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Unfortunately I didn't do this before it returned to normal but everything else I checked at the time including the desktop appeared to be the same.
My Surface for Windows RT Review
- Thread starter theheyes
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Unfortunately I didn't do this before it returned to normal but everything else I checked at the time including the desktop appeared to be the same.
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Makes sense, if you need normal desktop behaviour you need to run it on the desktop.
One disappointing side to this is there appears to be a limit of 10 tabs in modern IE and if you start opening more it just kills off the earliest tabs without warning. It's a shame because otherwise in this area it would have been superior to iOS (possibly Android too but it's been a while since I used it on a tablet).
Cheers for that. Getting more and more tempted by one of these, just need to wait until it's available from more places than the MS Store.
So, after the weekend with my Surface, what do I think of it?
Well, it's a mixed bag. I'm not going to write up a review as theheyes' review is pretty much spot on so instead I'll just list what I like and what I don't like:
Like:
Hardware. The device is simply gorgeous to look at and hold. It's solid but elegant. I rate the Surface as the nicest tablet there is on the market at the moment. Even my iPad3 feels somewhat low-rent in comparison.
Screen. Yes, the resolution is only 1366x768 but you don't really notice it in normal use. The colour saturation is excellent.
General interface. Win8 is a lovely OS to use on a tablet. It just make so much sense in the exact opposite way that it makes no sense at all on a laptop/desktop.
Office: This is the killer app. It doesn't really matter that there is so little other software available. Office is the app I use more than anything else and it works very well.
Kickstand and touch cover. Love them both. The touch cover really is amazingly good.
SkyDrive integration etc. It's all seamless.
Dislike:
It seems to be a little buggy in places. I've yet to have anything crash on it but some things don't seem to work very well such as when I added my Flickr feed to the photos app and it just sat there for 5 minutes before finally saying "Something went wrong, try again later". No indication of what the issue was. Eventually I got it to work but only after unlinking my Flickr from my Live ID and then re-adding it again several times.
It feels dis-jointed in places. Several times I've been forced to go to the full windows desktop to do simple tasks that I would expect to be able to do from Metro. Eg, set a homepage in IE10 or add my Video/Audio/Pics from my homegroup to the relevant apps rather than having to browse the fileshares. This all adds to a feeling that it's kind of unfinished.
App support. Everyone bangs on about this but you don't realise how much it matters until you no longer have Dropbox, Chrome, LastPass (It's there but is just plain awful), Spotify etc. This will of course get better in time as ISVs start to release Metro versions of their apps.
Sum up:
It's a lovely device and I'm enjoying it but I would find it hard to recommend it to anyone as a purchase. It's not quite there with app support to recommend it to someone looking for a pure tablet experience. I'd still go with an iPad for that. I also couldn't really recommend it to someone who wanted a highly portable laptop replacement as the lack of apps or cross compatibility with x86 would make this a problem for most users.
From that you might think that I don't like the device but I really do and I will get a lot of use out of it. It's now got a permanent place in my manbag as for taking notes in meetings etc, there is nothing else that does it as well as Surface with the cover. However, I get the feeling that as soon as Surface Pro is available, this will be relegated to a drawer and never used again as Pro will have all of the advantages with none of the drawbacks.
Well, it's a mixed bag. I'm not going to write up a review as theheyes' review is pretty much spot on so instead I'll just list what I like and what I don't like:
Like:
Hardware. The device is simply gorgeous to look at and hold. It's solid but elegant. I rate the Surface as the nicest tablet there is on the market at the moment. Even my iPad3 feels somewhat low-rent in comparison.
Screen. Yes, the resolution is only 1366x768 but you don't really notice it in normal use. The colour saturation is excellent.
General interface. Win8 is a lovely OS to use on a tablet. It just make so much sense in the exact opposite way that it makes no sense at all on a laptop/desktop.
Office: This is the killer app. It doesn't really matter that there is so little other software available. Office is the app I use more than anything else and it works very well.
Kickstand and touch cover. Love them both. The touch cover really is amazingly good.
SkyDrive integration etc. It's all seamless.
Dislike:
It seems to be a little buggy in places. I've yet to have anything crash on it but some things don't seem to work very well such as when I added my Flickr feed to the photos app and it just sat there for 5 minutes before finally saying "Something went wrong, try again later". No indication of what the issue was. Eventually I got it to work but only after unlinking my Flickr from my Live ID and then re-adding it again several times.
It feels dis-jointed in places. Several times I've been forced to go to the full windows desktop to do simple tasks that I would expect to be able to do from Metro. Eg, set a homepage in IE10 or add my Video/Audio/Pics from my homegroup to the relevant apps rather than having to browse the fileshares. This all adds to a feeling that it's kind of unfinished.
App support. Everyone bangs on about this but you don't realise how much it matters until you no longer have Dropbox, Chrome, LastPass (It's there but is just plain awful), Spotify etc. This will of course get better in time as ISVs start to release Metro versions of their apps.
Sum up:
It's a lovely device and I'm enjoying it but I would find it hard to recommend it to anyone as a purchase. It's not quite there with app support to recommend it to someone looking for a pure tablet experience. I'd still go with an iPad for that. I also couldn't really recommend it to someone who wanted a highly portable laptop replacement as the lack of apps or cross compatibility with x86 would make this a problem for most users.
From that you might think that I don't like the device but I really do and I will get a lot of use out of it. It's now got a permanent place in my manbag as for taking notes in meetings etc, there is nothing else that does it as well as Surface with the cover. However, I get the feeling that as soon as Surface Pro is available, this will be relegated to a drawer and never used again as Pro will have all of the advantages with none of the drawbacks.
Had mine since Friday and agree with the above, given its a "Home" device more than a work one (even tho mines from work for work) there are apps that you would expect to be there, spotify and dropbox being the biggest.
Touch cover, have been pulling it around and bending it backwards knowing there was an issue, mine seems fine so far. Easy to get use to if you have used a touch screen, seems to keep up with my typing fine.
Battery, seems ok to me, having come from a Samsung Slate 7 this is much better, not powered by an i5 so to be expected.
Build, feels nice in the hand, light enough regardless of it weighing more than an iPad.
Office, no Outlook, have to use the **** Mail app, I like to have rules and stuff if you dont mind, Mail is weak, worse even than Outlook Express
Proper signatures would be nice as well...
Touch cover, have been pulling it around and bending it backwards knowing there was an issue, mine seems fine so far. Easy to get use to if you have used a touch screen, seems to keep up with my typing fine.
Battery, seems ok to me, having come from a Samsung Slate 7 this is much better, not powered by an i5 so to be expected.
Build, feels nice in the hand, light enough regardless of it weighing more than an iPad.
Office, no Outlook, have to use the **** Mail app, I like to have rules and stuff if you dont mind, Mail is weak, worse even than Outlook Express
Proper signatures would be nice as well...
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Yes it is but it looks like a normal figure 8 connector so you can probably just use one of those instead of finding the official plug heads.
Thanks, as I'm considering picking up one in Orlando later this week.
Still can't decide if I can put up with a USA format keyboard, I can touch type so I guess I can manage.
Edit: Seems the USA plug is one unit and you can't remove the country plug. So would need a plug adaptor.
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peole have said they wudnt recomened it for sum1 to buy. i do like the look of this and if they would not recomend it then what would they recomend instead. i like the idea of windows 8 on the tablet.i current have no idea about tablets and i dont own any lol. i would be using it for family members aswell. lol t
thanks
thanks
The Surface RT is a strange beast. I still couldn't automatically recommend it even though it is really growing on me over time.
If you have never experienced a tablet before it might be worth a look as you will have no prior expectations. Plus, it's a multi user OS.
If you have never experienced a tablet before it might be worth a look as you will have no prior expectations. Plus, it's a multi user OS.
peole have said they wudnt recomened it for sum1 to buy. i do like the look of this and if they would not recomend it then what would they recomend instead. i like the idea of windows 8 on the tablet.i current have no idea about tablets and i dont own any lol. i would be using it for family members aswell. lol t
thanks
If you like the idea of Windows 8 on a tablet, then go for it. But, you need to remember that it's running RT and so will only run Metro apps and not your normal Win7 programs.
This is about the only App I would rate as important. Everything else the surface can do via the browser.
so what is the difference in a metro app and a normal one lol :s
The Metro apps, are downloaded only via the Microsoft Store. They run full screen (or can be split with another app) These are kinda like iOS apps with Apple.
The Desktop apps on Windows RT (which the Surface Runs) behave like normal versions of Word etc and you have the task bar, and you can resize the windows and position them as you normally would.
But Surface won't allow you to install any other normal windows applications.
Is it possible for other companies to make versions or stripped down versions of their programmes that would run on the RT desktop, of is that just the restriction of it?
Still think its the best solution, its like a back door setting for all your personal files etc. Having a proper explorer with the USB is just to handy to think about using a tablet without one for me now.
Still think its the best solution, its like a back door setting for all your personal files etc. Having a proper explorer with the USB is just to handy to think about using a tablet without one for me now.
It is just normal Windows compiled for ARM instructionset/processor rather than a x86 (Intel/AMD). So full versions of things can run but they just need to be recompiled and made with the power of the Surface in mind, ie 1GB of ram.
Edit: Anyone come across an SSH client yet? I really need this.
Edit: Anyone come across an SSH client yet? I really need this.
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