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About LinkBacksRead more.Not the warmest of receptions for the tablet / laptop hybrid soon to be launched.
Read more.Not the warmest of receptions for the tablet / laptop hybrid soon to be launched.
Time will tell
Should've made something with a built in sliding keyboard (see the ASUS Slider for the epitome of good keyboard-tablet deisgn, IMNSHO). If it's meant to be a "Pro" device I can't see many users not wanting a keyboard, and having to shell out an extra $120 for an essential is just ridiculous.
I'm also of the opinion that a 4:3 device would've looked better, but that's a personal preference as much as anything. If someone brought out a decent 4:3, 10" tablet with sliding keyboard they could have my money
I love the concept, not impressed by the execution.
Looking forward to see what other manufacturers do in this segment. I think I will eventually end of with a Windows 8 Pro convertible tablet of one kind or another. I need to be able to do proper Office work on it when I'm away from home so am reluctant to go with an Android tablet as a replacement for my netbook.
Also I'd be replacing a netbook, I don't really need a huge amount of power. I'm pretty sure an Atom would do rather than a Core processor, especially with enough RAM and a SSD rather than a clunky old hard drive.
I wanted one when I first saw it, I think they are great bits of tech and definitely the kind of thing I want. I found 10" ARM tablets to be a useless halfway house - not more portable than a laptop (still requires a bag) and not useful enough over a smartphone to be worth carrying. I tried one and ended up selling it but I do use my Windows laptop a lot so I reckon a Surface Pro type device is perfect.
The Surface Pro is powerful enough to replace my laptop (a 12" Dell), is lighter to carry than an Ultrabook and has the tablet mode and a stylus (love those things) which is quite good for cramped commuter trains and idling on the sofa. The battery life isn't a real issue for me, I'm rarely going to use it more than 4 hours in a day, and if I am away from home that long I have a big enough bag for the power supply and I'm almost never 4 hours between access to sockets.
What's killed it for me at the moment is a few things, firstly the cost of the type keyboard - it's a bloomin keyboard FFS, no battery, no frills... a normal keyboard, price takes the piss. Other manufacturers keyboards is a dock which adds ports and an extended battery for similar money!
No 3G option... can workaround that but it's a nice to have, the sticks are so bulky sticking out the side and prone to being knocked/bent - I can imagine it's worse in a tablet so I'd have to get a MiFi or something or destroy my phone battery making a hotspot, neither is as quick or convenient.
Worst of all though all the reviews say it's nigh-on useless on the lap, especially in cramped conditions... meaning I'm going to struggle to work on the train or out and about unless I get a table-like thing - which is hard-to-impossible sometimes.
I've looked at the Samsung ones, Asus Taichi, etc but all seem either heavy, bulkier or just broken in some way or another. I want a Surface size device, with an Asus Transformer type keyboard dock thats *just* heavy enough to stop it falling backwards - careful battery positioning and weight distribution should sort that out.
Last edited by kingpotnoodle; 07-02-2013 at 06:05 PM.
Ulti (07-02-2013)
I was really looking forward to the surface pro, until I discovered it lacks a track pad. I'm also put off by the stand thing which means (as far as I can tell) that it wouldn't work as a LAPtop. I do like the detachable keyboard though, we already have an old style laptop / tablet where you turn the screen round and lay it over the keyboard. Its good, but is rather heavy as a tablet and I think shedding the keyboard is a good way to reduce the weight.
Don't care, hurry up and release it, Civ V on the toilet.
DeludedGuy (07-02-2013)
Is the rectangular region on the keyboard not a track pad?Originally Posted by pipTheGeek
Completely agree with kingpotnoodle; I too wanted one when it was first released. I wasn't too keen of the tablet idea at first as it wouldn't be able to run as many programs as a laptop due to most of them using either Android or using Atom chips but the Surface Pro completely changed that thought as it had a low powered i5 in it.
For me, a phone is enough for most of my portable, simple email checking or portable internet browsing needs when I'm out and about so a tablet is a bit overkill for me. When I want to use Office or something, then I would need a laptop with a keyboard but unfortunately, most were quite heavy. Ultrabooks were pretty good, but they were mainly "work" only devices IMO as you couldn't just simply remove the keyboard and use it as a tablet. When I saw the Surface Pro, it instantly hit me as a tablet and laptop fusion with the best from both worlds. However, after owning a Samsung 700T for a while as a stop gap until the Surface Pro came out, I realised the stand isn't the best as it's impossible to use on my lap (it has a similar stand) and I practically have to look for a desk. As I'm a student, this is currently not a problem at all as I can find a table anywhere in uni, but when on the tube or train, and also in the future, I would love to be able to have it on my lap without any problems.
surface needed to explode onto the market, but it hasn't. I dont even think its as much the hardware as it is W8, i think its proved that the world of desktop computing and tablet computing are two distinct worlds with different demands and different expectations. Sure they is some overlap but i just think MS have melted the two together too much.
Better look net time MS.
both types of keyboard have a track pad...
Hence Kabini + sliding keyboardOnly unknown there is how good a sliding keyboard would be for actual laptop use.
Multiple "worlds" but wouldn't it be great if it was the same device and the same OS just with different modes and UI skins - much less hassle than having to change device and OS when you stand up or move about, why do you think laptops caught on?! It's just that the tri-mode tablet/laptop/desktop hardware and software is now in it's early stages and not yet perfect, I personally think Windows 8 is a reasonable first try at being the OS of everything, it's a pretty big mountain to climb after all. Underneath Microsoft are unifying the kernel with Windows Phone as well.
I see unifying of the OS across form factors as a natural evolution, mobile OS like Android and iOS are just a consequence of hardware limitations not being able to support the power of a full desktop environment in low power devices, nice sized tablets are now just beginning to break that barrier.
It does look like a stinker, doesn't it. No lap-dancing, no 3G, no proper keyboard, most of the advertised memory reserved.
Nah. I'll keep my money for something I actually want!
It does do "lapdancing" but not as good as "laptop" + there is always the on-screen keyboard.
No 3g - there is numerous ways and means around this and I would expect to see 3/4g on a future version.
The memory issue has been blown out of proportion and all the release models of the Surface come with 8gb extra over the quoted figures from the models reviewed by the press. Saying that theres always the option to buy the 128gb version, use the cloud, use a usb memory stick / HD, use a SD card...
No proper keyboard!?!? You have a choice of 2 official keyboards that clip onto the device and 1000's of USB and Bluetooth keyboards if you want to use it at a desk for a start!
Might I add that I wouldn't be too surprised to see further accessories from Microsoft and 3rd parties to fix some of the above as well.
I'm going to disagree actually - most of the folks I've seen with W8 "conventional" gear seem to have to make an effort (at least initially) not to try and use touch drive. Heck, I know I have to sometimes stop myself from trying to "click" the screen to activate an icon/app!I'm amazed though how much difference a touch-enabled display makes - so maybe the problem isn't that W8 is "desktop unfriendly" but that it's "mouse unfriendly" instead. Just wish Christmas was coming, in which case one of these would have been top of my list. http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna...=en&sku=750337
No, what's bugging me about the Surface Pro is that I don't think Microsoft have got it right. First off I think it's too "premium" priced (e.g. $899 and then another 120 bucks for a dumb keyboard is a total urine acquisition - to be polite), and while I'm about it the RT is also too damned expensive. Secondly I don't think they've done the best by the form factor - if it'd been me then I'd have shipped the keyboard/cover combo as standard and offered an Asus-like dock/keyboard/secondary-battery/USB3 combo for that $120.
If/when I get one of these devices, I'm pretty sure it'll be one of the competition - Asus, HP etc - simply because they seem to be more willing to go the extra mile with the designs.
Kudos to Microsoft though for taking the current tablet and "thin/light laptop" fashions and trying to merge them.
Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...
It would be great, but i think the reality of the situation is that mobile and desktop are just different, and should remain as such. Im not sure windows 8 is a reasonable first try because it tries to smudge these two together in such a way that you are relatively reliant on both modes together to accomplish things. As a first step into the direction, i think this was a bad choice, the two modes should work together nicely but also still be completely distinct and allow the user full control of everything in both modes.
If you want to use mobile; switch to mobile. if you want to use desktop; switch to desktop. Not at the moment where certain things are accessible in one but not the other.
It seems to me, going by the model which has been set in RT, that MS are moving closer to the idea in the mobile mode than they are in the desktop, which could well be the last stupid mistake they make.
Im not sure that the current mobile OSes are as a result of hardware limitations, its more about intuitively being able to accomplish something quickly on a large touchscreen, and they do it very well. Metro also does this pretty well, but i think IOs and android have an easier path for them to create a more involved desktop experience than there is for Metro to make the same transition without it just being a skin on top of a desktop.
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