Hey folks.

Has anybody tried one of these yet?

We got one last week.

Bought a 32GB version with the touch cover brand new off ebay for £380.

Worked well initially then some of the keys on the cover stopped working. A quick google indicated there were some issues with some of the early touch covers.

Onto microsoft support and chatted on the site with a very helpful support operative with a lovely Irish accent who eventully phoned us straight up to guide us through the exchange request on the micirsoft site. New cover on it's way to us.

Other than that it's very impressive.

Very quick little machine (quad core Tegra 3).

The only down sides at the moment are the availability of apps. But more and more are appearing all the time.

Phil

Haven't played with one but I'm watching how it does very closely but mostly for work.

The covers had a well known issue which looks like has been sorted for you. Apps will come but don't expect the quantity you get on either the Apple Store or the Android market. MS has been very greedy and charges developers a lot 'allegedly'.

Yeh. Not expecting the quantity of apps as you get on Android etc.

Most things can be done through the browser anyway.

What type of things do you need it to do for work?

Obviously the main drawback is that it's an ARM processor and so you are limited with drivers, plugins and software. For instance the other halfs secure flash drive doesn't work as the software that runs is X86 32 bit so won't run.

Phil

The other halfs flash drive shouldn't need a driver, if it does then it is not a compliant usb mass storage device. The idea is that the consortium that maintains the USB standards drew up a standard set of protocols for several device categories (primarily keyboard, mouse, mass storage [flash drives] and gamepads). Ultimately means that if you have a system with the standard mass storage protocol then it should work with any compliant mass storage device. The surface is compatible with this protocol so your other halfs device should be plug and play, exception would be any backup or management software included but those do not alter the base functionality of the device.

That is unless we are talking a flash drive with built in encryption (cant really tell seeming as you say secure, not that could mean one of the many product lines from several manufacturers with secure in the title or one with inbuilt encryption, the prior ones (of which I used to own one) were just mass storage devices with an off the shelf encryption software included on the drive already but you didnt have to use it, by default nothing was encrypted, the latter option would definitely require a driver)

I've had a play on the surface in 2 seperate stores now. Not a fan. One store did not have either keyboard available so I had a play with it in the tablet mode which I found to be a disjointed experience which is of course due to the OS not the device. File browsing and the control panel etc I would have seriously thought to be available on the new UI which they are pushing, service packs may address this.

The other store had the type cover available which honestly I found to be horrible to use, there is just no feedback whatsoever. It normally takes 5 seconds to write my name and surname with correct capitalisation and the "-" (can't spell it :p) in it, took nearly 20 on the touch cover before I gave in and used the onscreen keyboard which at least offers feedback on if I am pressing a key or not. They did have a type cover available too but I was not able to try that out on the device, I did just randomly tap some keys on it though and it does feel very much like a normal netbook keyboard. If I had one I would certainly be using the type cover.

The killer on the surface for me though is how the keyboard attaches. There is no proper hinge, is the screen is not self supporting, its entirely reliant on the kickstand or whatever you can wedge behind it. I often use laptops in places without a flat surface available and have to resort to my lap and I really would struggle to prop the surface on there, the screen angle is off compared to how I prefer it to be also.

Its not the right device for me. There are other devices out there which offer the keyboard setup that I prefer. I'm actually considering getting one of the Asus transformer android tablets instead, they actually have the proper self supporting screen which I would prefer (they also have some very similar windows RT and windows 8 devices coming but too expensive right now)

Edited 7 January, 201313 yr by 6677

For work all the senior staff want tablets. F*** all business case for them but they want shiny toys. I think they're terrified of Surface tablet, if they make more business sense they won't get iPads to play with. What they don't yet realise is that if they do get them there will be no itunes, no app store and everything will be locked down and tracked. Only IT install software and that won't change for tablets. These people just want their personal purchases funded for them.

I've argued for those staff who demand tablets they should get them but that their laptops and desktops should be removed. See how long they still like their toys!

Whats the point of getting a tablet for work then adding a keyboard and storage?. You've just made yourself a slow laptop for double the price.

Sorry I'm getting all bitter. I get a bit sick at money getting wasted on executive fashions. Tablets have their uses but they're not a replacement for a laptop and they are very much consumer devices not enterprise.

Edited 7 January, 201313 yr by Aspman

The surface is more productive than an iPad at least. A proper office suite, external storage and printers etc. The surface pro would be even better as whatever existing enterprise software a company has will already run on it. x86 based windows 8 tablets are so expensive though and 99% of the time the laptop will probably be better. I do think the asus transformer book looks like an awesome piece of kit though, can't afford one. I might get an asus transformer tf300. On my laptop I only do word processing and internet browsing, I also want to get an android tablet anyway for which there are several good office suites available (tried a few out) but I cant really live without a hardware keyboard so something in the laptop form factor is preferable. The tf300 seems to be about the same price as I would likely spend on a new laptop anyway, perhaps a little more, but then I am getting both devices I wanted.

Tablets have their uses but they're not a replacement for a laptop and they are very much consumer devices not enterprise.

I'm not so sure about that. I think they will have a very strong place in entreprise but at the sharp end with the mere minions rather than higher up the tree.

I'm not so sure about that. I think they will have a very strong place in entreprise but at the sharp end with the mere minions rather than higher up the tree.

Since getting my nexus the laptop has only really been pulled out where file editing is needed as it's easier to do in office with a 15" screen and a keyboard.

Chrome works much better than on mobiles and you can scroll easily in text boxes or content that adds scrolling to a Web page.

I think the laptop won't get much use, and would probably say folk looking at a net book for net and light office app needs should look at a tablet instead.

Pretty much what I was thinking with the tf300 decision. Does the same as what I will do on a netbook but then I have a 10" android tablet too for some mobile gaming, plus with a hardware keyboard mugen64 won't be a bitch to control (I will still probably just be using my Xbox controller instead). Throw a bit of Zeus arena in there too.

My sister got one at launch for use at uni/as a tablet. She seems pretty pleased with it, and when I used it to proof read some of her work and mess around online I was impressed. Easy to work/type on, and a familiar interface with proper Office software included. Hers had the keyboard with raised keys, I imagine the flat one would be terrible. Also like the fact you can use it just like a PC with the desktop mode completely unchanged.

Yes, it's not perfect but compared to the other tablets it's no worse IMO. If I were in the market for one, it's what I'd have.

I can see large appeal for the x86 version when that's out too.

What size screen is the surface?

10.* inch. It's a different ratio to the iPad though - more widescreen seeming. (I think, been a while since I've used an iPad)

Yes it's 10" and has a widescreen aspect to it so not as square as the iPad.

Phil

Yeah, if your used to other 10" tablets it might take a while to get used to, its full 16:9 widescreen I think. The surface RT and surface pro are both the same screen size and aspect ratio so use the same touch covers etc but the pro the tablet is a little thicker to accommodate the support hardware for a higher resolution display and make some room for that intel core i5 in there. Other than that, the pro has a stylus included. The pro has a USB 3 port, not sure of the RT does or not.

They do both look and - in the case of the RT - feel like excellent pieces of hardware. The rt was rather snappy to use. Its just they aren't the devices for me.

I'd be interested to have a play with a Surface (both keyboards get very good write-ups) but it seems a bit limited at the moment and the footprint for the Surface Pro when the keyboard is attached seems a little big. I went for the Vaio Duo 11 but even with the touch screen I don't use many of the new touch applications that often as most of them seem to be designed for a phone screen and waste a horrendous amount of space on a larger screen, hopefully in time applications will start to take advantage of the bigger screen.

John

Edited 7 January, 201313 yr by JohnMcL7