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Time for the full Surface review. All my likes and dislikes. I don't doubt there's a little bias in here from workplace pride, but it is my honest opinion.
Hardware
The hardware which makes up the Surface is amazing. My kids have sat on it, stepped on it, dropped it, abused it, and fought over it, and the Surface doesn't even have a scratch on it. That includes the keyboard cover. Both are extremely well constructed. The suit, Steven Sinofsky, responsible for the Surface glued wheels to one and used it as a skateboard, and given the amount of abuse mine has gone through I don't think the skateboard Surface was an exaggeration of it's durability.
Looks wise I am also impressed. The design is sleek and contemporary, and not a complete iPad rip-off. The kickstand is handy too. It doesn't work well when your doing lap reading or the like, but if your reading or playing Mah Jong during lunch, or typing at the doctor's office, it's very handy. Like the the rest of the Surface, the kickstand is sturdy and does not feel flimsy at all.
The touchscreen is responsive. While the resolution is not what I, or anyone else, really wanted, the screen is sharp and you don't notice any pixelation unless you have the screen close to your face. Battery life is great as well. It can go a day or two of heavy use and not need to be recharged. Videos and games will drain it faster but you get a lot of hours of battery playtime.
The only blemishes of the hardware are the keyboard cover and the camera. The keyboard works well, don't get me wrong, but it takes some getting used to. There's no physical response while typing, unless you get the Type cover which I don't have, so it's like typing on a table top. You really need to keep your eyes on the screen when you first start using it because you miss keys. After using it for a while it's less of a problem, but you have to stick with it for while before it's comfortable. Also, using the keyboard on your lap doesn't work well. You really need a hard surface. Fortunately the virtual keyboards, there are two options, are well done and are very usable when the keyboard cover is not possible.
The camera is great...as long as you have a lot of light. It's low-light performance is horrid. If you have natural light, or a lot of indoor light, then it's fine. The front-facing camera seems to work a little better in office lighting, probably because it's used for Skype and whatnot. I think Microsoft should hire Nokia to design the next Surface camera.
Windows RT
When you use an iPad or Android tablet it feels like, to me, that you're using a dumbed down OS. You basically have an app launcher with limited capabilities beyond what is exposed in settings...unless you hack/jailbreak the living daylights out of it. So it came as kind of a shock when I starting playing with the Surface RT and it hit me that Windows RT is a full blown Windows OS. Every OS capability in Windows 8 you can do in Windows RT, from the Control Panel, to PowerShell, to the Command Prompt. You can run scripts, set tasks, remote into other computers, open Device Manager and tweak your hardware. It's all there. Well, almost everything... it's like Windows 8 and not Windows 8 Pro. It is Windows, though, not a dumbed down version. For some reason I didn't expect it to be... complete, but once you start using WinRT it dawns on you that this isn't a dumbed down experience. This can be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint, but personally I really like this approach.
While it is a full blown Windows OS, there are limitations. Foremost among those are the programs. Because the Surface RT runs on the ARM processor, and not the Intel x86, you are limited to the Windows Marketplace for your programs. The games look just as good on any other platform, the videos just as smooth, but since Windows RT is a new platform there are not as many apps out for it yet. The apps are increasing quickly though. I think there were 20k at launch and 2 months later there is something like 75k. They are getting there, and maturing quickly, but it will be a while longer before the Windows logo will show up on TV when people advertise their apps. That's not to say the pickings are slim. Many of the big name apps are already available.
The gestures have a learning curve. It's not like the other tablet OSs out there with the "chiclet tab" app launcher style. You switch between open apps by sliding from left to right (off screen to on). This is very handy when you're switching between tasks. Stopping at the edge of the screen pulls up all running programs. This takes a little practice to master. Very useful when you have a large number of apps open and don't want to flip through everything. You can also have two apps showing at once, one is ~75% of the screen, the other takes up the rest, which is really nice. You can have the desktop w/ Word open in the main view with your music player cracked open in the small view. Or the Wikipedia app opening in the small while typing in Word on the main. If you've seen some of the Galaxy III and Note II commercials it's similar to that, but with more real estate to it.
Swipe from right to left (off screen to on) and you get the "charms". Charms are the grand central station of Windows RT/8. The search function can search through everything in the OS that is search integrated, the store, files, programs, settings, applications, etc. No need to open the store app first to search for something, just swipe open the charms, select the store from the list, and enter your search terms. The search charm will open the store and do the search. The share charm allows you to ... well... share things between apps. Like sharing photos to flickr or facebook, that kind of stuff. Haven't used this feature a lot yet. Next is the start button, takes you home. Then devices, which is where your plugged in cameras and phones and such show up (yay USB port!). And last is settings, where you power on/off, reboot, and adjust your other settings. This is a little split brain though. The "metro" settings are all through the settings charm, while the core OS settings are still through the Control Panel on the desktop. So half familiar and half new.
The tiles on the home screen are also customizable. This, I think, takes the most to learn. You "tug" on an app to bring up the options (like a right click on the Win8 version). Or pull it down to move it. The idea is you can move tiles around into groups of your choosing. Once you've made your groups you can name them for quicker reference. You do this by doing the pinch zoom out thingy (really technical, I know), then tug down on a group and the name option comes up. You really have to play with this to learn it. It works well once you figure it all out, though. My kids know where all the games are which means less nagging Daddy about where "Where's My Perry" is at.
All is not perfect yet though. I've run into some issues on Windows RT. Choppy video playback fixed by a reboot. Some people have complained about wifi drops, but it seems most of those issues have been fixed with recent updates (haven't had any myself). I've gotten the frowny of doom once (the new blue screen). Mah Jong will occasionally crash. Some other small stuff like that. The issues are getting fewer and fewer though. With the exception of Mah Jong randomly crashing after a puzzle is completed I haven't had any other troubles in the past week. I don't think all the growing pains are done, but it's maturing quickly.
Hardware
The hardware which makes up the Surface is amazing. My kids have sat on it, stepped on it, dropped it, abused it, and fought over it, and the Surface doesn't even have a scratch on it. That includes the keyboard cover. Both are extremely well constructed. The suit, Steven Sinofsky, responsible for the Surface glued wheels to one and used it as a skateboard, and given the amount of abuse mine has gone through I don't think the skateboard Surface was an exaggeration of it's durability.
Looks wise I am also impressed. The design is sleek and contemporary, and not a complete iPad rip-off. The kickstand is handy too. It doesn't work well when your doing lap reading or the like, but if your reading or playing Mah Jong during lunch, or typing at the doctor's office, it's very handy. Like the the rest of the Surface, the kickstand is sturdy and does not feel flimsy at all.
The touchscreen is responsive. While the resolution is not what I, or anyone else, really wanted, the screen is sharp and you don't notice any pixelation unless you have the screen close to your face. Battery life is great as well. It can go a day or two of heavy use and not need to be recharged. Videos and games will drain it faster but you get a lot of hours of battery playtime.
The only blemishes of the hardware are the keyboard cover and the camera. The keyboard works well, don't get me wrong, but it takes some getting used to. There's no physical response while typing, unless you get the Type cover which I don't have, so it's like typing on a table top. You really need to keep your eyes on the screen when you first start using it because you miss keys. After using it for a while it's less of a problem, but you have to stick with it for while before it's comfortable. Also, using the keyboard on your lap doesn't work well. You really need a hard surface. Fortunately the virtual keyboards, there are two options, are well done and are very usable when the keyboard cover is not possible.
The camera is great...as long as you have a lot of light. It's low-light performance is horrid. If you have natural light, or a lot of indoor light, then it's fine. The front-facing camera seems to work a little better in office lighting, probably because it's used for Skype and whatnot. I think Microsoft should hire Nokia to design the next Surface camera.
Windows RT
When you use an iPad or Android tablet it feels like, to me, that you're using a dumbed down OS. You basically have an app launcher with limited capabilities beyond what is exposed in settings...unless you hack/jailbreak the living daylights out of it. So it came as kind of a shock when I starting playing with the Surface RT and it hit me that Windows RT is a full blown Windows OS. Every OS capability in Windows 8 you can do in Windows RT, from the Control Panel, to PowerShell, to the Command Prompt. You can run scripts, set tasks, remote into other computers, open Device Manager and tweak your hardware. It's all there. Well, almost everything... it's like Windows 8 and not Windows 8 Pro. It is Windows, though, not a dumbed down version. For some reason I didn't expect it to be... complete, but once you start using WinRT it dawns on you that this isn't a dumbed down experience. This can be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint, but personally I really like this approach.
While it is a full blown Windows OS, there are limitations. Foremost among those are the programs. Because the Surface RT runs on the ARM processor, and not the Intel x86, you are limited to the Windows Marketplace for your programs. The games look just as good on any other platform, the videos just as smooth, but since Windows RT is a new platform there are not as many apps out for it yet. The apps are increasing quickly though. I think there were 20k at launch and 2 months later there is something like 75k. They are getting there, and maturing quickly, but it will be a while longer before the Windows logo will show up on TV when people advertise their apps. That's not to say the pickings are slim. Many of the big name apps are already available.
The gestures have a learning curve. It's not like the other tablet OSs out there with the "chiclet tab" app launcher style. You switch between open apps by sliding from left to right (off screen to on). This is very handy when you're switching between tasks. Stopping at the edge of the screen pulls up all running programs. This takes a little practice to master. Very useful when you have a large number of apps open and don't want to flip through everything. You can also have two apps showing at once, one is ~75% of the screen, the other takes up the rest, which is really nice. You can have the desktop w/ Word open in the main view with your music player cracked open in the small view. Or the Wikipedia app opening in the small while typing in Word on the main. If you've seen some of the Galaxy III and Note II commercials it's similar to that, but with more real estate to it.
Swipe from right to left (off screen to on) and you get the "charms". Charms are the grand central station of Windows RT/8. The search function can search through everything in the OS that is search integrated, the store, files, programs, settings, applications, etc. No need to open the store app first to search for something, just swipe open the charms, select the store from the list, and enter your search terms. The search charm will open the store and do the search. The share charm allows you to ... well... share things between apps. Like sharing photos to flickr or facebook, that kind of stuff. Haven't used this feature a lot yet. Next is the start button, takes you home. Then devices, which is where your plugged in cameras and phones and such show up (yay USB port!). And last is settings, where you power on/off, reboot, and adjust your other settings. This is a little split brain though. The "metro" settings are all through the settings charm, while the core OS settings are still through the Control Panel on the desktop. So half familiar and half new.
The tiles on the home screen are also customizable. This, I think, takes the most to learn. You "tug" on an app to bring up the options (like a right click on the Win8 version). Or pull it down to move it. The idea is you can move tiles around into groups of your choosing. Once you've made your groups you can name them for quicker reference. You do this by doing the pinch zoom out thingy (really technical, I know), then tug down on a group and the name option comes up. You really have to play with this to learn it. It works well once you figure it all out, though. My kids know where all the games are which means less nagging Daddy about where "Where's My Perry" is at.
All is not perfect yet though. I've run into some issues on Windows RT. Choppy video playback fixed by a reboot. Some people have complained about wifi drops, but it seems most of those issues have been fixed with recent updates (haven't had any myself). I've gotten the frowny of doom once (the new blue screen). Mah Jong will occasionally crash. Some other small stuff like that. The issues are getting fewer and fewer though. With the exception of Mah Jong randomly crashing after a puzzle is completed I haven't had any other troubles in the past week. I don't think all the growing pains are done, but it's maturing quickly.
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