My Surface for Windows RT Review

Well found the XPS 10 immensely useful on a 7 hour flight - watched a movie off the SD card then spent 5 hours working on Excel and Word side-by-side throughout with a Bluetooth mouse hooked up was very useful. :cool: Side-by-side multi-tasking is the future and it honestly makes the Apple and Android mobile OS's feel a bit out-dated.

Actually saw a couple other people on the flight with Surfaces, I wonder if they picked one up on the price-cut to $349 - wouldn't surprise me as that's far more passable than the far too expensive $499 it started out at.

I hope MS do stick with it and the apps start to come, though that will just be an added bonus really as it does everything I need right now.
 
Glaucus said:
Of course they new it was dead. Wp8 is totally new.

Wp7 was nothing more than a temporary step between wm6 and wp8

The comparison is not the same, RT isn't being replaced with something totally new.
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How did they know it was dead? WP 7 was new at one point too.

This begs the question, how do you know Microsoft don't consider RT a stepping stone to something else?
 
It amazes me that MS thought they could sell it based on the hardware and the windows name, especially in a market that they were so far behind in. The price of the tablet and the lack of investment in apps is such a huge oversight. At the current price it's a great buy, if only they'd released it at that price and with a bulging app store. I really wanted it to push Apple and Google, particularly as they'd done such a great job of the hardware.
 
How'd you change quality with the Netflix app? It looks god awful, I can't see a way using the site either, whereas when I've used the browser version before on my desktop I was able to, however this seems to be using some kind of mobile version.
 
wolvers said:
It amazes me that MS thought they could sell it based on the hardware and the windows name, especially in a market that they were so far behind in. The price of the tablet and the lack of investment in apps is such a huge oversight. At the current price it's a great buy, if only they'd released it at that price and with a bulging app store. I really wanted it to push Apple and Google, particularly as they'd done such a great job of the hardware.
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The actual hardware it runs on ; tegra 3 wasn't great, it's pretty crap. That's where a lot of the inconsistent performance comes in, if only they'd released it with a decent soc.
 
DeathStorm said:
How did they know it was dead? WP 7 was new at one point too.

This begs the question, how do you know Microsoft don't consider RT a stepping stone to something else?
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Wp7 was and is supported for games, well passed most people's 2 year contract.

Of course it's a stepping stone to other stuff, however the core iOS not going to change and thus can be updated, like the 8.1 update.
Just like apple don't support older iPhones/ipad, however the support is for years.


Martini1991 said:
How'd you change quality with the Netflix app? It looks god awful, I can't see a way using the site either, whereas when I've used the browser version before on my desktop I was able to, however this seems to be using some kind of mobile version.
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Goto the website > your account > manage video qaulity.
A bit annoying there's no in app setting, as when on 3G most people won't want to use best qaulity, but that's not a windows thing, even iOS app doesn't have qaulity setting.


Also confused by the hardware.
On release in October it was average and soon after become old. This is a problem when fighting android, android have new models coming out all the time, not just once a year.
 
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Wouldn't have really called it average to be honest, overpriced perhaps as it powered all the higher end android tablets like, I'm glad that's not the case anymore and android tablets are becoming pretty damn powerful.
MS need to spec the next RT pretty high, I mean even 4 current krait cores, I can overlook the newer generation of snap dragon chips as long s they can get it into a decent price to make RT a viable choice over an x86 tablet.
 
It looks almost certain to be the snapdragon 800 so the most powerful arm chip available. It also has 3G/4g built into the chip, so it should have mobile data at long last as well.
 
The problem with the 800 lot of chips, is it's probably going to cost, and unless MS want another repeat of Surface, it needs to be priced cheap, or else people are just going to get another device.

The problem with Surface RT 2.0, is it can be as powerful as MS can make it, but X86 tablets are going to be at least as cheap as 350 quid (As they are now, and Baytrail is set to be twice as powerful and cheaper) never mind Temash tablets which will probably come in decently priced (If we ever get one in the UK :p)

Maybe my expectations are too high, but I still find Netflix HD quality to be not great.
I'll try other content.
 
The next Surface needs to be cheaper, emphasis on the ER, than its main rivals because it can't yet compete with the ecosystem, but I really hope they don't cut the quality corners. The build quality and the finish is one of the best things about it.
 
Yeah, they need to maintain the build quality and finish.
All it needs is a better SOC and bump up the res to 1080p.

Which they could have done in Surface 1 to be fair.
 
And double the storage. 64 base model, 128 top
And pro should be 64, 128 and 256

As for netflix I find the qaulity more than acceptable, although it does depend largely on what you are watching. It's certainly not blu-ray qaulity, but it's decent nough. Most impressed with the surround sound in the lounge set up.
 
Double the storage would be nice tbh. When they first announced I thought 32GB would be plenty, but in use I do have to micromanage mine a little.

That said, it's a want rather than a need. They have done some work to make the 8.1 disk footprint smaller but obviously that's not going to make a night and day difference.
 
Hopefully once 8.1 is out we can do a clean install of it somehow..

Is there a bios screen or boot menu etc on the surface? I binned all the boxes and manualson day dot.
 
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