Speaking of scams, Microsoft seems to be using an oldie but a goodie, bait, and switch. I followed a sales link to look at the Surface Pro 7 (I had a chance to see one in action a few days ago and learned some things). Advertised at $550 you can get what amounts to a boat anchor worthy device; if you want a usable surface pro you will spend $900 + $150 in insurance (not just extended warranty).
What is the difference? At $550 you get an i3 based tablet (too slow even for word processing or video streaming) add a keyboard at $100 (discounted to $70, less with a coupon) and you are at $620ish. But, the i3 version I used was virtually unusable, so upgrade to the i5 version and choose the version with 256gb ssd (because windows eats up 96gb of the 128gb version) and you find yourself with the $850 version of the surface, add a keyboard and you hit $900 but get free shipping.
Why do I all but insist on the $150 insurance policy? Because the included warranty provides no protection if you drop the unit, spill on it, spit on it, or if the screen fails, and the screens have been routinely failing between the 6 month and 18 month period of ownership. Replace a screen without insurance at $250 + $150 minimum labor and $70 shipping (buy a new unit if you started out with the i3 version). damage a USB port and expect a $375 + $150 minimum labor + $70 shipping repair. Oh, and don’t forget that leaves you without the unit for a minumum of 10 days and the unit you get back will be blank (factory reset).
Other than the above, it looks and feels like a nice, very flexible tool for a variety of uses (windows-based). I have noted that almost all second-time owners sprang for expensive cases to protect these quite fragile devices (well, no more fragile than the ipads they say they are competing with in the recent advertisements).
Historically, I have recommended Surface machines for field devices, backup devices, and for office devices that needed to fill a wide variety of specialized needs. Mostly, these products have been successful in those roles when the appropriate model with appropriate accessories are selected. Because they are low power, battery operated devices and quite small there have been some issues getting them to work reliably with some peripherals (the USB ports do not provide the standard current that a desktop or full laptop does) and there is usually one one port available to attach peripherals to the unit. Using one to drive a projector or large screen requires some careful configuration and often an experienced pc+video technician, suffice to say it is not a non trivial enterprise to setup.