Surface RT..I think I finally get it

[Spud1]

It's been a month of "swallow my pride" for me really. I started off by deciding to plump for a Nexus 5 as my next phone (after years of anti-android rhetoric ), and this weekend I picked up a Surface RT now that its finally close to a reasonable price (£300 with the touch cover).

tl;dr? 8.1 makes surface viable as a tablet, but things like lack of full IPSec VPN support screw it up for Microsoft. So close - and worth a £300 buy - but not perfect.

I think I finally get the point of it. In the past I have always considered RT to be a bit of a waste of space..a product that didn't really fit to any category. The store was devoid of useful/fun apps to pass the time with (something Apple/Google have in droves), office was very half hearted and missed it's killer app (outlook), cloud integration was very poor, Metro ("Modern UI") was ugly and a real PITA to work with, and Bing! appeared threaded through the whole OS. Oh and did I mention the lack of apps?

Now 12 months on, I have purchased my own and I can really start to see it fitting in to my life as a full on laptop replacement. I have set myself a challenge of not using my Mac Air for a whole month, and if I can do it...I will sell it and stick with Surface RT. Sounds weird for me to type. So whats changed and why do I think it's now a sensible proposition?

Firstly the price has plummeted. I still don't believe RT is worth the £580 that they were originally asking for it (£499+the cover), but at £300? It's close to impulse buy territory, and finally competitive against the others out there. The Surface 2 is still overpriced but not as much, and imo doesn't offer any significant advantages. Anyway digressing...the price drop is huge and makes it a serious contender.

Office support - finally Microsoft have released outlook, and it's good, *really* good. I've actually used my RT at work for most of the morning rather than my proper work laptop, as like most Monday mornings I am just doing email...syncs up perfectly with Exchange (using the web proxy due to poor VPN support..but we'll get to that). Excel/Word are just the same as their x86 counterparts - it all just works. Don't know how else to put it really other than its really nice and actually useful Just a shame we're having to fork out extra for a commercial licence..but thats not a direct cost to me..

Cloud Integration - Skydrive has had an overhaul and is now integrated into RT. Makes such a difference..i've setup some plugins on my main laptop to auto-sync some folders, and just open them direct from skydrive on the RT. Dare I say it this seems to work even better than iCloud or dropbox, especially given the deep integration in to office. This makes it usable as a device to just pick up and carry to a meeting room - all your files are still available.

App support/ModernUI - still appauling - yes there may be a lot there, but still only 125k or so, and finding apps to "waste time" with (candy crush/deer hunter/pool sharks etc) is still really tough - I don't like the way Windows Store works, its just not as intutitive as the App Store. Metro still sucks although i've learnt to live with it on Windows 8, so its not a big jump to get to RT. It does flow well enougn, I just hate the kiddie/unfinished looks and the general layouts/tile concept. Thats probably a personal thing though.

That sounds like a criticism - and it is - but it also shows up a key mindset requirement: The lack of apps doesn't matter. It really doesn't - I am using this RT for work/productivity and as a laptop replacement..that means Email, Word/Excel, web browsing, RDP and Video. I don't need/want it for games/apps to waste time - I have my iPad mini for that.

We'll see how I get on with it - I still don't think there is really a place for the surface RT as someone's only device..the lack of apps is just too much of an issue in that situation - but for those of us who want a more productivity focussed pure companion device? £300 isn't a lot to ask.

My biggest problem with it so far though? Microsoft have *still* neglected to include proper VPN support (something that Apple/Google have had for a long time). Windows 8.1 was supposed to give us IPsec support and it sort of does - but they "forgot" to include support for group based authentication..which is the default and most widely used configuration for Cisco IPsec. This currently makes my RT useless for connecting to any servers at my work (oh and due to sanboxing, you cannot and will never be able to get a 3rd party client, or enable SSH tunneling). I am lucky we recently upgraded to exchange 2010 so I can use outlook anywhere to get around that for email, but currently my only option is to wait for the new "Desktop Jailbreak" to appear for 8.1 so I can setup putty and tunneling..imo this is a huge mistake from Microsoft - the RT has so much more potential as a business device now that 8.1 has solved many imperfections..if they had proper VPN support (ok, and MS project..but you can't have it all) then I'd have no problem recommending one to any IT professional.

[cptwhite_uk]

Nicely put spud, maybe it's Animus constantly banging on about this, and the fact I'm looking for a production centric tablet hybrid, but I've drawn pretty much the same conclusion as yourself with regards to Windows RT, the price point and pre-loaded office software, especially with Surface 2, make it a very viable option for an ultra portable near laptop like experience.

Unfortunately with the range of full windows convertibles on the horizon - Dell Venue 8 Pro / 11 Pro, Lenovo Miix 2, Asus T100 / T300 / Trio, Acer Iconia W4-820 and presumably others too, this could herald the end of the niche market for cheap Windows RT devices, as these are coming in at a starting price of $300 with full windows and all that brings. Also from a personal perspective, I want a stiff hinge - I want to be able to angle the screen and use this on my lap like a traditional laptop, and a number of these devices will offer this.

[Spud1]

It's a good point - note that I considered the extra £100 for a surface 2 but decided it wasn't worth it...spec wise it's not a big jump up (and my surface has coped with Outlook, Excel and word running all day, without slowdown) but the big selling point for me is the improved hinge. Surface 1's hinge is at the wrong angle imo, and 2 positions would help...but that said, I found that simply adjusting how I used it on my lap solved it for me. I have the hinge sat over my knees (with my feet up) and that angles it perfectly

You are right about the other, cheap devices too - but I guess that's where Surface wins out - the hardware itself does really feel like a £500 machine, even if the overall package isn't worth that much (if that makes sense?).

I suppose that on top of all I wrote above - I can see this as being the future of windows devices..even if Microsoft are on a mission to get rid of the desktop! An RT type device (fanless, relatively light, good battery life) running on an x86 architecture..we are not far away now.

Of course all my goodwill could change as I am still in the honeymoon period - the next month will reveal how I *really* feel about this device.

[cptwhite_uk]

Be sure to post an update. Out of curiosity where did you get this for £300 with the touch cover, it's still coming to £350ish on the official surface page.

[Spud1]

PC world - its £319 online but stock is almost as rare as their XX.97p items now..I took advantage of an online discount and got the store to match the web price (with a discount code) to get it for just under £300

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptop...89378-pdt.html

Just be aware that their reserve and collect system lets you reserve display models, so I had to chase round a few stores to get one with actual new stock (and then got lucky the manager accepted the price match to their own website - many won't when codes are used).

[DanceswithUnix]

Interesting write up, thanks for that. I have a small Windows PC sat alongside my Linux PC at work just for email & office tasks. It drives a third monitor so I don't lose a monitor for email, but it seems stupidly wasteful.

Looks like there is a Nokia version coming out too.

http://www.dailytech.com/Senior+Qual...ticle33632.htm

[Spud1]

OK so as promised - an update on this.

Ive managed to keep away from the mac air and stick to the surface - and its not been a chore

Major plus points from day to day usage:
Split screen - I use this so much its crazy..Skype running in 1/5 size with ie on the other side, or in the news app and then clicking on a link splits the screen to keep the story and the web page on screen..honestly this is the best multi tasking implementation I have ever seen on a tablet. Samsungs attempt is clunky in comparison.

Touch Cover - I have learnt to type on this now (this post is written on it )with a good level of accuracy and decent speed...still constantly hit S instead of A but other than that I have adapted quite well and can touch type with it. I will still invest in a type cover 2 soon I think, but even so the touch cover is a great addon that keeps it lightweight and protected.

Office - Works brilliantly and I use this daily. This tablet has replaced my laptop at work for all meetings - much easier to carry this around and outlook is great on the tablet. Love It for that alone.

full website compatibility - IE11 issues aside (SO many websites don't like it, on my desktop version of 8.1 too) having a fully compliant browser that's usually detected as so is a huge boost over an ipad. www.king.com and its games work, facebook games work, most poker sites seem to work..its great.

DLNA streaming - this is awesome. Airplay without any special boxes..my Samsung plasma has DLNA built in, and I can simply browse to a video or music (on my network, or on a USB hard drive), right click, "play to PD51D8000" and the video plays. Love this feature

All isn't perfect though....

Standby Times - Awful. It lasted 2 days on standby not used..compared to my ipad which does a month. I am led to believe it may be a firmware bug though.

Speed - Its lightning fast with 1 or 2 apps - but its far too easy to forget this is a tablet and to open up Outlook/word/excel and leave them running. doing so can make this tablet crawl along...its not unexpected for a tablet - and at least you can open up more than 1 app at once..but you do have to take care.

Video Codec support - unusually terrible for Microsoft. Supports a very small number of codecs, so often videos just don't play. I will fix this when someone jailbreaks 8.1

Charge Connector - I think an intern designed this connector, in a word, its "crap". Looks like a mag safe but its really tricky to locate/plug in, and comes away with the tiniest amount of force. Considering how awesome the rest of the hardware is, this is a bit of an oddity.

Lack of VPN support - mentioned it before but this is still the number one problem with surface rt. I'm still pissed at Microsoft for falsely advertising their IPSEC support.

So in general I really like it and it can definitely replace my laptop for my day to day usage. May see my mac air on classifieds before long....There are a few issues but most can be solved by a jailbreak - there are so many x86 apps recompiled for ARM (including Putty and a few VPN clients) which would transform this tablet. I know the team are close and Microsoft didn't close the exploits in 8.1 (just made it bit harder to trigger reliably). fingers crossed!

[Number29]

Does IE on the Surface RT allow you to sort bookmarks into folders? This is one of the biggest pains I've found with Windows Phone.

[The Hand]

Interesting write up, thanks for that. I have a small Windows PC sat alongside my Linux PC at work just for email & office tasks. It drives a third monitor so I don't lose a monitor for email, but it seems stupidly wasteful.

Looks like there is a Nokia version coming out too.

http://www.dailytech.com/Senior+Qual...ticle33632.htm

I'm waiting to see how they compare, I think If push came to shove I would probably go for the Nokia judging by the suggestion it might out class the Surface 2.

[mikerr]

ARM based devices are destined to be everywhere and ARM based windows (which is what windowsRT) may well end up being the future over and above x86 windows.

Just wish microsoft would open up development for the full Desktop GUI, not restricting it just to the Metro/modern Apps (embrace the jailbreak)

[brs]

Have to agree with so many above-I would prefer full cream Windows 8 and I am waiting for the new crop of tablets to hit the market. I like being able to add any program I use on my PC to my tablet.

[Macintosh600]

Have Microsoft completely abandoned the Windows RT OS?

[cptwhite_uk]

Thread necro, but I believe so.

[scaryjim]

It's not so much that Win RT has been abandoned as that it's been merged into the mobile version of Windows 10, but really that was inevitable once Intel got Bay Trail out - it was the first decently performing chip that could fit into a tablet, and it means that the 7" - 10" tablet space where you used to have to choose between ARM or no battery life can now be served by competent x86 chips.

Win RT was a stop-gap intended to serve the tablet space when neither full Windows not Windows Phone were really suitable. Now you can get full x86 Windows down to 7" tablets it's not really required.

I would be interested to see if anyone tries pushing out ARM-based Windows tablets using the smartphone build of Windows 10 though. Not really sure how well it would scale up, but given that phones have pushed up towards 6" screen size the lines between phone and tablet are very blurry....