Microsoft Surface

[Jr Mouse]

Verge has a hands on with the Surface Pro. http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/9/3857076/microsoft-surface-pro-in-depth-impressions

 

[Jr Mouse]

Ahem... The Verge just posted their Surface Pro review and it all but echos my thoughts from months ago:

You don't think the price is also a downside? That's rather expensive for a "tablet" in this competitive market. Remember that's what MS is going to market this device as, so it's going to be cross shopped by consumers as such.

EDIT: Plus it's way too heavy to be used comfortably as a tablet, so why even bother designing it to be used as one? Just make it a thin and light laptop with a touchscreen and market it as such.

I'm just not sure I believe the Surface Pro going to make the type of inroads with consumers that MS desires. Too heavy and expensive for a tablet with ****** battery-life compared to the competition and not a strong enough product as a laptop.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/5/3955130/microsoft-surface-pro-review

Regarding the devices use as either a "tablet" or "laptop."

It may all look more or less the same as the RT before it, but the Surface Pro feels different. Very different. It's heavy and big — more than a half-pound heavier than the Surface RT (just over two pounds to the RT's 1.5) and almost 50 percent thicker (.53 inches vs. .37). You really notice the difference in both cases, too. Couple that with its 10.81-inch width, and calling this device a tablet borders on the ridiculous. It's absolutely unusable in one hand, tiresome to hold while standing, and big enough that you'll notice it in your bag. Of course, that's only when compared to a tablet — a two-pound laptop is pretty fantastic, and that may be a more fair comparison anyway.

Actually, that's what frustrates me about the Surface Pro. It's definitely not a tablet, but it's also not a "laptop," strictly speaking — I never figured out how to actually use the thing on my lap, with a keyboard attached and the kickstand out. I like kickstands on tablets, and this one is plenty sturdy and clicks in and out with a satisfying firmness. It only goes out at one angle, though, which is too upright unless you're sitting at a desk with the Surface directly in front of you. But the real dealbreaker for me was that it's just unusable in my most common position — sitting on my couch, feet on the coffee table, with the computer on my lap. I'd spend forever getting the device balanced, only to have it tip over as soon as I touched the screen or tapped on the Type Cover. I don't know if a more flexible kickstand would solve the problem or not, but as it is you're pretty limited in the ways you can use the Surface Pro.

Battery life.

I'm happy to make sacrifices for the extra power of the Surface Pro, and neither heat nor noise nor girth annoyed me enough to ever make me wish for the Surface RT. But every four hours, when the Surface Pro's battery died, I longed for a Tegra 3-powered device. The Pro lasted 3 hours, 59 minutes on the Verge Battery Test, which cycles through a series of websites and high-res images with screen brightness set to 65 percent. That's about an hour below what I'd consider acceptable battery life for an ultrabook, and it's less than half of what I'd expect from a tablet — the Surface RT easily lasts a full day of regular use, for instance, and the iPad chugged along for more than nine hours in our strenuous test. Not being able to use my "tablet" for an entire cross-country flight is a tough pill to swallow.

It's simply a case of a product trying to be too many things at once and not excelling at any. Honestly this was obvious from a quick look at the spec sheet and product design.

 

[swirlyclouds]

$900 and 4 hour battery life..No thanks!

 

[Douglas]

I bought a Lenovo Yoga and I am pretty happy with it. It is a very good laptop, albeit with a few drawbacks. I like that it can function as a tablet when needed, though admittedly I don't use it that way often. It's not an iPad for sure. But it can be useful as a slate. The best part about it is using it in "stand" mode; I use it as a second monitor when I am using it as a desktop.

 

[javyn]

Hopefully MSFT will get this right w/ the second gen.

 

[chobochobo]

I have an Acer Iconia W700 which is pretty good except that it doesn't have the digitizer/ pen set up so I'm tempted by either the Surface Pro or the Samsung 700 Smartpc, maybe even the Lenovo Tablet 2 though it's a bit low power.

 

[Harold falcon]

Had a hands on with a windows 8 laptop today. It is comically unusable. The ui was designed by a marsupialed child. I'm seriously considering going with apple.

 

[MikeDT]



Had a hands on with a windows 8 laptop today. It is comically unusable. The ui was designed by a marsupialed child. I'm seriously considering going with apple.

Windows 8 could end Microsoft. or at least make them a minority player. It made me install and use Linux. Previously Windows Vista did make me buy an Apple computer. I was happy with Windows XP and Windows 7, they were good IMO.

 

[chobochobo]

lol, for someone who switched from Windows to Apple about 8 years ago, I think Windows 8 isn't so bad. If you're used to android or ios then metro isn't as tablet-y as expected. my Acer is a decent machine for the price though I would like a pen. That would make my long quest for a note taker almost complete, I had a ThinkPad x61 which was actually almost there but just a bit too heavy and a bit too show.

 

[rnoldh]



Windows 8 could end Microsoft. or at least make them a minority player. It made me install and use Linux. Previously Windows Vista did make me buy an Apple computer. I was happy with Windows XP and Windows 7, they were good IMO.

So you are one of the very few people that switched from Windows to Apple, and then switched back?

Are you going to get an Apple OS10 machine now or keep your Windows 7 machine?

 

[MikeDT]



So you are one of the very few people that switched from Windows to Apple, and then switched back?

Basically yes. In 2007 I bought a MacBook Pro in the UK, because I wasn't very impressed with Vista. The MBP died two years ago, logic board failure. Decided that a new Apple laptop was just too expensive(I'm in China) for my current requirements. So I bought a Windows 7 laptop in HK. A few months ago I bought another laptop locally, came with pirated Windows 7 Ultimate. Found I couldn't actually buy Genuine Windows 7 or 8 here, not without buying a new PC. I've already posted about that in this thread.

Are you going to get an Apple OS10 machine now or keep your Windows 7 machine?

I'm keeping the Win 7 PC I bought in HK, and I've installed Linux Mint on the machine that came with pirated Windows. I'm not planning on buying an Apple computer at the moment. I did try Windows 8, but just didn't use the new UI at all, kept it in classic mode.

 

[Harold falcon]

Windows 7 is great. But I can't abide playing with ******* Lincoln logs on my computer screen like I'm some kind of marsupial 8 year old.

 

[chobochobo]

My Surface Pro 128G with Type cover arrived and I'm typing this up using it. A nice little machine - compared to the Acer Iconia W700, there's a loss of screen real estate but it seems a bit nippier - the Acer was renown for the throttling. The pen input should be the most useful difference. I look forward to trying to make this 'work' tablet 'work'.

 

[javyn]



Windows 8 could end Microsoft. or at least make them a minority player. It made me install and use Linux. Previously Windows Vista did make me buy an Apple computer. I was happy with Windows XP and Windows 7, they were good IMO.

What Distro?

 

[Jr Mouse]

It's funny how every new version of Windows leads to claims that the masses are going to switch to Linux. Never happened and never will.