or whatever the hell it's called).

I'm not fond of the Surface tablets (or even the keyboards really) but I have no idea what kind of person would balk at this price tag at this point. Nobody knows what anything is worth anymore, of course Microsoft can get away selling a Alcantara accessory for $500. Who among you is willing to bitch about a Microsoft product from your ivory tower of paying a monthly subscription for a git GUI?

Or $700 for wheels for the Mac Pro. I just bought wheels for my car for less than that.
Holy Moley I thought this was a joke. What the actual hell apple, are we going to mars on those wheels?
I don't understand people paying this much for what will 80% of the time be an internet browsing/document editing machine.

I have been driving $700 clevos, running Linux and they are blazing fast with nvme storage. And I can use it to code in Go, Elixir, zero problems.

Tax write off, showing off purchasing power.

The only people I’ve ever seen buy that kind of crap for personal stuff are showing off their purchasing power.

I used to be like that when I first got my taste of money. Then I realized I’m a moron.

Just my 2 cents.

I think there's also a bunch of people where it's not exactly showing off, it's just they have so much disposable income they don't care if it's worth it or not, it's the official thing and they don't want to do any research so they just buy it
Or with the $999 monitor stand